P.R.I.S.M. Update: Phase II Begins

The second phase of research in the P.R.I.S.M. project began May 1, and Nielsen In-Store plans to have syndicated measurement of in-store traffic available in 2008, according to George Wishart.Phase II of the P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) project will be conducted at leading retailers nationally through fall, paving the way for a measurement system that will usher in "the Golden Age of in-store marketing," said Wishart, global managing director of Nielsen In-Store, in a presentation at the In-Store Marketing Summit held April 19-20 in Oak Brook, IL. (View Slide Presentation.)Spearheaded by the In-Store Marketing Institute, in conjunction with a consortium of six packaged goods sponsors and four supporting retailers, the first phase of P.R.I.S.M. in spring 2006 succeeded in proving the correlation "between sales of a category, a department or a store, and the audience of that category, department or store," Wishart explained. It then developed a mathematical formula that calculates accurate traffic estimates using sales data and other quantifiable factors.Wishart praised the project not only for proving the correlation and establishing the formula, but also for generating "critical support and momentum" toward establishing retail as an effective marketing medium. The ability to measure the potential audience for in-store advertising means that, "for those of you in the media world, all of a sudden you're now talking the right language. And now you can incorporate in-store into your analysis of what you'll invest your marketing dollars in," he said.To further develop the formula, however, the P.R.I.S.M. study needed greater scale in terms of the stores measured and the data collected. "That's where we come in," said Wishart, noting that Nielsen In-Store was selected by the metrics consortium last fall to prepare the project for syndication. The second phase of research will expand the initial project in several key ways: It will collect data from as many as 200 stores representing more than one dozen top food, drug and mass-market retailers, including A&P, Albertsons, Kroger, Meijer, Rite Aid, Safeway, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie. The first study examined 10 stores, two each from Albertsons, Kroger and Walgreens and four from Wal-Mart. It will broaden the scope beyond the 64 product categories tracked in the initial study by "covering the entire store We'll be able to accommodate just about every category," Wishart said. It will make the formula more precise by adding to the data used in the calculation. Factored into the equation will be specific characteristics related to the geographic area, store and department and/or category in question, among other variables. It will collect data over 26 weeks, compared with four weeks in the initial study. "It will be continuous in a few stores so we can understand some of the subtleties of seasonality, and then we'll be pulsing in and out of the rest of the stores in three- and four-week intervals," he said.The research plan also includes "promotion detection," he said. "In every store we are measuring, we will know every single piece of marketing activity within that store. We will know every shelf talker, every display, every feature and every temporary price reduction, so we can actually understand [not only] who's in the store [but] what's in the store."To help fund the second phase, the Institute and Nielsen have expanded the original consortium to comprise founding sponsors Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing and Procter & Gamble along with new co-sponsors Clorox, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Mattel, Nintendo of America and Unilever. A second tier of "consultative sponsors" consists of media buying and promotion agencies Catapult Marketing, Group M, Mars Advertising, OMD and Starcom MediaVest. Several additional sponsors were expected to sign up by the end of April.Sponsors will receive exclusive reports on the research in October, at about the same time Nielsen takes the study to the first international market, Wishart said. An ongoing, syndicated reporting system will be unveiled sometime in 2008.

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