If you follow shopper marketing at all, you are probably aware of The Nielsen Company’s recent PRISM (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) initiative to create a set of metrics for assessing the effectiveness of in-store media programs — doing for in-store media what ratings does for television. Now with all beta testing complete, Nielsen In-Store is set to debut. A recent article in Gourmet Retailer discusses the new measurement tool, offering some of the most detail seen thus far on the specific metrics Nielsen In-Store will gauge. (That level of detail coming from a relatively niche publication surprised us at first, until the article mentioned that Gourmet Retailer’s parent company was Nielsen.)
What Nielsen In-Store promises is a way for retailers and CPG’s to quantify their methods for communicating with customers and influencing their purchase decisions, to ultimately increase the rate of success for in-store media programs — giving CMO’s the tangible sales results they are measured against.
Up to now, most of the research readily available to CPG’s and retailers has been focused on overall consumer trends and preferences. What has been missing is specific analysis of shoppers and shopping behaviors. 
What happens when the shopper is in the aisle? If Dad and the kids are the consumers, but Mom is the shopper, we need to know what she does when she gets to the store. That’s the missing link in making the inside of the store the next great media platform.
We have strongly supported Nielsen’s efforts throughout the PRISM initiative, but have always maintained that the success of Nielsen In-Store, or any measurement system, hinges on one seemingly simple, yet critical component: professional installation. The most well-thought-out, eye-catching in-store communications program means nothing if it never gets to the store floor or if it is improperly installed, and you would be surprised how often this happens.
From internal research we conducted last year, we found that only about 30 percent — not even one-third — of in-store communications and displays are installed correctly, if at all. It’s a shame that a program can go from creative development, to material production and to shipping, but then be left on the loading dock or installed incorrectly by a store employee who knows nothing about the strategy behind it.
You can set all the metrics for success in place, but if the program components you put those metrics against are not installed exactly as designed, the results will be skewed (not to mention a costly waste in what you’ve spent on all those display materials.) Never has installation been more important.
With the launch of Nielsen In-Store, we foresee a surge in focus on professional installation and rightly so. What effect do you think this new measurement program will have on shopper marketing?
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[...] activity can be tracked.” Unfortunately, the in-store marketing metric system proposed by Nielsen’s PRISM program is still in its infancy stage. We expect that once PRISM goes national, we’ll see that [...]