Nielsen Shuts the Door on P.R.I.S.M.

In-Store Marketing Institute reported today that The Nielsen Company “has suspended plans to launch a syndicated data service on the P.R.I.S.M. initiative.”  P.R.I.S.M. was expected to be the missing link in shopper marketing between practice and quantitative results.

This is disappointing news because it is critical that we create a measurement model in the not too distant future for shopper marketing in order to track the store as a measured media. That would allow all manufacturers and retailers who participate at retail to execute a measured media in the store and compare this to other forms of media. Until we are able to measure the content, compliance, frequency and reach in the store, we do not have a valid measured media discipline. However, this does not prohibit the industry from continuing to grow it’s use of in-store execution as a valuable medium to drive sales volume and brand equity measures.

The need for a P.R.I.S.M.-like model to measure in-store media does not go away. In fact, it increases, given the economy and the need to engage shoppers more than ever.  The need to understand in-store shopper behavior is vital. The need to determine what in-store marketing communications vehicles provide the best return on marketing spend is essential to prudent marketing planning. We must continue industry-wide pressure to create and launch this capability (or something like it) to understand and measure reach by category by retailer. We believe this is critical so that marketers can best align their marketing spend across product categories, brands, geographies and customer segments. To not do this will be a blow to our industry and our profession.