At a session at last week's Advertising Research Foundations's (ARF) Re:think Conference and Expo in New York City, industry executives discussed the many promising developments of the P.R.I.S.M. in-store marketing project as well as the challenges in its successful implementation.
P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for In-Store Metric) is the retail industry's most significant initiative to establish a global metric for evaluating the in-store environment as a marketing medium along the lines of Nielsen's TV, Internet, Box Office and other audience metrics. The Nielsen Company is now spearheading the research.
The project, a computer-linked system of cameras tied to infrared sensors and human counters at retail, is designed to let retailers know how many people are in a store, what time consumers shop most, and how effective advertising in stores is. P.R.I.S.M. will be launched nationwide in July in several stores.
Speakers at the session, entitled The Store is the Medium, were Joel Rubinson, chief research officer, The ARF; Ramon Portilla, senior director, communication insights, Wal-Mart; Peter Hoyt, president & founder, Hoyt Publishing Co.; George Wishart, global managing director, Nielsen In-Store; and Kelly Downey, shopper marketing director, Unilever.
Panelists stressed the value of being able to measure in-store marketing efforts, especially since the media industry has become much more fragmented and consumers exert much greater control over the messages they take in. Better metrics around in-store marketing promises not only to improve the marketing messages aimed at consumers at retail but also help optimize store layouts.
"You can't set objectives if you do not have a way to measure success," said Wal-Mart's Mr. Portilla.
Nielsen's Mr. Wishart noted that the key is gaining "closure rates" as shoppers walk the aisles in understanding "not only when they but also why they didn't buy."
He said CPG companies can learn the value of their investments on in-store marketing programs, retailers can learn how their shoppers shop, and it enables advertising agencies to become a much bigger part of in-store media for the first time.
"The nice thing is that everybody wins," said Mr. Wishart.
Unilever's Ms. Downey noted that with P.R.I.S.M., vendors will be able to look at week-by-week data to measure how closure rates vary among different marketing vehicles for different categories and different retailers. It can particularly help in launches to make sure the product is reaching the target customer. Improved score carding also help vendors measure in-store against other advertising media.
"We can actually begin to see what we planned to occur in the store and then what actually happens," said Ms. Downey. "We can look across retailers and see how a specific merchandising program was actually executed."
For proper execution, according to Ms. Downey, the project will need a strong commitment from the senior management level since extensive dialog will be required among manufacturers, retailer and agencies. Marketers may have to develop distinct in-store consumer profiles, noting that consumers respond to messages differently inside the store than outside the store with other media. Finally, partners should be wary of "analysis paralysis" because the extensive data becoming available can become unmanageable. Many should even consider third party support to move faster.
"This is going to come at us like a freight train," said Ms. Downey.
ARF's Mr. Rubinson said part of the driver behind the PRISM project is that stores have become much more engaging experiences for shoppers.
"It's no longer just a place to buy things," said Mr. Rubinson. "It's a place where you derive satisfaction, where you're having fun, and where you're absorbing new information and absorbing messages."
As such, the overall shopping experience has to reach shoppers at an emotional level.
"The bottom line is shopping is therapeutic," said Mr. Rubinson. "Shopping is fun. It's an important part of people's lives. So let's not forget that the act of shopping often has as much emotional content for people as the thing they are buying and using."
Discussion Questions: What do you think vendors and retailers will learn from the P.R.I.S.M. in-store marketing project initiative? Will retailers be able to manage the data effectively? As an advertising medium, how do you think in-store differs from other traditional advertising media?