While Wal-Mart supplied shopper data for the pilot, the retail giant will not participate in the expected launch next year of the P.R.I.S.M. national retail data syndication service from The Nielsen Co.
"Wal-Mart was pleased with the insights they gleaned from the PRISM pilot," a statement from the Nielsen Co.'s In-Store division read, according to Promo Magazine. "However, they have decided not to participate in a national syndicated service, remaining consistent with their internal data-sharing policies."
Nielsen added that Wal-Mart's decision not to subscribe to the service will not affect the launch of the in-store data service, and noted that 15 of the retailer members plan to take part when the data service rolls out. It added that Wal-Mart's decision was not a reflection on the quality of the shopper data produced in PRISM's pilot phase.
"Wal-Mart acknowledges the industry value of the national [P.R.I.S.M.] service and the quality of the service provided to those participating," Nielsen said.
Product manufacturers including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kraft Foods have agreed to take part in the data service.
"We remain optimistic about the Nielsen In-Store measurement service and continue to support the vision of a common industry metric to measure consumer reach in-store," said P&G associate marketing director Ann Mooney, in the statement.
P.R.I.S.M., the acronym for "Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric", examines point-of-purchase reach by department and links sales display impressions to sales conversions in an effort to help retailers and manufacturers make better merchandising decisions.
The service began in April 2007 to amass in-store data from 30 product makers and 16 retailers, including shopper traffic, POP, merchandising programs, retail TV networks, shelf- and cart-talkers and digital signs. The intent is to arrive at a measurement system that will permit a side-by-side comparison to other media advertising.
In an editorial on instoremarketer.org, Bill Schober, editorial director at In-Store Marketing Institute, wrote that while he wasn't shocked that Wal-Mart opted out of the national PRISM launch, he was a "little disappointed" that Wal-Mart would "just walk away from such a promising project."
Mr. Schober noted that when Wal-Mart stopped providing POS data to syndicated market research firms in 2001, it launched Retail Link to share internal data with suppliers. He suspects a similar Wal-Mart program will eventually be launched around its in-store metrics.
Mr. Schober concluded, "P.R.I.S.M., meanwhile, will soldier on with all of the other original consortium retailers as well as a lot of blue-chip CPGs such as P&G, Kraft and Unilever. And we'll keep cheering for it from the sidelines, because as far as this magazine is concerned, P.R.I.S.M. represents the best methodology yet devised for reaching the ultimate goal, a practical in-store metric."
Discussion Question: How much does Wal-Mart's pull-out impact the rollout and overall value of the PRISM in-store data service?