Nielsen to Offer Purchase Data to Academics

Nielsen has partnered with The University of Chicago Booth School of Business to offer a historical perspective on consumer purchases to all US-based academic researchers.

As part of the arrangement, all faculty members and PhD students from accredited US colleges and universities can apply for access to the historical Consumer Panel information supplied by Nielsen.

Newly available longitudinal data spanning multiple years will also be available for research projects such as the impact of advertising investments on positioning a brand. The information will also enable researchers to investigate differences in purchasing behavior over various retail channels and among various consumer segments.

The Nielsen information is based on product purchases made by a panel of 40,000 to 60,000 consumer households across all retail outlets in all US markets. This dataset includes purchases from all Nielsen-tracked categories, including food, non-food grocery items, health and beauty aids, and selected general merchandise.

Researchers at Booth and the Computation Institute at University of Chicago prepared the initial information release covering 2004-2009, and are planning for annual updates.

Booth and Nielsen are also working to release Retail Scanner purchase information in the near future. This tracks weekly sales volume and pricing information from 25,000 individual stores and from a variety of retail channels, and will help identify in-store shopping trends and opportunities for manufacturers and retailers to collaborate better.

Frank Piotrowski (pictured), SVP, Measurement Science at Nielsen, comments: 'Many of today's best practices in marketing began as academic research. We believe this alliance will yield research that improves marketers' abilities to drive growth and profitability in the consumer packaged goods industry.'

Sanjay Dhar, the James H. Lorie Professor of Marketing at Chicago Booth says the collaboration will yield a new generation of marketers 'passionate about insight and analytics'.

Web sites: www.nielsenc.com and www.chicagobooth.edu .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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