NPD Buys Fashion Research Company

Consumer and retail specialist the NPD Group today announced its acquisition of STS Market Research, a US company serving the fashion industry. NPD will take over the STS longitudinal AccuPanel to provide clients with tracking research.

AccuPanel tracks the same individuals over time to give clients a view of consumers' purchasing behaviour. The data collected can be analysed to provide information about loyalty, purchase mix decisions, retailer competitive sets, source of volume, and heavy-medium-light customer groups.

Arthur Spar, formerly Chairman and CEO of STS, will become VP, NPD Fashionworld, the company's fashion-tracking division. Susan Merrill, formerly Senior VP Marketing for SPS, will become Director of Client Development for NPD Fashionworld, and Carol Parker, formerly STS President and COO, will be Director of AccuPanel. NPD has not yet released information about whether other staff from STS will also transfer to NPD.

The STS office in Cambridge, Massachusets will take on the NPD name and become the company's Center for Analytic Excellence, focusing on longitudinal consumer behaviour analysis.

Spar commented: 'We look forward to offering the industry a new information source, even more powerful than the sum of its parts.' Dennis Brown, Group President of NPD Beauty, House and Fashion, echoed this sentiment: 'By combining two strong product portfolios, NPD will now be able to offer the most multidimensional and holistic view of today's fashion industry.'

The NPD Group is online at www.npd.com and STS Market Research at www.stsresearch.com

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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