Wal-mart Opts Out of Nielsen's P.R.I.S.M.

Retail behemoth Wal-mart has pulled out of the P.R.I.S.M. initiative, which was set up by Nielsen and the In-Store Marketing Institute in 2006 to establish a global metric for evaluating the in-store environment.

P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) was launched to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring consumer traffic in the store, aisle-by-aisle and category-by-category.

In May 2007, Wal-Mart partially lifted its six-year ban on providing sales data to MR firms, to join the P.R.I.S.M. consortium of retailers, manufacturers and media agencies participating in the program. However, the firm now says it will not take part in the launch of the national syndicated service next year.

In a statement, Nielsen explained: 'Wal-mart was pleased with the insights it gleaned but has opted out of the syndicated service, consistent with its internal data sharing policies.'

Nielsen confirms that the remaining 15 retail chains in the consortium - which include organizations such as Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever - have agreed to participate in the syndicated service, which is scheduled to launch in 2009.

Additional retail chains are also expected to sign on to the initiative.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.instoremarketer.org .

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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