Global Loyalty Unit for Nielsen

ACNielsen announced yesterday that it has formed a new global unit, ACNielsen Loyalty. The unit will be headed by Tom Markert, currently Senior VP and CMO of VNU MI and ACNielsen; and Laurence Michael, currently Senior VP, Global Retailer Services Marketing.

Markert will serve as President & CEO of ACNielsen Loyalty and Michael as Managing Director.

The firm envisages the use of insights from the unit alongside data generated by retailer loyalty programs, enabling clients to better understand consumer behavior and to plan accordingly with loyalty building marketing and merchandising programs.

The move follows an intensive research and development effort and builds on many existing skills and services within VNU's MMI group, in areas such as consumer segmentation and targeting, consumer panels, and customized research.

According to Steven M. Schmidt, President & CEO of VNU Marketing Information (MI) and ACNielsen, 'Loyalty marketing is an outstanding opportunity for retailers to keep consumers coming back to their stores, create real affinity for a retailer's banner, and capture the largest possible share of their market while maximizing the return on their marketing investments.'

Markert acknowledges that 'the industry has long recognized that loyalty programs can provide highly valuable detail about what's in consumers' market baskets and new insights into their shopping behavior'. However, he adds, 'to date, most retailers have struggled to realize the potential inherent in their loyalty data. Our solution combines the retailer-specific transaction data generated by loyalty programs with the complete view of the marketplace generated by our existing consumer research services. Both views are essential to understanding the forces that drive shopper loyalty.'

AC Nielsen is online at www.acnielsen.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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