Nielsen and NPD to Produce US Beauty Monitor

Nielsen and The NPD Group have signed an agreement to produce a quarterly US Beauty Cross Channel Monitor, providing a 'comprehensive view' of the US beauty market.

The monitor will combine Nielsen and NPD point-of-sale data across food, drugs, prestige department stores, and 'all' retail outlets combined, to provide a read on sales and performance for all beauty categories. Data will include dollar sales, unit sales and average retail price, in addition to a ranking of the top 75-100 brands.

As part of the agreement, the firms have refined product definitions to enable marketers to evaluate the performance of categories, segments and brands across all major beauty distribution channels.

Karyn Schoenbart, COO at NPD, comments: 'We are committed to delivering the best information, insights and solutions for our clients in all of the industries we serve. We look forward to collaborating with Nielsen on this critical overview of the beauty marketplace.'

Last month, the firms partneredto introduce a new data and analytics service looking at the market for school and office supplies.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.npd.com .