ACNielsen, the world’s leading market information provider, is taking its global consumer insights capabilities to the next level with the launch of two new consumer insights services powered by the extensive global expansion of its Homescan® consumer panel business in the US and aggressive launch plans in Asia and Europe.

The latest service launched by ACNielsen’s US Homescan business is New Product Alert, which gives CPG manufacturers the opportunity to survey buyers of their new products shortly after purchase. The online service quickly identifies buyers of new products, and then sends them brief surveys about their motivations for purchase and satisfaction.

Currently at 91,500 households, the US Homescan consumer panel is undergoing a two-year MegaPanel expansion that will grow the panel to125,000 households by the end of this year, enabling the launch of numerous specialty panels, a new retailer equity measurement service, and improved sales measurement within fast-growing retail channels such as dollar stores, warehouse clubs stores, and pet specialty stores.

“Diversity characterises almost every aspect of today’s consumer goods market. There is diversity in lifestyles, fragmentation of media, explosion in product choice and proliferation of store formats. In this increasingly complex marketplace, household panels provide manufacturers and retailers insights into their shoppers behaviour ,” said Mr Ashok Charan, Managing Director of ACNielsen Research Singapore.

“Consumer insight is what fuels our clients’ success. That’s why we’re making unprecedented investments in expanding the number of households measured by our panels, grow the number of markets in which we operate them, and launch new panel-based consumer insight services.

ACNielsen Consumer Panel Services are now available in nine Asia Pacific markets, representing tens of millions of consumers with a total panel size exceeding 20,000 households. Homescan panels track households purchases through all retail channels across a wide range of fast moving consumer products, enabling sales dynamics such as penetration, buying rates, frequency, inter purchase intervals, repeat buying and brand switching patterns etc at marketers’ fingertips.

In Singapore, ACNielsen is the industry leader pioneering electronic consumer panel services with a growing client base including many of the major manufacturers for consumer packaged products. Having successfully launched ACNielsen Homescan in November 2002, it is set to further increase its panel size to facilitate monitoring of smaller product categories. ACNielsen Homescan in Singapore tracks purchases of personal products and groceries, including fresh and frozen food from modern retail outlets and wet markets.

“Singapore’s fast-paced lifestyle has placed greater emphasis on innovation. New products are continually displacing the old ones in our relatively mature packaged consumer goods industry,” Mr Charan added. “Homescan empowers our clients with timely knowledge of the success of their new products through measures such as trial and repeat purchase of these products and an understanding of their source of growth.”

Thailand is the latest consumer panel market in Asia, with the launch of Homescan, the first scanning-based panel of its kind in the country. In addition to Homescan, ACNielsen has also introduced I-Scan – where panel members use patented pocket-sized scanners to record impulse and other on-the-go purchases outside the home, with the first being ACNielsen | I-Scan Impulse in Hong Kong (launched in 2003) and ACNielsen | I-Scan Beauty in Korea (launched in 2004).

In addition to Asia Pacific, ACNielsen is also expanding its consumer panel footprint in Europe and Latin America.
In Europe, ACNielsen is expanding its Homescan consumer panel from approximately 45,000 to 70,000 households in the key markets of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. As part of European the expansion, ACNielsen will launch an I-Scan™ Impulse panel in the region.

Operating in 24 countries, and with plans to expand further, the ACNielsen Homescan consumer panel is the CPG industry’s leading consumer panel, providing insights into what types of households buy specific CPG categories or brands, how often and where they shop, their use of coupons, and a host of other facts and insights, including attitudinal and product usage information. In most countries, panel members use patented in-home scanners to record their purchases of UPC-coded products and then download the information to ACNielsen for analysis. In other countries, a diary methodology is utilized. It enables more effective integrated solutions offered by other VNU-owned marketing information and media measurement companies

VNU’s panel expertise extends across many of its marketing and media information businesses. Nielsen Media Research, in the U.S. and through partnerships outside the U.S., operates TV ratings panels that cover nearly 100,000 households in 46 countries, representing some 75% of global television advertising spending. Another VNU business, Nielsen//NetRatings, tracks 70 percent of the world’s Internet usage by measuring the online behavior of more than 600,000 people across 16 countries, while another unit, BASES, the leader in new-product forecasting, operates e-Panels with more than 150,000 individuals to gauge response to new-product concepts.

About ACNielsen

ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.

About VNU

VNU is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognised brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media measurement and information (Nielsen Media Research) and business information (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Computing, Intermediair). VNU is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands and New York, USA. The company employs 38,000 people. Total revenues amounted to EUR 3.8 billion in 2004. VNU is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam (ASE: VNU) stock exchange. For more information, please visit the VNU website at www.vnu.com.