The Nielsen Company Chosen To Provide Retail And Market Insights To The Defense Commissary Agency

Schaumburg, IL - The Nielsen Company recently announced that it has been selected by The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to provide a full range of market and consumer insights to the worldwide chain of commissaries, which provides groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families.

The five-year contract calls for Nielsen to provide retail sales measurement, store planning databases and software. Through the Homescan consumer panel DeCA will have access to all consumer packaged goods purchases from hundreds of thousands of U.S. households, as well as information on all products purchased in any DeCA commissary worldwide. Information will be delivered to the client via Nielsen Answers, a convenient, secure online information delivery portal that presents information directly linked to key marketing, category management and sales management issues. The award represents a change in information supplier for commercial grocery data to DeCA.

"As an agency charged to deliver a premier commissary benefit to the U.S. military, it's vital that we know what products our customers are buying," said Tom Milks, director of sales for the Defense Commissary Agency. "This contract allows us to look at how we are doing industry wide in both individual items and categories; we can determine if those categories are growing or shrinking. With this level of research data, we can more effectively align our tactical approaches to the market and better focus our business efforts around the present and future demands of our patron."

"Through its top-quality retail stores that offer an incredible range of products at very low cost, DeCA is providing an important and valuable service to our military service members," said Dan Sacco, senior vice president client service, The Nielsen Company. "We are proud to have been chosen for our superior content and reporting systems, and we will put all our resources against making sure that our technology, focus and client service exceed DeCA's needs, so that DeCA can continue to carry out its important mission."

SOURCE: The Nielsen Company