In recent times, many companies have been supporting sales with data-driven strategies. It’s part of a general change in how largely commodityized industries use available technology to increase their operational capacity. However, this change has occurred so rapidly that many businesses are having a hard time to adapt.
This means that syndicated data is an essential instrument for any company that wants to be successful, particularly companies operating within the CPG sector. Although syndicated data is utilized in a variety of industries — but especially in the social media and entertainment sectors but it’s becoming a must for CPG and companies that are related to CPG to be successful into the 21st Century. The development of skills in the tools and resources available is now the main base for staying relevant. That’s why it’s essential to know exactly what it means to syndicate data.
What exactly is syndicated data is it, in the end?
Syndicated data is a consolidated collection of retail sales data over a range of variables. It is often compared with retail direct data, however it can monitor trends in the industry on any scale that you want to.
For instance Retail direct data can provide details about a particular product from a specific retailer, such as Meijer, Target, Whole Foods or Wegmans. Data syndicated compares the information of a product across all food categories, stores distribution channels, or geographical markets.
Furthermore, data that is syndicated can be classified into two distinct channels which are syndicated store information as well as syndicated panels data. Store data that is syndicated collates the information about products as mentioned above by aggregating important information like trends in sales, competitive analysis distribution, price as well as promotions. Since the data isn’t offered by one retailer the data is collected and compiled by third-party syndicated companies.
The Syndicated Panel Data is, however is a way to track customer behavior. It provides marketers and retailers with a complete picture of the user’s demographics as well as loyalty to brands and loyalty to stores as well as purchase frequency and a myriad of valuable buying habits. The data collected for syndicated panels is gathered by syndicated data providers from third parties using a balanced demographic household sample.
When third-party service providers use syndicated data to collect data the store data category is generally trustworthy from both marketing and sales perspective because it directly correlates with the statistics of retail. However, syndicated data from panels provides a full view of purchasing habits across households, however information on products that have lower penetration are typically restricted by the size of the sample.
For CPG manufacturers and the purpose for this article, we’ll be focusing on data from stores that are syndicated since it provides the most comprehensive and consistent perspective of CPG category and product performance in retail.
Are there any widely-used aggregated databases?
Data syndication can only be accessible to CPG brands because of the efforts of companies that provide data syndication. These organizations, which are third party, collect extensive CPG metrics from a broad variety of customers and retailers and gather relevant data points and offer the data for CPG manufacturers.
Due to the huge scale of the data that needs to be synchronized it is difficult for companies to tackle the data collection requirements with a high degree of accuracy. It requires professional relations to retailers in all CPG channels, especially Food, Drug, Dollar, Mass Market, Convenience, Club and Military. These syndicated syndicated data suppliers also require information collected from hundreds of different markets, and categories.
So there are only three major third-party syndicated companies that are able to function on the largest size: Nielsen, SPINS and IRI. The primary activities of these companies are focused on aggregated and syndicated data sets, and leave the analysis and reporting to individuals in the marketing and sales teams who subscribe to their services.
Nielsen
The Nielsen Company is a global information management, data, and data firm based at New York. Nielsen has been measuring competitive sales since it was founded around 1923. It currently is focused on consumer goods such as consumer behavior, as well as media. It offers a complete overview of the purchasing patterns and products across over 100 countries. From the CPG standpoint, Nielsen is the oldest largest, most comprehensive, and possibly the most significant networked data platform available today.
Spins
SPINS is an aggregated data and measurement platform for retail that provides comprehensive cross-channel point of sale reporting. The network offers data-driven solutions and services geared toward retailers, brands, as well as financial partner. SPINS is focused on stores, brands and products that promote health-conscious living and natural products and conventional data. They also offer many customer insights, analytics reports and consultancy solutions for the CPG sector.
IRI
IRI is a market research organization which has been a leader in the analysis of digital data. It collects and analyzes data from purchase social, media and loyalty channels and generates reports to CPG and retail firms.
