ACNielsen and Spectra Launch Consumer Marketing Mix Service.

Business Editors

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2001

Combination Of Premier Information Services Gives Marketers

New Capabilities to Select Highest-Response Marketing Vehicles

For Influencing National, Regional Sales.

ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, and the MediaPlan division of Spectra Inc., each VNU companies, today announced the launch of a jointly developed information service that brings a new level of actionability to the process of marketing mix modeling.

The announcement came here during the annual ACNielsen Category Masters event, attended by several hundred of ACNielsen's manufacturer, retailer, wholesaler, and broker clients. The new service, which combines ACNielsen's premier retail and consumer databases with Spectra's proprietary Lifestyle/Lifestage grid and consumer-based response measurement, allows marketers to identify the marketing vehicles, advertising levels, event timing and promotional programs that generate the greatest marketing impact.

"In today's environment, nothing is more important than achieving marketing ROI, consistently and measurably," said Tim Callahan, president of ACNielsen U.S. "To do that, marketers need reliable ways to identify and implement marketing activities that reach targeted consumers and build sales. They need information that can ensure their investment will yield the highest possible return for their brands. This joint service gives them that capability."

Traditional marketing mix modeling services analyze overall sales levels to measure advertising and promotional responses in the market at large. The ACNielsen/Spectra consumer marketing mix model goes several steps further by measuring responses of key lifestyle and ethnic consumer segments, as well as specific geographies. The service gives clients clear, action-focused analysis of each element in the marketing mix: advertising, coupons, trade promotions and pricing.

"This is a vital link in consumer-centric marketing, which represents the future of the consumer products industry," said John Lawlor, President & CEO of Spectra. "Marketing spending is the next frontier for corporate effectiveness. What has eluded the world's smartest marketers is a single, powerful system for identifying the highest-prospect consumers for a brand, pursuing them with offers that resonate within the most relevant media, and measuring impact in terms of purchases by this specific group. By creating the next standard in marketing mix modeling, we're supplying a critical link in the profit chain."

Marketers can track marketplace results on the same consumer basis they use for marketing mix modeling and planning by using the ACNielsen Lifestyle Track(TM) information service that ACNielsen and Spectra launched in the fall of 2000. ACNielsen Lifestyle Track is the only product that tracks sales and market share by consumer target groups on a national and regional basis.

Spectra Inc. (www.spectramarketing.com), a division of VNU N.V, is the fourth largest information services company in the United States. With headquarters in Chicago, IL, Spectra, along with its MediaPlan and Trade Dimensions divisions, is the leading provider of Consumer-Centric Marketing solutions to consumer packaged goods companies, and is leading the development of information tools that establish a brand-specific framework for achieving Marketing ROI. The company pioneered the framework for identifying brand opportunity on a combined lifestyle-lifestage basis with the introduction of the 54-cell Spectra Grid, which classifies consumer households according to six demographic and nine lifestyle criteria.

ACNielsen, a company of VNU N.V., is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behavior, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries. Clients include leading consumer product manufacturers and retailers, service firms, media and entertainment companies and the Internet community.

Note to Editors: Look for this press release and other ACNielsen and Spectra news on the Internet at http://acnielsen.com and http://spectramarketing.com.