• The Wall Street Journal , Thursday, October 23, 2008 10:45 AM

Grocery stores are dispensing ads tailored to shoppers's individual buying habits, David Kesmodel reports, and big consumer-product companies like Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods are beginning to use them in significant numbers. "

Catalina Marketing, armed with data provided by retailers about shoppers's buying habits, showed Stouffer's that 6.7% of all shoppers accounted for 80% of its single-serve volume. So, Stouffer's targets ads at many of these regular buyers.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC has bought ads for Tums targeting shoppers who have purchased the antacid in the past around holidays like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Glaxo found that about 60% of shoppers shown the ads come back and buy Tums, says Larry Whalen, senior innovation manager for the Tums brand.

Catalina's network is composed of 23,000 retailers, including grocery giants like Kroger and Safeway, which give Catalina access to data on roughly 90 million of the 111 million U.S. households.

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