• by Tricia Despres , December 29, 2006

After countless hours of media planning and buying, the goal is finally within reach. The consumer has entered the store specifically to purchase your product. Yet, once the consumer walks through the doors of the store, measuring how he or she behaves at the moment of truth (point of purchase) has been quite the dark hole for marketers.

A consortium of big-name manufacturers and retailers is on the cusp of agreeing on a metric that would actually measure in-store consumer reach.

Spearheaded by the In-Store Marketing Institute, the Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric (PRISM) study uses unobtrusive infrared sensor beams positioned in aisles, perimeter locations, and store entrance and exit zones to measure the actions of shoppers.