• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 5, 2007

Arbitron is moving into in-store media measurement with its Portable People Meter, a passive electronic measurement device, and other survey techniques. This puts the company into the arena with a number of other media research firms--competitors and potential clients for its PPM technology.

On Tuesday, the InStore Broadcasting Network signed up for PPM measurement of shopper exposure to its radio programming in 200 Walgreens drug stores in Houston. The audience measurement will rely on people who are already members of Arbitron's commercial radio measurement panel there. IBN is effectively incorporating its measurement into Arbitron's syndicated radio ratings service based on the PPM. Theoretically, it allows media buyers to compare "apples with apples" when calculating the combined reach and frequency of radio and in-store media.

Preliminary measurements by Arbitron indicate that IBN reaches about 1.25 million over the age 18 through the Walgreens Radio Network. Overall, IBN's media network covers over 12,000 drug stores and grocery stores, which Arbitron may also measure with PPM, depending on the speed of the device rollout.

Earlier this summer, Arbitron released the results of a pilot measurement program using PPM for the Mall Radio Network, which found that mall shoppers spend 44% of their total time in the mall common areas, where they are exposed to MRN's radio programming. Ninety-seven percent reported that they heard MRN music programming. About one-third heard its advertising.

Arbitron is clearly hoping to get a piece of the in-store measurement pie, touting PPM's capabilities in measuring both radio and TV out of the home. Bill Rose, Arbitron's senior vice president for marketing, said that Arbitron would be "providing PPM measurement to Mall Radio Network as a part of the top 50 market rollout of the Portable People Meter."

PPM is just one element in Arbitron's in-store measurement initiative.

In October 2006, Arbitron partnered with Scarborough Research to produce a new "Mall Shopper Audience Measurement." It is based on consumer intercept surveys in the mall and Scarborough's consumer database of over 210,000 individuals. This measurement program, which began with Arbitron's earlier studies commissioned by Simon Malls, uses a 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day record of individual shopper visits to malls to calculate reach and frequency of media exposure. Shoppers can then be analyzed with Scarborough data on shopping patterns, lifestyles and demographic characteristics. The two research firms drew on data from a network of 1,500 malls around the country.

Arbitron has also performed shopper intercept surveys for AdSpace networks, which operates digital displays in malls around the country.

The new in-store measurement push pits Arbitron against big-name competitors. Nielsen Connect, a new cross-media measurement division of the well-known media research firm, includes a subdivision called Nielsen In-Store, which aims to measure all in-store marketing media, including merchandising activity, retail TV and radio networks, shelf-talkers, cart-talkers, digital signage and point-of-purchase displays. The Nielsen initiative was undertaken in cooperation with the In-Store Marketing Institute as part of its PRISM (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) initiative.

In February, TNS announced it had acquired Sorensen Associates, bolstering the firm's growing retail-research capabilities. Sorensen's main products include PathTracker and video observation, which supplement attitudinal studies--including surveys and questionnaires--with empirical data describing patterns of movement, shopping speed and purchasing speed. The information can be used by manufacturers and retailers to plan promotional strategies, as well as new store design.

Sorensen's products will be integrated into TNS' global Retail and Shopper Insights practice--including TNS custom operations, which conducts proprietary studies of specific stores and brands, and TNS Worldpanel, which continuously measures certain benchmarks of consumer behavior.

At the same time, major media agencies are setting up their own in-store services. For example, Mediaedge:cia acquired Retail Media Link and relaunched it as MEC Retail in March 2006.