In recent years, a lot of businesses have been able to support sales with data-driven strategies. This is part of a general change in how largely commodityized industries utilize available technology to boost their operations. However, this change has occurred so rapidly that many businesses are having a hard time to keep up.
This is why syndicated data is a vital 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 — notably in the social media and entertainment fields but it’s becoming a must for CPG and related companies seeking to be successful into the 21st Century. Learning to use these tools and resources is the primary base for staying relevant. That’s why it’s essential to know exactly what it means to syndicate data.
So what exactly is syndicated information is it, in the end?
Syndicated data is a consolidated collection of sales and product sales within a specified 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 information on a particular item 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, and geographical markets.
Additionally, the syndicated data can be classified into two distinct channels which are syndicated store information or syndicated data panel. The store data that is syndicated collects the information about products as mentioned above and combines useful information like trends in sales, competitive analysis distribution, price or even promotional offers. Because this information cannot be supplied by a single retailer on its own the data is collected and compiled by third-party syndicated companies.
The Syndicated Panel Data On the other hand, Syndicated Panel Data it tracks the behavior of customers. It provides marketers and retailers with a complete picture of the user’s demographics and loyalty to brands and loyalty to stores purchasing frequency, and any other valuable buying habits. The data for syndicated panels is collected by syndicated data providers from third parties by using a household with a balanced demographic sample.
When third-party service providers gather syndicated data the category of store data is generally accurate from marketing and sales perspective because it directly correlates with the retail statistics. However, syndicated data from panels can provide a complete overview of the buying habits of households, however, the information about products with lower penetration are typically restricted by the size of the sample.
For CPG manufacturers and for the purposes for the blog we’ll concentrate on data from stores that are syndicated since it provides the most reliable and comprehensive perspective of CPG category and product performance in retail.
Which are the top widely-used and syndicated sources of data?
The data syndication process is accessible to CPG brands because of the efforts of companies that provide data syndication. These organizations, which are third party, collect extensive CPG metrics across a vast variety of customers and retailers and collect relevant data points and offer accessibility 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 providers also require information collected from hundreds of different markets, and categories.
In this way the three largest third-party syndicated companies that are able to function on the largest extent: Nielsen, SPINS and IRI. The primary functions of these firms concentrate on aggregated and syndicated data sets, but leave information and reports to the individuals in the marketing and sales teams that use their services.
Nielsen
The Nielsen Company is a global information management, data, and data company with its headquarters at New York. Nielsen has been measuring competitive sales since its inception on 1923. Currently, the company concentrates on consumer products such as consumer behavior, as well as media. It offers a complete overview of purchasing habits and products across more than 100 countries. From the CPG standpoint, Nielsen is the oldest largest, most comprehensive, and possibly the largest connected data platform that is currently in use.
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 towards retailers, brands as well as financial partner. SPINS is a specialist in stores, brands and products that promote health-conscious living and natural products and conventional data. They also offer various reports on analytics, consumer insights and consultation solutions for the CPG sector.
IRI
IRI is a market research organization that has been in business for a long time, specializing in the analysis of digital data. It collects and analyzes data from purchase social, media and loyalty channels and generates reports that are used by CPG and retail businesses.
