After the salmonella scare at the start of the year, sales of jarred peanut butter took a hit as consumers tried to determine which products were affected.  Last month, sales returned to their normal historical patterns, a trend that continued in the most recent four week period tracked by Nielsen.  On an equivalized unit volume basis, sales were up 3 percent from the same period in 2008 and down 1 percent from the previous four week period in 2009 – a trend Nielsen has seen in previous years.  Sales rose …

Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights
I recently shared some thoughts on how CPG manufacturers can protect their brands from private label expansion. Of course, it didn’t take long to hear back from retailers asking for tips on growing their own brands so here are a few private label ideas for our retailer friends.

Study the category consumer before going upscale. Consumer understanding is the common thread among top-selling brands. It’s not enough for a retailer to roll out a quality product in premium packaging.
Disguise your premium store brands. Many consumers still associate …

Our CPG world is one where technology is rapidly evolving and transforming how consumers receive, seek and use information to impact buying and shopping decisions. This makes our jobs exciting and challenging at the same time as it is harder than ever to manage the ever-changing technology landscape and almost impossible to control.

At the Consumer 360 Conference yesterday Malcolm Gladwell gave some fascinating remarks on compensatory learning. I thought it was a perfect frame for what Nielsen is doing in the area of Shopper Management. The basic message is that some people, or businesses or processes, achieve greatness through continuous and iterative improvement. That is precisely the path we are in Shopper Management at Nielsen.

Todd Hale, SVP, Shopper and Consumer Insight, The Nielsen Company
2008 was a stellar year for store brands in the U.S., with both dollar and unit growth outpacing branded offerings across consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories. Store brand dollar sales within food, drug and mass merchandisers grew 10.2% for the year, while branded dollar sales grew by just 2.6%. Although the gap in unit sales was not as wide, indicative of how store brand dollar growth resulted from inflationary pricing across a number of commodity-based categories, store brand units grew 2.6% …

Organic products – which are often priced at a premium over non-organic products – have taken a sales hit over the last 12 months as consumers have cut back discretionary spending, according to new analysis by Nielsen’s Director of Industry Insights, Tom Pirovano.  In March 2008, monthly sales of organic products grew 24 percent; a year later, growth almost came to a standstill of 1 percent, marking a dramatic shift from previous monthly growth rates of more than 30 percent seen in 2005 and 2006.
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“The recession and …

Household budgets are stretched. Consumers are nervous. When commodity costs are down and prices are still high, should the price increases taken in 2008 to be rolled back in 2009? Not necessarily.

In perhaps the most challenging and volatile economic climate in over 35 years, holiday spending across food, drug, mass, and convenience stores saw a 5.8% gain. Other bright spots were online shopping, new movie releases and Blu-ray DVDs.