Defense Commissary Agency Taps Nielsen to Provide Retail, Market Insights

FORT LEE, Va. -- The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) yesterday hired The Nielsen Company, based in New York, to provide market and consumer insights to its worldwide chain of commissaries, which provide groceries to military personnel, retirees, and their families.

The five-year contract calls for Nielsen to provide DeCA with retail sales measurement, store planning databases and software. Through Nielsen's Homescan consumer panel DeCA will have access to all consumer packaged goods purchases from hundreds of thousands of U.S. households, as well as information on all products purchased in any DeCA commissary worldwide.

Information will be delivered to the client via Nielsen Answers, a secure online information delivery portal that presents information directly linked to marketing, category management, and sales management issues, the marketing information company said.

"As an agency charged to deliver a premier commissary benefit to the U.S. military, it's vital that we know what products our customers are buying," said Tom Milks, director of sales for DeCA. "This contract allows us to look at how we are doing industry wide in both individual items and categories. With this level of research data, we can more effectively align our tactical approaches to the market."
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