New ACNielsen Service Monitors Low Carbs and Other Health Trends

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. - ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU business, announced yesterday the launch of LabelTrends, a new service now available that monitors sales trends in 13 of the hottest consumer packaged goods (CPG) product segments, such as low-carb, low-fat, organic, and sugar-free.

Patrick Dodd, head of marketing for ACNielsen North America, noted: "Much of the innovation within food and beverage packaged goods is focused on health-related benefits such as reduced carbohydrates or fats. These are fast-changing product segments with high-profile news reports, frequent advertising, and numerous new product launches all adding to their volatility. LabelTrends fills a crucial informational void by keeping marketers' fingers on the pulse of these segments, helping them distinguish trends from fads, track the performance of their products within the context of the whole segment, stay current on competitive threats, and uncover new opportunities."

Kraft Foods worked closely with ACNielsen in the development of LabelTrends. "The pace of change in the food industry continues to accelerate. Because LabelTrends takes much of the time and effort out of the process of keeping up with ever-changing trends, it's likely to become an essential marketing information tool for the CPG industry," said Lance Friedmann, Kraft Foods s.v.p. of health & wellness. "We are very pleased to have helped ACNielsen develop this important new capability."

Operating within ACNielsen Strategic Planner, an online sales-tracking database of thousands of CPG products in nearly 1,100 syndicated categories, LabelTrends groups products with similar claims on their labels such as "Reduced fat" or "No added sugar."

"Low-carb is one of the hottest diets in recent memory," added Dodd. "Whether it's beginning to wane is yet to be seen, [but] LabelTrends will enable marketers to keep a close watch on low-carb product sales."

ACNielsen is the world's leading provider of marketing information. Its parent, VNU, is also the parent company of Progressive Grocer.
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