Point of Purchase Gets Measured

The dream may come true for point of purchase advertisers who've always wanted a way to measure their POP advertising's success. The big secret? It's all in the feet.

• POP Goes Your Advertising: Getting the Impulse Buy
• Advertising Methods: Point of Purchase

The P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) Project studied companies like 3M, Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, Miller Brewing, Procter & Gamble and Walt Disney at retailers Albertson's, Kroger, Wal-Mart and Walgreens. The $1 million study looked at 64 products with in-store POP ads in one month.

More on the POP Measuring Process: Shoppers were monitored through electronic sensors that counted off tick marks. Each time a shopper broke the link between transmitter and receiver, the direction the shopper was headed, time and date were recorded. Sales were then monitored through scanners at checkout.