Sainsbury's to use Nectar data to help marketers

The supermarket, part of the Nectar loyalty scheme along with retailers including Thresher and BP, is working with Lawson Software and TNS to provide analysis of its customers following a pilot scheme earlier this year.

The company quotes ACNielsen research saying that 90% of the 90,000 new products launched each year fail -- despite millions of pounds invested in advertising.

Andrew Ground, customer marketing director at Sainsbury's, said: "By providing suppliers with this information, they can develop products that put the customer even closer to the heart of our business and theirs. Working with TNS and Lawson, we are able to give more actionable and valuable information than we could using just loyalty card data."

Sainsbury's said the kind of information included unusual findings, such as the fact that people who buy dishwasher tablets are 20% more likely to also buy wine. Marketers will be able to find out information such as the repeat purchase rate of individual products, profiles of customers buying particular products and the most appropriate promotional tools to attract customers.

The company stressed that no personal details such as names and addresses would be released.

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