The NPD Group debuts Threat Management Suite

The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based provider of global market information, said it launched a suite of analytic services designed to help companies quickly identify and respond to products and brands showing rapid growth. NPD’s Threat Management Suite may be used by manufacturers (and retailer private brand teams) to protect market share against emerging competition, as well as by retailers to avoid missing important trends that could affect their businesses.

The Threat Management Suite is the first in NPD's series of proprietary solutions as it leverages its core sales and market share information to identify the drivers of sales and market share and help clients optimize performance on those drivers, the company said. In 2014, NPD established its Solutions Group, a team of senior leaders with extensive experience in developing and delivering analytic solutions that address strategic marketing, sales and planning issues.

“NPD has invested in our information infrastructure and expanded our retailer partnerships so we can collect and deliver more granular information,” said George Terhanian, group president, solutions. “We are now combining our unique data assets and industry expertise with state-of-the-discipline research techniques and developing new services to help our clients address a wide range of business questions.”

NPD’s said its Threat Management Suite identifies, assesses and forecasts the impact of fast-growing — often new — products and brands, answering the following questions:

• Which products, brands or licenses have exhibited a spike in sales?
• What do consumers think of these products, and how significant is the threat or opportunity?
• What is the sales forecast?

According to NPD, the suite's products include:

• The Threat Detector, which comprises weekly or monthly reports identifying products with sudden changes in sales, based on NPD retail sales tracking.
• The Threat Assessor, which reads consumer sentiment via rapid concept testing through the NPD Consumer Panel.
• The Threat Forecast (coming soon), which will build on the Threat Assessor for a total sales forecast of key concepts, simulating best/worst case scenarios by varying key levers.

NPD said it plans to introduce additional analytic services to address clients’ major recurring questions for opportunity assessment, category optimization, and marketing optimization.