ALEXANDRIA, Va. — POPAI, the Global Association for Marketing at Retail, is launching retail-level research across multiple trade channels — including supermarkets, drug stores, mass merchandisers and convenience stores — to determine what displays, marketing at retail materials and shelf layouts work best and, most importantly, why and how they turn shoppers into buyers.

The Marketing at Retail Initiative, dubbed MARI, was initiated five years ago to deliver industry metrics. The project will be the largest qualitative study on shopper engagement in the world and will help to develop a metric by which brands and retailers can gauge in-store merchandising effectiveness and quantify shopper engagement.

UK-based SheridanGlobal Group Limited has been contracted to conduct the research using its purpose-designed shopper insight technologies. SheridanGlobal has established a subsidiary company in the United States. MARI will field in the United States in spring 2009 with the first wave of results delivered in late 2009.

Among participants in the study to date are 7-Eleven Inc., Ahold, Frito-Lay North America, Walgreens, Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages and a major mass retailer.

"Marketers and retailers are gathering shopper insight data and factoring that information into their strategic marketing plans which culminate in-store, where as many as 70 percent of all purchase decisions are made," POPAI president and chief executive Dick Blatt said in making the announcement.

"The MARI project will help leverage shopper insights obtained at retail by delivering unprecedented qualitative findings regarding what displays are most effective — and more importantly why, in virtually any category, among display type and in-aisle location. The possibilities are limited only by the retail environment. If it's at retail, we can measure its impact," he added.

MARI looks at multiple factors influencing consumer decision-making in-store — from display location and message to determining the importance of the ability to "Wow" consumers with specific messages. It can also now look at shopper behavior as it relates to non-promoted products sold on-shelf.

The research is conducted in real stores where shoppers are equipped with special ClipCam glasses. These glasses record video of the consumer's movement and field of vision in-store, which is tracked along with their purchases and product interactions. The video is then overlaid with consumer interviews, display audits and other information to create four ratios for each in-store display including impact, effectiveness, engagement and conversion.