Bringing together research from NCS and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, they have worked with 50 CPG brands, five media companies and several industry institutions to explore the opposing strategies that marketers have been implementing – whether to target buyers or non-buyers.

The key findings from the research include: there are three main brand signatures that show the purchase profile of a brand’s buyers, and how this changes over time; there is a disconnect between brand strategies and creative execution; and advertising to consumers who don’t respond is a waste of money and would be better spent on advertising to those who are influenced.

Leslie Wood, chief research officer, Nielsen Catalina Solutions said: “NCS created the Brand Growth Consortium to help our clients navigate the consumer environment and answer long-standing questions about targeting. We set out to analyse high quality data from many sources to uncover a new paradigm for ad targeting while maintaining the highest consumer privacy standards.”