NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) and Kellogg Company have partnered to enhance the college’s Certified Retail Analyst (CRA) program by providing access to Nielsen syndicated data. The collaboration will offer students comprehensive and timely information on market shares, competitive sales volumes and insights into distribution, pricing, merchandising and promotion.
“Having access to Kellogg’s Nielsen in addition to Walmart’s Retail Link gives CRA students more well-rounded, real-life data to analyze and predict customer behaviors for retail businesses, said NWACC Executive Director of Retail and Supplier Education, Mark Tucker. “It’s a big opportunity that enhances our program and the student learning experience.”
NWACC’s CRA program builds students’ proficiency in retail fundamentals including supply chain, retail tools, data mining and analysis, and enables them to gather and analyze data related to the performance of retail stores and provide expert recommendations to decision makers.
Since partnering with Walmart in 2000, the CRA program has offered students access to Retail Link, which allows them to study and interpret real life merchandise data and relate it back to a Walmart store or entire chain. With Nielsen syndicated data, students will be able to layer data from 11 different sources, not just a single retailer, and improve the accuracy of interpreting merchandise performance and predicting performance trends.
“Helping these students to see the impact of data behind a story is the kind of work that inspires me,” said Senior Director of Walmart Business Development at Kellogg and NWACC Foundation member, Nicole Foote. “Anyone can read data, but the magic happens when you can tell a story with the data.”
NWACC plans to incorporate teaching of the Nielsen syndicated data into three of the six CRA courses to give students a broader learning of data analysis, interpretation and application, as well as category management.
NWACC’s CRA program is currently enrolling. Learn more about the program at www.nwacc.edu/CRA.
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