When it comes to numbers of music copyrights owned, controlled or administered, no music publisher in the world is larger than EMI Music, which also offers recorded music by more than 1,000 artists. And when it comes to understanding what music consumers want, what they’ll buy and why, EMI looks to NPD Music & Movies, a division of The NPD Group, as a source for this information. EMI Music Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Lynne Leger oversees the diverse artist research efforts conducted at EMI Music Marketing. Here, she shares her thoughts on the value of NPD’s information and insights.

NPD: What have been the greatest benefits of using NPD market information?

Lynne Leger: Using NPD information has allowed EMI to more fully monitor trends in the music industry and identify key target consumer groups for a variety of product offerings. In our business, artist and genre information is critical to gaining optics into our consumer base and understanding consumers’ purchase influences. NPD is our link to that information. It also gives us the ability to monitor growth and purchase patterns within a variety of formats, such as DVD-A, CD and DVD combo packs and SACD.

NPD: What kinds of business challenges has NPD market information helped EMI Music resolve?

Lynne Leger: The overall decline in music sales challenges everyone in the music industry. It is crucial for us to target our overall marketing and promotional spends in light of current budget constraints. NPD helps us identify our target consumer groups and understand their overall media affinities so we can spend less to reach more of the consumers we’re targeting.

NPD: How are NPD’s information and insights used across EMI Music?

Lynne Leger: EMI relies on NPD information at many levels. Our sales group uses it to help retail accounts understand who the consumer will be for each new release. This assists retailers in buying and promotional activities. Product Development depends on NPD information to help them watch growth and shifts in various music formats. It allows them to identify early adopters of particular formats and then determine how expansion of that format will occur in the marketplace.

The broadest use of NPD information is among our marketing group and product managers. It gives them a general understanding of each artist’s consumer, which is very useful in our efforts to target media spends. NPD gives us full access to all artists in the NPD database, so we can look at our own products and artists, but also those of our competitors – helping us compare and contrast our product offerings and strengthen our understanding of the overall music marketplace.

EMI’s top executives use the data in a broad way, for a clear view of the U.S. music consumer and to understand shifts in pricing, genre and genre interest. NPD information helps them determine whether EMI’s repertoire matches music consumers’ demands and understand all of our artists’ consumer demographic profiles.

NPD: In what ways has NPD market information been valuable to your business decision-making?

Lynne Leger: An important part of our business is monitoring shifts in genre and consumer demographic composition. NPD information helps us tailor the way we take our products to market, determine where to spend our marketing dollars and identify which retail partners are key for each new release. It also gives us the ability to monitor artists’ sales over time so we can quickly determine where shifts are occurring within the consumer base and where opportunities exist for sales expansion.

NPD: What would you say to manufacturers or retailers considering NPD’s market information services?

Lynne Leger: In today’s consumer environment of constant change, it is imperative for companies to understand their consumers and their competitors’ consumers, and quickly identify how to reach them. NPD’s updated, fully accessible database gives us speed that other research methods just don’t offer. It’s also valuable in that it lets us see purchase behavior versus intent – a more reliable baseline for decision-making.

NPD: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experiences with The NPD Group?

Lynne Leger: Our NPD client service team is extremely responsive to inquiries and always searches for ways to improve its offerings. In addition to introducing new services, NPD works to add value to existing programs – that’s very important, and uncommon in my experience.