Nielsen Finds Loyalty Programs Resonate with Shoppers

Nearly 60% of global respondents said that loyalty programs were available where they shopped, and of those, 84% said they were more likely to visit those retailers, according to a new study by Nielsen.

“Retailers can reverse the impact of falling basket values and lower trip frequencies by better connecting with the unique needs of their shoppers,” Julie Currie, SVP global loyalty, Nielsen stated. “While the concept of loyalty is nothing new, we are seeing a significant surge in retailers — and particularly those in developing economies — investing in loyalty programs that give them valuable insight into how to better meet customer needs,” she said. “Savvy retailers are mining the data and looking for new and innovative ways to achieve the benefits most important to their customers.”

Nielsen found that, on average, more respondents claimed to be not loyal than completely loyal to brands, service providers and retailers. Most respondents said they were mostly loyal, or unlikely to switch brands or providers without significant incentives. Nielsen information shows that nearly one-quarter (24%) of global respondents claimed complete loyalty to mobile phone brands, mobile service providers and financial institutions, the highest percentages reported globally across the 16 categories measured. Global respondents reported the lowest levels of loyalty to food and beverage categories measured and online retailers. Approximately 40% of global consumers surveyed said they were not loyal and likely to switch brands in the alcoholic beverages (43%), snacks (39%), carbonated beverages (38%) and cereal (37%) categories. As many as 39% of global respondents said they were not loyal to online retailers.

“There is a strong link between the way consumers describe their loyalty habits and the way they subsequently buy — so even comparatively small shifts in what consumers say can manifest in big changes in what they do,” Currie saud. “While there is some consistency around the world in loyalty sentiment within categories and across retailers and service providers, there are also notable differences — especially for consumable products and in the online retailing space, where the likelihood to switch is greater," she said.

“In markets where loyalty programs are long established, customers tend to be savvy about copy-cat promotional offerings that don’t offer unique advantages,” Currie noted. “Particularly in developed loyalty markets, retailers and manufacturers need to work together to offer exclusive awards that cut through the clutter. New and innovative concepts, especially in the online space, that connect with how consumers want to shop are proving to be most effective.”

According to Nielsen’s survey, 75% of global respondents said that discounted or free products was the most valuable loyalty program benefit. As many as 41% of global respondents said getting a better price would encourage them to switch brands, service providers or retailers, followed by better quality (26%), a better service agreement (15%), better selection (10%) and better features (8%).

Enhanced customer service and free shipping incentives were important to 44% and 42% of global respondents, respectively.

Good customer service was important to more than half of respondents in Latin America (59%) and Asia-Pacific (53%). Exclusive deals (41%) and special shopping hours (36%) mattered most among loyalty program participants in Asia-Pacific. Free shipping incentives were important for 46% of North Americans.

North Americans surveyed reported higher levels of loyalty for financial service providers (29%) and carbonated beverages (23%), compared to other regions.

The Nielsen Global Survey of Loyalty Sentiment polled more than 29,000 Internet respondents in 58 countries to evaluate consumer views on loyalty levels across 16 categories including fast-moving consumer goods, technology products and retail establishments.

Authored by: November 13, 2013 | By Michael Johnsen

Originally posted on RetailingToday and can be viewed at: 

http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/nielsen-finds-loyalty-programs-resonate-shoppers

Millennials and the new value of shopper marketing

The Coca-Cola Company sponsors this blog post and leverages proprietary insights to create world-class shopper marketing activities designed to help retailers convert more shoppers into buyers.  Visit www.cokesolutions.com to learn more.

Digital media has changed the way and the speed in which people shop. Marketers must now provide consumers with a full buying experience both online and in-store, adding a new dimension to their jobs. In particular, understanding the purchasing habits of millennials, who were raised with online shopping as a part of daily life, can be a challenge since many younger consumers have different expectations and approaches to buying.

“They are omni-channel shoppers,” said Daren Sorenson, Director of Retail and Shopper Insights for the Coca-Cola Company’s North America Group. “Millennials enjoy shopping much more than previous generations and take joy out of simply browsing.”

In spite of the huge increase in choice brought by digital retail, the economic downturn has affected how millennials spend and what they buy. Value remains a major consideration for Millennials when deciding where to shop, according to Sorenson. They want an engaging in-store experience and diversified options, but also want retailers to keep them informed in an interesting and personal manner.

As more people share information, comments and reviews online, brands are more exposed than before the advent of the Internet. Companies need to engage with consumers, particularly those who are younger, across channels and in a way that resonates with them. But implementing a sound strategy can be tricky, particularly with so many different platforms that can share a brand’s information.

“Millennials are the most highly educated and social generation in history,” Sorenson said. “They are clever and know what they want. As a brand, you need to be authentic and transparent when communicating with this younger generation.”

Sorenson notes that one brand that got it right is the Dollar Shave Club,  a Web-based e-commerce site for men founded in 2011 (Whose site is worth a trip to for the "Our Blades are F***ing Great" video alone - http://www.dollarshaveclub.com) Definitely worth . In 2012, the company announced itself to the world in a non-traditional manner via a funny, well-targeted YouTube video. In this clip, Dollar Shave Club showed that they do not take itself too seriously, and is a brand that firmly understands the highly visual, digital-based world. The clip has since gone viral, approaching 12 million views.

“Dollar Shave Club has gained an impressive following by telling a brand story that is authentic, entertaining and very shareable,” Sorenson said. While not every brand is in a position to mimic the Dollar Shave Club, their success is a lesson in what can be achieved when millennials become brand advocates.

For brands, having a sound omni-channel marketing strategy is key to connecting with millennials. As “digital natives”, millennials are fully comfortable operating on multiple screens and on multiple devices like laptops, smartphones or tablets. They enjoy interacting with new people and ideas via different social channels and will listen to companies that speak their language.

However, it’s not just about social media and flashy videos. The value of in-store experiences should be considered when thinking about marketing and branding. Millennials may spend a lot of time online but they have not fallen out of love with the bricks-and-mortar stores.

“As shoppers, they are less prepared than their predecessors and more reliant on in-store cues. Retailers that offer engaging store environments, and well-merchandised solutions, are the ones winning with Millennials,” Sorenson said.

Gone are the days of broadcast marketing: brands need to engage with consumers directly on an emotional level and establish a relationship.

“Digital allows for a two-way conversation between brands and consumers,” Sorenson said. “And when you understand consumers as people, you can create content that is share-worthy and engaging, rather than simply informative.”

The Coca-Cola Company speaks directly to millenials and many others via a new interactive magazine format website called Journey.

By Megan Conniff on November 12th, 2013 for Smartblogs.com 
Original posting can be located here: http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2013/11/12/millennials-and-the-new-value-of-shopper-marketing/

Nielsen Partners With Credit-Check Giant Experian's Marketing Side

Online campaign ratings will parse demos even finer than before.

Ever gotten a credit report on yourself? If so, you probably used data mining company Experian to get the information. Now, the company will be providing specific consumer info to Nielsen for use in the latter's online campaign ratings (OCR), adding more measurements to Nielsen's data, which already includes info from Facebook. The partnership is with Experian's marketing side, Experian Marketing Services (their info is anonymized and uses a different data set from the credit report arm).

"Currently, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings reports on the basis of age, gender and designated market area," the company said in a statement . "This effort will enable Nielsen to explore extending the solution to report campaign audience by additional demographic and lifestyle segments, such as estimated household income range, family size and education level."

Nielsen is currently locked in competition with analytics agency comScore, whose validated campaign essentials system has plenty of adherents among newer companies. TV networks frequently prefer the reliability that goes with the Nielsen brand, but as more pure digital market players choose VCE, Nielsen is obviously stepping up its game in order to attract a greater market share.

The program is in beta testing this fall, with a full release anticipated in 2014. “We are committed to bringing greater accountability to digital ad measurement, building upon the strong foundation of traditional demos as we respond to the industry’s need for television-like guarantees," said Megan Clarken, evp, global product leader for Nielsen.

Rarely has the industry shown a greater need for third-party measurement. Betweenquestionable traffic from sites that exist mostly on paper and outright fraud, reliable delivery guarantees are essential for a market without rampant inefficiencies. With the price of digital advertising so far below comparable content on television, the industry is trying to demonstrate to clients that its kinks are ironed out, and while companies like Nielsen can't afford to expand their panels much further without charging their clients yet more money, data gatherers like Acxiom and Experian are able to sell on their measurements while sustaining the cost of the panel infrastructure.

Article Written by Sam Thielman
Read More here: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/nielsen-partners-credit-check-giant-experian-153279

ConAgra Looks to Big Data for Sales Growth

You already know grocery and big box stores are collecting data on your shopping habits — what you buy, when, how often, and for how much.

But behind the scenes, Omaha's ConAgra Foods and other consumer product manufacturers that sell to these stores have become even bigger and more sophisticated players in the “big data” game.

They're now borrowing shopper-specific data directly from retailers and crunching it in new ways to better understand consumers and respond to their needs. That's in addition to how they use internal data to forecast demand and increase sales, and use aggregate retail data to plan promotions and strengthen supply chains.

“It's a gold mine of insights and knowledge that nobody has tapped into in a big way,” said Bob Nolan, ConAgra's vice president of customer insights and analytics.

ConAgra, behind brands such as Hunt's, Orville Redenbacher and Marie Callender's, is now studying individual shopper habits at several major U.S. grocery retailers and big box stores. The retailers don't share a shopper's name, demographics or financial information, but do provide all the purchase information associated with a particular customer number.

Now, ConAgra can see how often Shopper 1234 comes into a store, how often she buys a certain product and what products she tends to buy together — pasta and tomato sauce, for example, or seemingly unrelated items, like tomato sauce and diapers. ConAgra can learn how loyal the shopper is to a certain brand, and what makes her switch among brands. And the firm can sort shopper habits by individual store location, seeing differences among neighborhoods.

Now well into its 2014 fiscal year, ConAgra is intently focused on sales growth after a disappointing 46 percent decline in first-quarter profits.

The solution will involve being more competitive on price and investing more in promotions, CEO Gary Rodkin told analysts last week.

Data analytics can help the company target exactly where promotions and discounts are working.

“We need to bend the trends on our market share. It is a market share gain. It's category by category, customer by customer. We've got smarter analytics, and we've got to put them to better use,” Rodkin said.

Consumer goods manufacturers that use data analytics to understand shoppers outperform competitors that don't, according to Progressive Grocer, citing two IBM studies published in July.

“In an increasingly competitive marketplace, the ability to detect subtle shifts that were previously indiscernible is imperative,” found one study, by the IBM Center for Applied Insights and Kantar Retail.

That's because consumers today are not only bargain-conscious, but they're also no longer limited to a few retailers. Consumers, empowered by technology, have more choices — not just the neighborhood grocery, but also the warehouse club, the dollar store, the pharmacy or Amazon.

“The best way of winning their business is not to try managing them: it's to listen to them, understand them and serve them as discrete individuals,” authors of the IBM/Kantar study found. “That requires considerable analytical horsepower, though, and two-thirds of consumer products companies don't have enough.”

To boost its own horsepower, ConAgra made a big investment in its data analytics capabilities starting in early 2012. The firm hired Nolan, a former PepsiCo. executive, for a newly created position. Under his management, ConAgra added a new business function called customer analytics to the same department that houses two existing areas: shopper insights, a group started in 2006 that studies shopper behavior and needs, and category leadership, where the firm works with retailers and other manufacturers to improve the selection and display of various products. The group employs about 125 people.

Under the new customer analytics area, ConAgra has hired a dozen new employees, recruiting from other consumer goods companies and market research firms. Hiring is competitive as retailers and other manufacturers are also stepping up hiring of data analysts.

“These are different skills than we would have hired for in the past,” Nolan said. Some of the employees work in ConAgra offices, while others are deployed directly to retailers' corporate headquarters.

The firm has also leaned on its IT department to expand its in-house data center to handle the additional terabytes of information now coming its way.

With the new data enabling it to drill down to shopper-level habits, ConAgra can put a finer point on work it is already doing to understand the shopper needs and emotions that drive decisions.

Walmart also has amped up its capabilities. Even though the retailer doesn't use a loyalty card program outside of Sam's Club, it has a unique ability to correlate geography with purchase information because it has so many outlets, including Supercenters, Sam's Club, Neighborhood Markets and its online store, CEO Bill Simon said in September at a Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference.

“We think that gives us a competitive advantage that others would really struggle to get to,” he said.

A recent Deloitte Consulting analysis of manufacturers' use of big data analytics found that most of these firms lag in developing their analytical maturity, even though their competitive advantage depends on it. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which sponsored the study, this fall will host its first conference designed to help retailers and manufacturers take a shared approach.

What ConAgra will do with retailers' data depends in part on what its retail customer wants out of the partnership. ConAgra declined to name its data-sharing partners but said the first retailer to share data in February wanted to better understand how people shopped in its frozen food aisles. Frozen food sales are stalled industrywide, and both retailers and manufacturers like ConAgra are eager to see that change.

One early finding was that people who buy one kind of single-serving frozen food tend to buy several kinds of single-serving frozen food. ConAgra could suggest to the retailer that it group smaller portions together, instead of stocking single-serve pizzas by family-size pizzas, for example.

That strategy might work well in one store but not in another, depending on demographics, and any suggestion to change displays would have to be easy for the retailer to execute, Nolan said. “You can't make things more complicated.”

The data may also reveal other shopping “affinities,” for example that people buying pizzas also love buffalo wings, and the retailer might decide to produce a buffalo-flavor pizza, said Christopher Durham, a private brand consultant based in Omaha.

By sharing and studying the data, he said, retailers can use it to inform private brand product development, another area where ConAgra could benefit considering its acquisition this year of private-label manufacturer Ralcorp.

“With retailers, it's not about big data, it's about big answers,” Durham said. “You can have piles and piles of data, but if there's nothing actionable coming out of it, it doesn't matter.”

It may seem strange that a grocery chain or big-box retailer would give up its information, for free, to a supplier. And strange, too, that a supplier would, for free, work with the numbers and offer advice on how the store could improve sales. Historically, retailers were reluctant to share this information, fearing that manufacturers might give the data to a competitor, or use it themselves to enter the market.

But sharing is becoming more widespread as the value of studying the data becomes clear.

Nolan said sharing information takes a sensitive approach. While ConAgra is the one crunching the numbers, the focus has to be on mutual benefit, not just what ConAgra can gain. “It's almost like being a consultant. We want to become the indispensable partner to our customers.”

Then, if ConAgra foods fit into a larger sales plan, he'll talk about how his canned tomatoes or frozen pastas can help the store.

“If they do a better job of managing their frozen department, and get more people down the aisle, ConAgra will get our share of it,” Nolan said.

Contact the writer: Barbara Soderlin

barbara.soderlin@owh.com    |   402-444-1336

Barbara Soderlin covers food safety, ConAgra, technology and employment/unemployment issues.

Procter and Gamble Boss declares "'Digital marketing' is dead."

Digital marketing – advertising brands to consumers through mobile electronic devices such as smartphones and computer tablets – has evolved to the point where the term has become outdated, Procter & Gamble’s global brand building officer has declared.

Now, such efforts are so common that digital marketing could simply be called “brand building,” Marc Pritchard said during Wednesday’s closing keynote address at the Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference (Dmexco) in Cologne, Germany.

“The era of digital marketing is over,” Pritchard said. “It’s almost dead. Now, it’s just brand building.”
Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is the world’s largest advertiser, and the company now spends more than one-third of its U.S. marketing budget on digital media. Research indicates that the average amount of time consumers spend with digital media every day could surpass television viewing this year.

Pritchard said P&G is focused on launching some ad campaigns in the digital sphere rather than following up traditional marketing with a digital component almost as an afterthought.

“This is a mindset that we are trying to infuse in our company, and it’s creating a tremendous shift,” Pritchard said. “It’s freeing up our minds on building creative ideas that come to life through the mediums that we engage with every single day – search, social, mobile, PR, and yes, even TV.”

He cited as an example an ad campaign for a Braun shaver, one of P&G’s brands, that initially ran only online.


“It wasn’t the digital component,” Pritchard said. “It was the campaign. … Start in the digital world, and build your way back to the rest of the marketing mix. It’s an approach that is building our brand equities, our sales and our profits.”

Advances in digital technology have made it easier for companies to reach consumers almost anywhere, but capturing their attention still depends on coming up with the right message.

“We can only do that if we have this one component that has been a constant since the beginning of brand building – an idea,” Pritchard said. “Fresh, creative ideas that are powered by insights – that are powered by the way people think and feel, and are inspired by creativity – always have and always will create great campaigns.

“Digital tools just give us a new way to spread those ideas in ways that we’ve never imagined before,” Pritchard said. “Great ideas matter more now than they ever have before – because with these digital tools at our disposal, we have the chance to be successful widely beyond whatever we had imagined.”

He advised marketers to “try and resist thinking about digital in terms of the tools, the platforms, the QR codes and all of the technology coming next.” Those at P&G, he said “try and see it for what it is, which is a tool for engaging people with fresh, creative campaigns” that make consumers think and feel and laugh.


“So let’s celebrate the end — the death — of digital marketing, and let’s focus on celebrating the great idea of these brands,” Pritchard said.

P&G and Walmart Colab "Family Movie Night" - A Model Example of Consumer Insights Meets Entertainment = Increased Market Growth (By William Thompson)

P&G and Walmart Colab "Family Movie Night" - A Model Example of Consumer Insights Meets Entertainment = Increased Market Growth (By William Thompson)

I recently stumbled across this project from 2011 between P&G and Wal-Mart, which, to be frank, I found very interesting, intuitive and overall brilliant in it's strategy and implementation. Having operated and being published in the Entertainment Law arena, I'm quite well aware of the headache (and overall puffery) of the "whose product/image association is worth what" dances　involving product placement or usage and infringement issues. Being somewhat of a stats lover, I was often amazed and how often positive correlation claims were proffered up as fact by party opponents, and when questioned, lacked adequate (or often any) statistical relevancy that showed even a minuet possibility　of a positive correlation between product placement/usage and favorable opinion by viewers (let alone a link between　placement and determinable income for damages).

This project, however, not only goes the total opposite route (which is a golden deal when compared to dealing with "after the fact" negotiations,　but likewise　utilizes a product/category strategy that created tangible revenue growth through a socially positive creation that funded the　production of a cinematic piece of art and had very, very, very minimal obtrusiveness into the artistic creation process. But, best of all, was　VOID of actual product　placement.　

Anyhow; very impressive.　(The case study is currently unavailable online due to site reconstruction, but you can request one from Effie.org by sending a case study request

here.) Below is an article from 2011 on the project from the P&G Newsroom (Original release can be located here.)

P&G and Walmart Celebrate 1 Year of Family Movie Night Announcing More Great Entertainment Thru 2012

Thursday, April 14, 2011 2:31 pm EDT

Last April, P&G and Walmart kicked off the Family Movie Night initiative when we presented the premiere of "Secrets of the Mountain." This Saturday, April 16, 2011, P&G and Walmart are celebrating a year of family entertainment with the premiere of our next Family Movie Night film, 'Truth Be Told' at 8/7c on FOX. In the past year, Walmart and P&G's Family Movie Night has been welcomed into homes across America 16 million times and we're happy to announce we'll be extending Family Movie Night into 2012, with four more films this year following "Truth Be Told."

P&G and Walmart initially decided to partner on Family Movie Night last year when industry research showed that parents wanted more options for television programs they could watch with their entire families. Today P&G and Walmart revealed [link to news release] results of new research they conducted which reinforces that parents are still seeking more family entertainment options. We learned that entertainment is a primary way families get together, in fact 81% of those surveyed told us they enjoy watching movies with their families and 75% of them admit that they still have to dive for the remote to change the channel or pause a program because of inappropriate content during what they thought was a "family" program. We're proud that Family Movie Night continues to offer parents films that can be enjoyed by the entire family without concern over questionable content.
Please click the video below to hear what the stars of the Family Movie Night films think of our initiative.
Celebrating 1 Year of Family Movie Night

To see a sneak peak at of "Truth Be Told" please watch the clip below. We hope you tune-in to enjoy it on April 16, at 8/7c on FOX!

Truth Be Told Trailer

To learn more about Family Movie Night you can visit www.familymovienight.com or www.facebook.com/familymovienight.