Insights / Shopper Marketing
Coca-Cola: Inside shopper insights with Diane Wallace
- 10th May
- Power Marketer 18
Renowned shopper marketing expert Diana Wallace of Coca-Cola, shares her ‘insights on insights’ with Ellie Cummins from Shopper Marketing LIVE.
Meaningful shopper insights?
Meaningful shopper insights are insights that are relevant and powerful. They must be a step beyond identifying “who” the shopper is, but be more in depth about “why” the shopper behaves a certain way within a category or within or across retailers.
Shopper insights vs. consumer insights?
Sometimes there is a difference. In some categories and channels, the consumer is the shopper, so the insights needed to effectively market and message and offer the right products/packages is critical. In other categories and channels, the shopper is buying for someone else (the consumer), and so the insights need to reflect more shopper motivation versus consumer motivation.
Most successful method to get at shopper insights?
To become a leader in shopper insights, we must get insights from a variety of sources. At Coca-Cola, we gather shopper insights from proprietary panels and research, syndicated panels and research, as well as directly from our retailers via their loyalty card or shopper card databases. We also utilize various methods in combination, from intercepts, telephone and on line interviews, organized panels and various other means.
Secret to successfully turning data into useful insight?
This is one of the hardest areas to get really good at. We have a tremendous amount of consumer and shopper data across all our markets around the world, but it takes tremendous focus and discipline to analyze data and turn it into useful insights. We have a process of developing an hypothesis first, and then focusing on the data and insights that will start to prove or disprove the hypothesis. This has helped us in getting better at it.
How do shopper insights lead to growth?
Powerful shopper insights can lead to more informed and relevant decisions regarding the right brands, right packages, right merchandising, right messaging and the right offers to incent and engage the shopper while in outlet. The better we do this, the better opportunity we have to drive growth.
The single most important insight you have discovered?
For Coca-Cola, it has been about fully understanding how consumers use beverages throughout their day and which beverages are best suited for each occasion throughout the day.
The most surprising insights that have emerged?
We have learned a lot this year about how customers/shoppers are dealing with the economy issues. They are shopping more frequently and spending less per trip and adjusting the package types they are buying of beverages throughout the month. We have learned that a very large percentage of shoppers are being subsidized by the government, and so the receipt of these subsidies drives their purchase behaviour.
How are customers shopping differently?
We have learned a lot recently about the changing mindset and shopping considerations that today’s shoppers are experiencing. For example, value consciousness is very on trend for those who are financially struggling and for those around them. Therefore, shoppers are buying more frequently and are more sensitive than ever to getting very good value, that doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest price, but that there is a strong value for value exchange happening.
How do shopper insights affect the shopping experience?
Shopper insights are imbedded in how we develop and commercialize everything we do in store. At Coca-Cola, we believe it is critical to engage the shopper and create the best experience we can, and we are finding that retailers are more interested than ever in how to improve the shopping experience for their “best” or “most loyal” shoppers.
What is your best advice for brand marketers today?
Focus on fewer, more powerful consumer and shopper insights to drive shopper relevant solutions in store, which includes the right brands/packages, the right messaging/merchandising, the right value or offers, and the right location in store.
Interview by Ellie Cummins, Project Manager, Shopper Marketing LIVE
Comments
Gathering this sort of data for analysis should be high on the priority list for most companies , but it’s incredible how poorly resourced and misunderstood this area of business is.
I definitely like Diana’s suggestion of setting a hypothesis first then using the data to prove / disprove it. With the amount of data that must be available for a company like Coca-cola it would be easy to get lost in the data if you’re searching for the silver bullet amongst it all, a good place to start is with something anecdotal / gut feel and if the data doesn’t support it, dig a little deeper.