Marketers Urged to Fortify Shopper Insights

DAVID ORGEL

DALLAS — Retailers and consumer packaged goods companies have the potential make shopper insights more actionable in a way that improves overall return, according to Trish Brynjolfsson, vice president, Brand and Industry Development, Catalina.

The key is to use insights to more effectively build volume and loyalty and encourage trial of new items, she said during a session of FMI Future Connect 2011 here.

"Leveraging shopper insights can achieve marketing objectives while improving efficiencies and return on investment," she said.

Companies need to maximize the impact by using shopper insights to increase trips and build volume, she said. An effective approach is to build volume through encouraging "regimen compliance."

"Use shopper data to target individuals in advance of their purchase cycles to collapse the time between their purchases," she said. "These messages can provide discount coupons and remind people how to use the products. This can lead to additional trips and big results."

Another approach is to help retain shoppers by rewarding loyalty that helps lift sales.

"Shoppers respond to long-term rewards for brands they purchase," she said. "We can personalize the rewards thresholds based on shopper data to reward the incremental purchases rather than subsidize the existing behavior."

Still another useful tool is to use data mining to help acquire new purchases through brand trial, she said. The example provided was a CPG brand company with multiple categories whose consumer base was sticking to single categories in the portfolio. There’s a big opportunity to encourage existing shoppers to try an item in a new category, she said.