SHOPPERxSCIENCE was held on September 6 2018 at Google in Chicago.

Knowledge Center Trip Report

Featured Presentations

The Digitally Disrupted Consumer
Jason Goldberg – SVP Commerce & Content Practice, SapientRazorfish

Digital disruption has permanently changed the brain of the shopper and how she makes purchase decisions. This presentation explores how shopping experiences need to evolve to accommodate this new reality and offers examples of retailers and brands that are already doing so.

Key takeaways:

  • As a result of digital disruption there are changes to shoppers’ brains and how they make purchase decisions. These changes tend to be universal across markets and segments.
  • The four fundamental ways that shopper brains have changed are related to: trust, social proof, absolute value, and transparency.
  • Trust
    • Results from Nielsen’s global study on trust in advertising indicate that the things consumers trust the most are the things brands have to earn, such as ratings and reviews.
    • Consumers have a trust problem even with the best-known brands. Every time a customer receives an email that her data was breached, it erodes her trust with everyone. We have evidence that a lot of that trust is not coming back.
  • Social Proof
  • People want to know that someone like them made a decision before them and had a good outcome. In ecommerce, this translates to ratings and reviews.
  • Social proof has become more important than brand on the decision tree for most consumers, with reviews the most important attribute in selling goods online.
  • Despite its prevalence online, social proof is still sparse in brick-and-mortar shopping, but this is starting to change. Nordstrom, for example, highlights its most popular products on Pinterest through an endcap in store. Clienteling apps allow sales associates to share social proof with customers.
  • One challenge is how to use social proof to facilitate impulse purchases in store.
  • Absolute Value
    • When quality is hard to predict, consumers use brand as a surrogate for quality. But when quality is easy to know (e.g. when there’s objective data about quality), brand isn’t as important.
  • Transparency
    • The assumption that consumers only know what retailers tell them is no longer true. Consumers are always on, and equipped with tools to help get the best price.
    • The world is moving from price obfuscation to transparency, and some companies are changing to meet customers’ expectation for transparency. Amazon tells you when their prices change, even if it means they lose money. Everlane discloses their product costs, while Ikea puts their stock levels online.
  • It may be scary to be the first to adopt these changes, but it’s not necessary to be first. You can be the fast follower.
  • All industries are being disrupted — they’re just being disrupted at different paces.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

Closing The O2O Loop For CPG

Kevin Hartman – Head of Analytics – Consumer, Government & Entertainment Sector, Google
Lack of direct consumer relationships and poor data quality have long prevented advertisers from seeing the impact of their online investments. Advances in data collection, analysis and use have begun to bring clarity to that picture, allowing for better and more informed marketing decisions. This presentation looks at the key challenges hindering the power of CPG digital measurement.

Key takeaways:

  • With growing amounts of data and concerns about privacy, tying online data with offline response remains a challenge.
  • Despite advances in data creation, collection and analysis, several internal challenges continue to cloud brands’ ability to measure business results. Three key difficulties hinder the power of measurement: tracking behaviors, attributing value, and acting on insight.
    • Tracking behaviors – Siloed organizations with their own data and disparate KPIs thwart progress towards consistent, impactful measurement.
    • Attributing model – Marketers use various attribution models (e.g. last click, first click, time decay, position-based, data-driven), each of which distributes credit differently across the conversion path. Deciding credit for conversions can be a difficult decision.
    • Acting on insights – Attribution data can provide insights that can immediately impact performance while optimizing over time. Looking at the maturity of marketing technology, however, very few companies are fully embracing the infrastructure and staffing needs to realize multi-moment. For companies that want to realize the power of digital, this is where attitude comes in.
  • Eliminating these friction points will help brands move closer to O2O, although it doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
  • By optimizing elements of ads that can be measured effectively, brands can realize much of the potential and promise of the digital platform.
    • Online video tests use real working media and randomized controlled trials. Retention curves track the number of viewers at each second of an online video, and can show when viewers drop off.
    • One finding from Google’s Unskippable Ads is that the story arc has changed. From a traditional story arc with a lead in, climax, then a big reveal, the emerging story arc starts high.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

Culture Shock: Cross-Cultural Marketing in an Omnichannel World
Amy Gómez – SVP Cross-Cultural Marketing, Geometry
Mafê Villas Bôas – VP, Strategy & Cross-Cultural Lead, Geometry

It can be a challenge to market to multicultural segments in today’s multicultural, omnichannel marketplace. This presentation offers a roadmap for integrating cultural intelligence into an omnichannel marketing plan in order to drive success with these high-growth, mobile-first populations.

Key takeaways:

  • 92% of the total growth in the US population from 2000 to 2014 came from multicultural consumers. Not only are these segments driving growth, they’re also younger, with rising incomes, and larger household sizes. If the US multicultural population were its own economy, it would be the 5th largest economy on the planet.
  • By 2060, non-Hispanic Whites – the implicit target of almost all shopper marketing initiatives — will make up just a third of Americans under the age of 18. This change requires a shift in perspective and a shift in approach.
  • These high-growth segments are fueling omnichannel growth:
    • 37% of Black Americans and 30% of Hispanics say they go online ‘almost constantly’ vs. 23% of non-Hispanic whites.
    • Hispanic online spending has grown 10% over the last two years, compared to 6% for non-Hispanic whites.
    • Asian Americans purchase 20% more online than non-Hispanic whites.
  • Shopper behaviors, whether on or offline, are bound to culture. Multicultural shoppers operate differently within key dimensions of culture: individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, time orientation, and indulgence & restraint.
    • US Hispanics are the highest indexing ethnicity for uncertainty avoidance. This cultural trait directly impacts the Hispanic purchase decision journey.
    • African Americans are less likely to be individualistic than non-Hispanic whites, but still place importance on creating a unique sense of self. Identity expression is one of the core values for African Americans – celebrating individual beauty and uniqueness, and placing importance on being seen as willing to defy convention. This helps explain why this cohort over-indexes in online video consumption and have increasing relevance as content creators.
    • Chinese Americans are the most hierarchical multicultural cohort.
  • Translations and targeted media buys are tactics, not strategies. An irrelevant message in English is still irrelevant in Mandarin or Spanish.
  • Cross-cultural insights can be used as a starting point to reach the market at large.
  • The cross cultural roadmap as developed by Geometry:
  • Cultural intelligence – What are the cultural codes guiding your shopper’s behavior?
  • Culturally optimized purchase decision journeys – How do these cultural codes influence your customer’s journey?
  • Relevant messaging – How can you capitalize on culture to make your message more relevant?
  • Touchpoint / platform development – Is the omnichannel experience provided by your brand culturally responsive?

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

Lessons From the Frontline: How to Maximize Success in Online Grocery
Richard Kelly – CEO, Adimo

Digital grocery is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors, and rife with opportunity for the brands that get it right. This presentation highlights the critical role played by convenience to shoppers and their experiences – and the $5.8tn opportunity that comes with it called The Convenience Gap.

  • The importance of convenience comes down to price vs. cost. Price is the amount of money expected, required, or given in payment for something, while cost is the effort, loss, or sacrifice necessary to achieve or obtain something.
  • In 2025, the total online CPG consumer spend is estimated at $170 billion, while total CPG consumer spend is at $6 trillion. This $5.83 trillion difference is the Convenience Gap.
  • Evolving technologies represent exciting opportunities for brands. Examples include Tesco’s shoppable station, the Bourjois Magic Mirror, and Sainsbury’s checkout free shopping.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

No video available.

Presentations

Unlocking Omnichannel Growth with Unified Marketing Effectiveness
Mike Ellgass – EVP Technology and Retail Platforms, IRI

The path to purchase is continually evolving and becoming more complex. In such an environment it’s key for brands to instill measurement of all marketing channels as part of standard business processes as consumers’ expectations around experience can make or break a conversion. What does unified measurement mean to an industry that still relies on offline conversion?

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

eCommerce and Alcohol: Unlikely Mixers or the Perfect Pairing?
Sanjiv Gajiwala – VP, Marketing, Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Kevin Sisco – Associate Director, Panel Analytics, InfoScout

With the dramatic shift to online across CPG, the alcoholic beverage category is primed to follow. How does America’s fastest growing beer brand, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, leverage omnichannel purchase data and shopper surveys to understand the key triggers and barriers to purchasing this category online, as well as the impact of Click & Collect to the alcoholic beverage shopper?

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

No More Fake Views
Jeff McDonald – SVP, North America, System1 Research

Immersive technology and behavioral science are finally helping VR achieve its shopper insight potential. By aiming to generate “moving power” and make consumer decisions easier, not distracting people with “stopping power,” we can achieve breakthrough shopper insights and boost results at shelf.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

When it comes to Building Brands, What Matters?
Linghan Wang – Senior Manager, R&D, Nielsen Catalina Solutions

Should you focus on increasing penetration, or drive return on ad spend? We’ll share a “Playbook” to help advertisers develop the right target audiences based on a major study with 50 CPG brands, five media companies and several respected industry institutions.

Presentation:
Access presentation » 

View Video:

Connecting with the Increasingly (Dis)connected Grocery Consumer
Chad Peterson – Sr. Director of eCommerce, Lowes Foods
Blake Eisler – Director Client Strategy & Solutions, Oracle Data Cloud

Today’s grocery shoppers are migrating to digital experiences for their grocery purchases faster than ever, yet food remains an extremely personal purchase. How do retailers bring their differentiated in-store experiences to their customers amidst the massive (and accelerating) shift toward digital? How do they make those important connections, appeal to the senses (and hearts), and inspire their customers? Listen to how data supports this mission to humanize the digital grocery experience, increase customer loyalty and grow their eCommerce business.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

We Measure the “Whats” With Greater Precision . . . But How Do we Connect the “Whys?”
Brian Hoffstedder – Director of Marketing & Insights, The Clorox Company
Lisa Bradner – President, OMD Midwest
Sarah Wittenborn – Executive Director, Checkout Client Engagement, The NPD Group
Moderator: Paul Donato – Chief Research Officer, ARF

How do we understand behavior drivers? What new technologies can connect first and third party data to uncover more relevant insights? Is the bifurcation between researchers and data scientists building walls or breaking down barriers to better outcomes?

View Video:

Things Change…We May Not Be in Kansas Anymore … Toto!
Ron Lunde – Principal, The Lunde Company

The technology enabled consumer method of buying is changing faster than the brand/retailer method of selling. The combination of physical and digital, “Phygital”, retail restructures a consumer’s purchase journey and disrupts the historic brand/retail/consumer business model. Decisions are rapidly shifting from an executive intuition model to a customer/ consumer information insights model. New Box Thinking is required to meet the challenge when things change.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

Today Is Here: Technology is Transforming Retail Now
Matt Kistler – EVP, Chief Strategy & Client Officer, Symphony Retail Solutions

Today’s technology is enabling growth for retailers and manufacturers, from Customer Intelligence, to Marketing and Merchandising to Supply Chain. Leading retailers and manufacturers are leveraging today’s analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive innovation, optimize programs and increase productivity. The ability to transform retail today is now.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

The Tectonic Shift: From Offline to Online Growth in European Pet Food
Stefan Sarvas – Global Senior CMI Director, Mars Wrigley Confectionery

The change in shopper behavior concerning European pet care has been dramatic. The rise of online shopping shifted growth to non-measured channels as well as category premiumization. The pace of change was underestimated and the question now is not whether but when and how fast are online sales picking up.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

View Video:

Bring TV Below the Line
Andrew Kasprzycki – VP, Global Business Solutions of Brands, LiveRamp

For decades, TV has been treated solely as a vehicle for brand awareness. With advanced TV, however, TV advertising can move down the funnel and help CPG brands especially, align TV advertising with below-the-line tactics.

Presentation:
Access presentation »

No video available.

PANEL: What Will a Frictionless Future Look Like?

Renee Entinghe – Head of Shopper Insights, Nestlé
Chad Maxwell – EVP, Product & Growth, Kelly Scott Madison
Brad Piggott – SVP, Revenue, North America, Cuebiq
Moderator: Amy Sizemore – President, Client Partner, Ipsos

What barriers do brands face? What new technologies help or hinder progress?

A Research-Driven Planning Framework for CPG Advertisers on Facebook
Lisa Barnes – Marketing Science Partner, Facebook

What makes for good creative on Facebook? How should you think about tradeoffs between reach and frequency? All of the latest research from across the globe has gone into developing a planning framework and best practices for CPG advertisers to drive business impact on Facebook.

Presentation and video are not available.

Improving Shopper Picks Across Brick & Clicks
Jeff Admiraal – Associate Director, P&G Shopper Analytics & Insights, Procter & Gamble

Center Store Non-Food (CSNF) grocery categories have historically had some of the lowest closure rates, but the omnichannel environment presents new opportunities. P&G is enabling grocery retailers to better meet the needs of omnichannel shoppers to drive online (and offline) conversion.

Presentation and video are not available.