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CPG/FMCG

Today’s Shopping Landscape: Strategies for the Changing Consumer Journey

  • SHOPPER 2023

At ARF SHOPPER 2023, which took place in Chicago and virtually on March 9, the industry’s leading marketers and retailers came together to explore the latest research-based consumer insights, and how they are using this data to understand today’s shoppers, build innovative experiences and brand loyalty. Attendees learned about consumer behavioral shifts, how retail media networks are gaining traction in digital marketing strategies, and the latest shopping trends.

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Advertising During Times of Economic Stress

Throughout 2022, ARF members asked the Knowledge Center most frequently about advertising and marketing best practices in periods of recession and/or inflation. New insights on this topic come from the “Brands 2020” project by the ARF.

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What Brands Did in 2020

  • INSIGHTS STUDIOS

In this presentation, Paul Donato, CRO of the ARF, covered findings from the seminal year of the “What Brands Did in 2020” (Brands 2020) project. This project will go on for at least the next two years or until the effects of 2020 are no longer felt. ARF researchers in the Brands 2020 study used IRI and NCS data, Kantar Ad Insights, NCS sales and Nielsen Ad Intel data, between 2017 and 2021. The IRI data was a very deep dive but across three categories: salty snacks, pasta sauce and personal care products. The NCS data was shallower but across 10 broad categories. Using all these data, ARF researchers looked at share of media, media spend and share of market before and after March 2020 (Covid) and before and after March of 2021 (start of inflation).

Several previous studies agree that decreasing advertising during a recession can hurt sales during and after the period of economic contraction, whereas increasing advertising can increase sales, market share and earnings. An IPA study from the UK during the 2008 recession found that those that “went dark” tended to lose excess share of voice, the impact of which could take five years to recover. This UK study also showed a linear relationship between both ROI and an uplift in revenue as a function of advertising during a recession. The Brands 2020 study found more nuanced findings.

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Evidence-Based Research for Effective Marketing

On November 9, 2022, industry leaders joined us to share highlights from EffWorks Global 2022 — a week-long celebration of the best new thinking and evidence-based decision-making research for marketing effectiveness. Topics of discussion included: marketing in the post-Covid economy, effective advertising in unprecedented times, the value of Share of Voice/Share of Attention/Share of Search in terms of effectiveness and commercial decision making, and more.

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Taste-testing the Brand Premium

Even in instances where consumers face lots of options, they routinely pay a premium for national brands over private labels, research shows. This is true even when they believe that the quality of a private label is comparable. However, one thing that can shift consumer preferences toward private label brands is blind taste tests—at least in the short-term.

FORECASTING 2022: How Can Scenario Planning Improve Agility in Adjusting to Change?

On July 12, 2022, forecasting, and product experts shared frameworks and strategies for participants to consider as they plan amid disruptions in the industry. Presenters discussed techniques marketers could use to drive consumer action and advocacy — as well as econometric models for search trends, insights on holistic analytics programs, reflections on gold standard probability methods — and new forecasting techniques in the wake of the pandemic and more.

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  • Article

Privacy Safe Approach to Ecommerce Audience Quality Measurement

A multi-billion dollar pet food manufacturer analyzed its audience targeting strategy with the goal of ensuring efficient online ad spending, according to Souptik Datta and Zulema Doiny-Cabre of GroupM. The analysis with GroupM evaluated the performance of existing audience segments, pinpointed profiles of high-performing audience segments for additional opportunities and determined the optimal ad impression frequency.

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