IRI

Blog: Repeat After Me: Keep the Core, Appeal to More

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:22:40 -0500

It’s a typical Saturday morning; after your golf game, run or workout, you walk into the local convenience store for a coffee, soda or treat that you’ve just earned. Sounds pretty good, right? Millions of us would agree. In fact, the convenience channel grew both in terms of dollar and unit sales in 2012. And, the number of stores continues to grow, from 144,541 in 2010, to 149,220 this year. Convenience store owners, however, had better look over their shoulders. Drug and dollar stores have seen the rosy convenience store numbers and want a piece of the action. Walgreens is introducing flagship stores that offer many of the same prepared foods as convenience. They reintroduced beer in 2010 and are now offering private label beer, reversing an approximately 15-year-old ban. Not to be outdone, Dollar General has added beer to the shelves and Family Dollar is testing beer sales. Family Dollar has also entered the tobacco business, rolling out four-foot tobacco stands in 6,000 stores by the end of last year. IRI’s latest Times & Trends, “Convenience Stores: Keep the Core; Appeal to More,” sheds additional light on this recent form of channel blurring. When analyzing convenience store growth by zip code, in areas with no drug or dollar store presence, convenience channel same store sales grew 3.5 percent in 2012. In zip codes that have both drug and dollar store presence, same-store sales increased an anemic 0.7 percent. The trends are clear, but how should convenience store owners fight back? IRI recommends two strategies: keep the core, appeal to more. To keep the core, convenience store marketers should develop value offerings across key categories, especially in markets where tobacco tax increases have the potential to stifle sales. They should aggressively utilize outdoor advertising as a hook to encourage in-store visits by emphasizing their value proposition across key categories and brands. Convenience store marketers might also compete based on selection and by creating unique offerings, such as beer caves, as other channels enter traditional convenience categories. To appeal to more, convenience store marketers should tap into the current surge in health and wellness, tailored to the needs of core shoppers within each and every market. They should focus on identifying enhanced offerings, such as packaged beverages with combinations of other popular products. Lastly, convenience store marketers should identify and satisfy existing and emerging wants of key shoppers, whether it is ready-to-drink protein beverages or a wide assortment of smoking alternatives Still looking for more information? Check out the Times & Trends report, and the webinar IRI hosted earlier this week. Are you a convenience store marketer looking over your shoulder, or have you adjusted your strategies and now enjoying accelerated growth? Either way, we’d like to hear your point of view.

Webinar Replay: Convenience Stores

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:43:19 -0500

For convenience retailers as well as manufacturers distributing via this channel, this webinar imparts guidance on how to compete in this evolving environment with strategies that will deliver ongoing growth for convenience channel banners, categories and brands. - See more at: http://www.iriworldwide.com/Insights.aspx#sthash.YuNvNwhv.dpuf

Retail Industry News Week of 6/14/13

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:25:53 -0500

Amazon's Fresh Rollout In LA Provides Prime Advantages Sansolo Speaks: Losing That Marketing Magic Costco Gets Out Of The Self-Service Checkout Business Safeway Sells Canadian Business To Sobeys For $5.8 Billion FastNewsBeat Executive Suite - See more at: http://www.iriworldwide.com/Insights.aspx#sthash.8iaBpN0c.dpuf

Blog: Marketing Strategies to Engage the Hispanic Consumer

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:46:27 -0500

In our previous blog, we posed the questions: “What is the best way to reach the Hispanic consumer via marketing, and should there be a different marketing strategy for U.S. born vs. foreign born Hispanics?” Let’s answer these questions by breaking them into two parts: what kinds of media and which language works best? Hispanic media investment was strong in 2011. Hispanic TV spend increased 8.3%, Hispanic magazine spend increased 25%, and Hispanic newspapers spend increased 2% as compared to 2010, according to a recent report from Kantar Media. Even though Hispanic ad spending is growing, still nearly 50% of U.S. brands don’t include Hispanics in their marketing mix, and Hispanic advertising spending accounts for only 5% of total ad spend—not even close to fair share when Hispanics comprise 16 % of the U.S. population and 9.5% of buying power. While all media tactics play a role, online advertising is becoming increasingly important as part of the marketing mix, not only in the general market but also and especially when targeting Hispanics. Latinos over-index on smartphone and tablet use with 20% of Hispanics using them as primary devices to access the Internet. With 50% of Hispanics being under the age of 27, a focus on digital advertising as part of Hispanic marketing mix is essential. Moreover, Hispanic acceptance of online advertising is higher than in the general market. According to Terra’s 2012 Hispanic Digital Consumer Study by comScore, Hispanics spend less time watching TV and more time online as compared to non-Hispanics. Hispanics spend 8.7 hours per week online versus 8.3 hours per week watching TV, while it’s reverse for non-Hispanics (10.9 hours versus 8.3 hours per week). They are also more engaged with online advertising than non-Hispanics and are more likely to remember brands and make a purchase after seeing Internet ads. Online advertising needs to be viewed in a broader sense and go beyond banner ads, digital coupons, paid search and broadband videos. Digital can be also incorporated in any type of traditional media, such as radio, print and TV, as they are consumed increasingly online. This brings us to the next question: Is Spanish language the best way to communicate with today’s Hispanic consumer? Since most of the growth in Hispanic population is fueled by U.S.-born bilinguals, who increasingly prefer English, it is only logical to question the necessity of advertising in Spanish and targeting Hispanic consumers differently from the general market. However, research shows that Spanish media consumption does not decrease with an increase of English language among Latinos. As Hispanics are increasingly becoming acculturated, advertising needs to include not only Spanish-language media, which is still very important, but also “Hispanic media” that is not necessarily in Spanish but features Hispanic cultural content. While language as a means of reaching Hispanic target audience is still relevant, it is more important to reach Hispanic consumers on a cultural level. Culturally relevant content is more easily available in Spanish-language media, but as English-language usage keeps increasing, companies need to find ways to appeal to Hispanics at a cultural level in English. As mentioned in our previous blog post on the topic, Hispanic networks, such as Univision and Telemundo, are now partnering with English language broadcast networks, such as ABC and NBC, to create English language programming that is culturally relevant to Hispanics. At the same time, English-language channels are incorporating Hispanic content increasingly and actors into their shows, trying to appeal to Hispanic consumer. Gradually, English language, general market and Hispanic advertising are starting to converge as Hispanics continue to grow their share of the total population. What is the key to winning the attention of the Hispanic community and as well as their buying power? The answer is simple: reaching them effectively with campaigns that reflect the wide variety of Hispanic consumers, their cultural values, levels of acculturation and communication preferences. The brands that are willing to do the work of deeply understanding these factors are the ones that will win in this vast new marketplace. Please leave us a comment to let us know how your company is marketing to Hispanic consumers and the results you are seeing in purchasing behavior.

Blog: The Booming U.S. Hispanic Population: 50 Million Trendsetting Consumers and Counting

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:07:26 -0500

By Roger Pier, Jennie Siegrist and Tatiana Kosheleva According to Census 2010, the Hispanic population reached 50.5 million, a whopping 43% increase over the last decade, and this segment is expected to continue by 10% per year. In 2011, Hispanic consumer spending was over $593 billion, which is higher than the GDP of many countries and represents 4% of the U.S. GDP and almost 1% of the world’s GDP. The buying power of U.S. Hispanics as a group was valued at $1.1 trillion in 2011, which is 9.5% of U.S. total, and is expected to increase to $1.5 trillion by 2015. These statistics are staggering. The Hispanic population is quickly evolving into a highly influential and trend-setting force with the power to drive business of all kinds. As the Hispanic population continues to boom, there is a critical need for brand marketers to understand the Hispanic consumer and determine the best ways to communicate with them through marketing. A Portrait of a Hispanic Consumer: Culture, Language and Values Almost two-thirds of Hispanic population growth is due to Hispanics born in the United States as opposed to Hispanics, who migrated from other countries. Thus, the second and third generations of English-speaking U.S. Hispanics are growing at a faster clip, which is also reflected in the higher share of younger Hispanics overall. This demographic is where the massive purchasing power of this group lies. This reality is underscored by a major new joint venture between Univision and ABC. In the second half of 2013 they will launch Fusion, a news and lifestyle network for English-speaking Hispanics. The reporting and entertainment will resonate with the likes and values of the Hispanic community and will be an opportunity for advertisers to deliver content that engages and connects culturally with the vibrant Hispanic consumer segment. U.S.-born Hispanics are certainly more acculturated than non-U.S. born Hispanics, but they are not “Americanized.” Many still value their Hispanic heritage and continue to watch Spanish-language channels and listen to Spanish-language radio, but they are also fluent in the English language. A majority of Hispanics (60%) are bilingual to some degree, but 75% of Hispanics still speak Spanish at home with their parents and grandparents. Moreover, in some cases retro-acculturation is happening as many Hispanics aged 21-43 are trying to connect with their roots and find a sense of identity. So, given their language and cultural values, what are the best ways to reach the Hispanic consumer via marketing and should there be a different marketing strategy for U.S. born vs. foreign born Hispanics? Check out our next blog that details the media tactics that are best suited to Hispanic consumers as well as looks at the effectiveness of using Spanish versus English language in marketing campaigns.

Press Release: IRI’s Daniel Grubbs to Provide New Insights on Retailer Successes at Private Label Buyer 360 Conference

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:49:10 -0500

WHO: Daniel Grubbs, Principal, IRI Consulting WHAT: In his presentation, “Insight Track: Finding Retailer Success in Private Label Price-Tier Structures,” Grubbs will provide insight on the general store brand landscape today, including an overview of recent successful store brand strategies and evolving consumer perceptions of store brands. He will also delve into current price-tier strategies practiced by retailers, with details on the impact of these price-tier strategies in driving category sales. In addition, he will offer opinions on which price-tier strategies are working most effectively and what information decision makers should consider moving forward as they adjust their pricing strategies. WHY: The Private Label Buyer 360 Conference is specifically designed to answer the burning questions retailers have as they drive new programs in their organizations. Private Label Buyer 360 delivers the necessary actionable strategies for success as retailers aspire to gain competitive advantage over their contenders. Furthermore, as retailers aggressively seek targeted private label programs, this retailer-focused conference boasts a prestigious speaker agenda with backgrounds in many leading private label companies. WHEN: Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 3:20-4:00 p.m. CT WHERE: 2013 Private Label Buyer Conference Intercontinental Chicago O’Hare 5300 North River Road Rosemont, IL http://www.plbuyerconference.com/ About Private Label Buyer The 2013 Private Label Buyer Conference is hosted by PLBuyer, the number-one media brand serving the private label industry. Each issue of PLBuyer delivers the business critical information consistently requested by retail professionals: new product information, industry data and analysis of key trends, strategic & tactical insights, industry perspectives, operational best practices, and in-store real-life success stories. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. -###- Contacts: Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675 John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: + 1 (312) 474-3862

Blog: IRI and SPINS Offer New Insights on Fast-Growing Natural/Organic Industry

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:48:36 -0500

With the U.S. obesity epidemic grabbing constant media attention, it can be easy to forget that many Americans are actually becoming more health conscious. Maybe it’s that all the obesity coverage is helping educate consumers on the importance of a healthy diet. Maybe it’s the increasing availability of healthier products (22 percent of IRI’s 2012 New Product Pacesetters offer healthier-for-you benefits). Whatever the reason, 64 percent of consumers are eating healthier today and the natural products industry is experiencing enormous growth. Nearly every U.S. household purchased natural products in the past year. More than two-thirds of households are buying organic products. The natural products market topped $80 billion in 2012, and is experiencing double-digit, year-over-year growth. But, in order to sustain this impressive growth, natural products retailers and manufacturers need to know as much as possible about the natural consumer. To help accelerate the natural and organic products industry’s growth, we recently announced a partnership with SPINS LLC, the leading provider of information and insights surrounding the natural and specialty products industry. The partnership bolsters IRI’s Consumer Network™ household panel by integrating SPINS’ unique natural/organic food segmentation data to create a new natural/organic segmentation capability. In partnering with SPINS, we’ve significantly expanded our knowledge of the natural/organic sector and can give our clients a more holistic view of both the natural/organic products industry and the overall health and wellness sector. With IRI and SPINS’ combined data, CPG manufacturers and retailers can gain a fully integrated view of how consumers think about, shop for and actually buy natural products. Together with SPINS, we’ve created a comprehensive view of consumers in the rapidly growing natural/organic sector. We now offer specific segmentation data and insight into this unique population, allowing manufacturers and retailers to more effectively identify, understand and market to the consumers who purchases natural and organic products. This powerful segmentation also enables marketers to better craft and execute plans for natural product distribution, marketing, trade spending and product development. Please see our recent press release for full details on the partnership, and leave us a comment to let us know how your company is taking advantage of the natural/organic industry’s enormous growth!

Press Release: New IRI Report Examines the Convenience Store Channel

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:31:51 -0500

Convenience Channel Experiencing Above-Average Growth, Supported by Increasing Store Count and Business Model that Addresses Consumers’ On-the-Go Lifestyles CHICAGO – June 11, 2013 – The convenience store channel has long been a destination for immediate consumption purchases. However, the channel is undergoing a bit of a metamorphosis these days. Competition is heating up as convenience stores are pitted against other channels, particularly dollar and drug channels, for share of spending. In addition, two major sources of revenue and trip behavior for convenience stores, gasoline and cigarettes, are facing their own challenges with high prices, increased taxes, and, for cigarettes, changes in consumers’ lifestyles. Information Resources, Inc.’s (IRI) latest Times & Trends report, “Convenience Stores: Keep the Core; Appeal to More,” investigates how convenience stores can tackle the challenges of today’s economic and shopping environments to find sustainable growth beyond fuel and cigarette sectors. Today, there are more than 149,000 convenience stores in operation. About two-thirds of those stores are independently owned, and the remaining are chain store operations. While convenience stores of the past had a rather homogeneous look and feel, today’s stores are much more varied. Furthermore, some convenience store owners are replacing long aisles with kiosks, experimenting with larger footprints and adding “good-for-you” products next to the candy bars. Shoppers have rewarded convenience store management for these innovations. When compared to grocery and drug stores, convenience stores were the only channel that enjoyed both dollar and unit sales growth in 2012. “Despite new innovations, the convenience channel faces several challenges,” says Kelley Vacca, principal, Client Insights, IRI. “Many convenience stores sell gasoline, so sales are somewhat tied to gas prices. Even though these prices have been stable during the last year, they are still high and impacting shoppers’ wallets, particularly those of young shoppers, which are a key target for convenience store marketers. In addition, convenience store sales are concentrated in a relatively small number of categories, with three of the top six categories tobacco related.” Where There is Smoke, There is Profit…for now Cigarette sales generated more than $52 billion in sales with the convenience store channel in 2012. In fact, cigarettes are, by far, the largest category within the channel. They are also a key driver of trip missions, with 150 store trips per day driven by cigarette purchases in 2012. While this is a huge number and cigarette dollar sales have climbed during the last several years, volume sales are down sharply. The U.S. smoking rate has declined by 50 percent since 1965, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This decline is the culmination of several factors, including increasing taxes, health concerns and the innovation of new smoking alternatives. Smokeless tobacco, for instance, has experienced strong growth across consumer packaged goods (CPG) channels in recent years. In 2012, smokeless tobacco unit sales climbed 2.7 percent across IRI’s multi-outlet plus convenience geography. Electronic cigarettes also are demonstrating strong momentum. Fueling Up Strains Wallets According to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report, the average national gas price for the first three months of 2013 was $3.64, an increase of nearly 9 percent versus 2011, and is on par with 2012. This increase is having a negative impact on consumers’ wallets, with 44 percent of Americans feeling additional budgetary strain due to gas prices. And, among some segments, such as the millennial population, even more consumers (56 percent) are feeling the pinch. In contrast, the proximity of convenience stores is a benefit in times of high gas prices. For instance, 10 percent of consumers state that they shop convenience stores more frequently in the presence of high gas prices due to their convenient locations. Among millennial shoppers, 24 percent have stepped up convenience channel shopping frequency to save money on gas. Growth in the Aisles Performance across the top 10 largest convenience store categories was a mixed bag in 2012, with four of these categories outperforming industry average unit sales growth rates. The strongest performers were tobacco and beverage categories. By far, the strongest growth came from energy drinks, with double-digit growth in both unit and dollar sales in 2012 at 56.4 percent for each, respectively. The sharpest decline among the top 10 convenience store categories was in the bottled water category. This category has struggled during the past several years in the face of consumer efforts to rein in spending. From 2008-2012, bottled water unit sales slipped 3.1 percent despite beefed-up promotional efforts and associated price deflation. The convenience channel’s focus on quick and easy, often immediate consumption and indulgent, products is clearly illustrated in the channel’s 10 top-selling categories, many of which are beverages. For example, weight control/nutrition liquids/powders is a category that has experienced excellent growth in recent years. The convenience store channel is capitalizing on opportunities in this area by broadening the availability of these products. In fact, total points of distribution in this category within the channel increased by nearly 78 percent since 2008. Of course, there are declines in some categories as well. Overall, unit sales declined in 22 percent of the top 50 convenience store categories between 2008 and 2012. This includes three of the channel’s top-selling products: cigarettes, carbonated beverages and bottled water. Nearly all of the sliding categories experienced average price per volume increases during the same time period. Opportunity Knocks Despite the challenges of the convenience channel, IRI has uncovered the following growth opportunities: Electronic Cigarettes: This product has enjoyed explosive growth since bursting on the scene in 2009, and the convenience channel accounted for two-thirds of the category’s sales in 2012. Channel growth of electronic cigarettes escalated in 2013, bolstered by deflationary pricing trends. The continuation of favorable pricing-related trends is key to retailers that seek to ride the wave of growth in this up-and-coming category. Health and Wellness: With two-thirds of consumers indicting that they are trying to eat healthier, convenience store marketers have a great opportunity to help consumers strike a balance between wellness and indulgence in their lives. Even in traditionally indulgent categories, such as salty snacks and cookie and bakery snacks, healthier options are available and are being well received. Convenience store marketers must develop consumer-centric, 360-degree health and wellness programs. Foodservice: Although many consumers are already buyers of convenience channel foodservice offerings, the desire for better quality offerings is high. This may include customizable and freshly made options, or selections provided by local and/or well-known restaurants. Outdoor Advertising: Since many consumers pay at the pump at convenience stores, outdoor advertising is key to luring shoppers inside the stores. In fact, product growth rate is twice as high with outdoor causal advertising compared to doing no advertising. “To be successful in today’s marketplace, convenience stores need to keep the core and invest to develop value offerings across key categories, particularly in markets where tax increases threaten to impact tobacco users’ wallets,” says Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, IRI. “They also need to utilize outdoor advertising as an in-store visit hook by emphasizing value, particularly during periods of high/rising gas prices. To keep the momentum going, convenience stores simply need to appeal to more. A great first step in this appeal is to develop a comprehensive health and wellness strategy targeted to the needs and wants of core shoppers.” IRI Times & Trends Webinar IRI is offering a free webinar, “Convenience Stores: Keep the Core; Appeal to More,” at 12 p.m. CT on June 18. To register for this webinar, hosted by Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, visit: http://www.iriworldwide.com/NewsEvents/EventsWebinars/TimesTrendsConvenienceStores.aspx. About the Report This month’s Times & Trends, “Convenience Stores: Keep the Core; Appeal to More,” is a free report available from IRI. The findings of this report were compiled based on information from IRI AllScan™ Convenience Service, IRI Sales Advantage™, IRI Market Advantage™ and IRI ShopperSights™. To download the report, visit: http://www.iriworldwide.com/Insights/Publications/TimesTrends.aspx. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675 John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: + 1 (312) 474-3862

Retail Industry News Week of 6/7/13

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:42:09 -0500

Whole Foods Raises The Roof With New Farm/Garden
Sansolo Speaks: A Sharp Eye for Business Advantages
Walmart Looks To Produce Fresher Results
Amazon Fresh May Serve L.A. As Early As This Week
Whole Foods Repositioning Begins Today, In Detroit
Now That Amazon Fresh Has Said Hello To Hollywood, What's Next?
Walgreen Builds Net Zero Energy Prototype Near Chicago
FastNewsBeat
The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
Executive Suite

Press Release: IRI and Campbell® Soup to Discuss ROI Measurement of Cross-Platform Advertising Strategies at ARF Audience Measurement 8.0 Conference

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:30:43 -0500

WHO: Joy Joseph, Principal and Practice Leader, Marketing Productivity, IRI Joe Sakach, Director, Consumer & Customer Insights, Campbell Soup Company WHAT: In their presentation, “Measuring the ROI of Cross-Platform Advertising Strategies,” IRI’s Joy Joseph and Campbell® Soup’s Joe Sakach will discuss measurement strategies to maximize audience engagement and consumer conversion with cross-platform advertising. WHY: Cross-platform targeting is rapidly becoming a standard advertising strategy, but the method does not guarantee synergy and often presents measurement challenges. Campbell’s and IRI will discuss how Campbell’s advertising across multiple media platforms impact audience engagement and in-store purchase behavior. IRI leveraged a cross-platform conversion model, which analyzed three large sets of household panel data: online behavior, offline behavior and purchase behavior. After weaving these components together, IRI identified specific marketing tactics that can most effectively target key consumer segments and drive trial and loyalty. WHEN: Monday, June 10, 2013, 2:45–3:15 p.m. EDT WHERE: ARF Audience Measurement 8.0 Conference New York Marriott Marquis 1535 Broadway New York, NY 10036 http://www.thearf.org/am-8.php About the ARF: Founded in 1936 by the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the ARF is dedicated to aggregating, creating and distributing research-based knowledge that will help members make better advertising decisions. ARF members include more than 400 advertisers, advertising agencies, associations, research firms, and media companies. The ARF is the only organization that brings all members of the industry to the same table for strategic collaboration. The ARF is celebrating its 76th year as the industry's authoritative source of advertising knowledge. For more information, visit www.thearf.org. About IRI: IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. -###- Contacts: Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675 John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: + 1 (312) 474-3862

Blog: Data Visualization: Especially Powerful for Digital Consumer Behaviors

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:19:44 -0500

In my previous blog, I wrote of how data visualization can transform processes throughout the analytics project lifecycle. From data collection and quality checking to pattern detection, model verification and insights recording, visualizing data can drive discoveries and efficiency gains. Consumer packaged goods marketers are finding data visualization increasingly valuable when tracking consumer prospects and shoppers in the E-commerce space. Consider information streams like website behaviors, search and display campaigns, mobile activity and social media. Recent advances in leveraging cookies to match consumers across data sets have opened up new analytics areas like multi-touchpoint attribution. Furthermore, even though social media conversations are unstructured free text, there are methods of providing categorical structure (see my April 2009 article Medical Marketing & Media) as well as improved linguistic data mining. With these developments, data visualization is a critical ingredient for developing insights. We proceed now to several business questions and associated specialized essential graphics: 1. What are the paths to the online consumer purchase? Research from ClearSaleing shows that on average a consumer touches 3.8 digital touch points before making an E-commerce purchase, and new techniques can help assign sequences and relative weights associated with a sale. On the visualization side, parallel visual coordinates are great for detecting patterns quickly to look for the widest bands of trends for paths ending in a purchase. In the Spotfire figure below, which is color coded by purchase type, one sees that the base product has high email on website, while the new sweet flavored product has particularly high weighting on email. Within websites in particular, path sequence visualization shows not only weighting but the most common sequences of consecutive page views that lead to goals like purchases or downloading coupons. Once a research exercise requiring advanced software, website path visualization is now standard in Google Analytics, as shown below. 2. Who are the influential consumers in social communities? Network graphs are ideal for quickly discovering the size and strength of conversations about your topics. Extracts from a social listening tool can be put into a visualizer that displays nodes for each conversant and links for the interactions they have; colors provide website categories, conversation topics, or participant roles. The example below, from Hewlett Packard research, shows two communities within a topic each with their hub leaders, with cross-communication. Typically a drill down by selecting links or graph regions produces the conversation transcripts. 3. What are social media communities saying about my brand? Visual word clouds pack a series of linguistic-based answers to this question, as well as a navigational dashboard to reading the online posts. The soft drink analysis word cloud below provides “sentiment” phrases and terms used by consumers – green are positive, red negative, and size connotes frequency. Positioning of the terms nearby each other is associated with usage together in the same message. Selecting a term leads to posts, often further categorized by online domain. In summary, insightful answers to seemingly daunting e-commerce business questions can be dramatically simplified with appropriate data visualizations. These go beyond just bar charts and line graphs to advanced networking, path analyses and linguistic-based displays.

Times & Trends: Convenience Stores Webinar

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 13:04:05 -0500

TIMES & TRENDS: CONVENIENCE STORES Keep the Core; Appeal to More There’s a quiet revolution underway as convenience stores undergo new, shopper-friendly innovations. These are paying off in a big way—when compared to grocery and drug stores, the convenience channel was the only channel that enjoyed both dollar sales and unit growth in 2012. For convenience retailers as well as manufacturers distributing via this channel, this webinar will impart guidance on how to compete in this evolving environment with strategies that will deliver ongoing growth for convenience channel banners, categories and brands. Attendees will learn: Current and emerging challenges and opportunities within the convenience store marketplace Growth trends across key categories and departments Top future growth drivers in terms of categories, services, and marketing activity Host: Susan Viamari, Editor of Times & Trends, IRI Date: Tuesday, June 18th Time: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. PT; 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. CT; 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET

Times and Trends: Convenience Stores - Keep the Core; Appeal to More

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 11:57:20 -0500

This report provides insights into current and emerging challenges and opportunities within the convenience store marketplace and imparts guidance on how to compete in this evolving environment with strategies that will deliver ongoing growth for convenience store banners, categories and brands.

Blog: Social Media: Planning for Real Time in Consumer Package Goods

Mon, 3 Jun 2013 15:57:17 -0500

Recently, I had the privilege of moderating the CPG panel during the IAB Social Media Agency Day. The title of the event was a bit paradoxical; “Social: Planning for Real Time”, but given that marketers are dedicating more and more of their budgets toward social media, they are increasingly leaning on their agency partners to do something that they haven’t traditionally been asked to do, namely plan for the unexpected. The recent “poster child” for a brand that did this successfully is, of course, Oreos during Super Bowl XLVII (which was jokingly referred to during the event as “Lord Voldemort” i.e. the campaign which shall not be named—precisely because everyone has been talking about it.) Organized by the IAB’s Social Media Committee, this event discussed real time social media planning by different verticals: CPG, Travel, Auto and Sports. “By featuring different categories, we were able to show a great range of real time social media examples”, said IAB committee liaison, Susan Borst, adding, “You don’t have to be a Super Bowl advertiser to have real time social media impact.” With me on the panel were three social media notables: Emily Culp, Director, Social Strategy & Emerging Platforms, Unilever Dina Freeman, Senior Manager., Social Programming & Blog Editor, BabyCenter (a division of Johnson & Johnson) Greg Goodfried, President and Co-Founder, EQAL Media (a division of Everyday Health) Our conversation ranged from the Oscars to the tragedy in Newtown and highlighted key insights that CPG/Food brands and their agencies need to keep in mind as they strive to engage with consumers in ways that are both meaningful to them—after all, they wield the power today, don’t they?—and true to the brand promise. Phil Ripperger: What does real time mean to you and how does social media fit into the equation? Emily Culp: Humans are real time, and brands need to be more and more humanized (by the very humans who create them!). This doesn’t mean jumping up in every possible moment. It means, just like a human, that brands should add value in relevant moments. What is a relevant moment? How do you know as a human? You can feel it. Brands need to be listening, asking questions, and engaging with their consumers in a way that adds value and allows them to feel when topical content or value is right. As marketers, we go to school to learn classical marketing (5Ps) and then spend the weekend acting as a consumer might. Those two things need to come together, with the rise of mobile. Getting out of campaign mindsets and living and breathing each day is the real value of real time. How do we do that? It means we need a team full of smart, innovative, pioneering marketing minds and the support of legal, comms, and the executives to support something that might not feel quite as comfortable but will resonate with our consumers & sell more units. Dina Freeman: At BabyCenter, being prepared for real time means more than pushing stuff out during big events like the Oscars or Super Bowl. Every day, moms in the BabyCenter Community are talking to other moms with similar due dates or children who are the same age, asking for advice and product recommendations. Our Talk Tracker tool can pinpoint when these conversations are happening down to the exact week of pregnancy or a child’s life. This represents an enormous opportunity for brands who want to reach moms at the exact time that they are making decisions about that product or service. That’s as real time as it gets. GG: Real time is creating and distributing content that is consumed right at that moment about topics that are relevant to a specific time period. Examples – talking about the Oscars DURING the TV broadcast or covering fashion week in NY as it’s happening. The content loses its relevance after a very short period of time. Social is the absolute perfect place to distribute real time content. People are checking it all times, it is interactive, it is short form, and it is highly mobile. PR: Why is it important that we’re talking about it and what are some examples of how it’s being done right? DF: When we dissect new trends until we’re all sick of hearing about them, we move the industry forward. As much as people are tired of hearing about the OREO moment, it was monumental in bringing real time social to the surface. It forced brands to pay attention and create a strategy. One important question for brands to ask is when shouldn’t we be engaging in real time social? When national tragedies hit, like the Boston Marathon bombing or Newtown, it’s wise for brands to immediately take the temperature of their fans and be prepared to remove all posts in all social networks if necessary. We learned this during the Newtown tragedy back in December. When the news hit, we were in shock along with the rest of the nation. While grappling with the senselessness, we forgot to pull our pre-programmed posts, including a celebrity-focused Facebook post that was not right for that moment. Our moms instantly let us know that this was not appropriate and we agreed with them apologizing for the oversight. We then decided to pull all posts for a couple of days because, frankly, nothing seemed right to us either. All of that to say, it’s as important to be prepared and have a checklist for those real time moments when silence is golden. GG: Because real time / social content is driving consumption on mobile and everyone has smart phones and are using them as content consumption devices on top of communication devices. Brands that take advantage of real world events are doing it well – obviously Oreo cookies but brands like Burberry do an amazing job covering fashion week (both their own brands and other brands) and L’Oreal does a good job having events during the Golden Globes and Grammys. EC: Social moves units. It gives us context for consumers. It drives them to specific retail locations. And more than anything, it builds a deeper relationship with a brand they actually want to talk to. At Unilever, we want the best idea to win and fast. So that means we can’t just rely on marketing models with historic data & react solely to that. We’re passionate about our consumers, bringing them closer to us and making the brand a part of their lives is far more interesting. This is about pre-work, it’s about having your entire team and your agencies working together before that real time moment (whether it’s the Super Bowl or a Monday afternoon that matters in your community). Just as we used to plan ahead for crisis, we should plan ahead for positive moments where a brand can add value. PR: Now to put my market researchers hat on and ask my favorite question about social media: How do you know if it’s successful—how do you measure it? GG: If lots of people are consuming the content. If the content is being syndicated on Twitter by both the brand’s account and on tons of influencer accounts, it will be viewed by lots of people. An even better testament is the engagement. If people start sharing and commenting on the content it is even better. Measuring hard metrics like Post views on Facebook, retweets on Twitter, pins on Pinterest etc. are a good start. EC: We played with content during the Grammys to understand what we would do during the Oscars on Dove. This is about testing and learning. What matters is that our engagement numbers on those pieces of content go up compared to a normal day. D.F.: Measurement really depends on the platform, but overall, we measure success by the level of engagement. We look at Social Actions, which is any action taken on a post regardless of platform. Comments, likes, shares, photo views, photo submissions, pins/repins, clicks … the list goes on and on. Our clients are also interested in Social Impressions, or the number of times a post is displayed on Facebook and Twitter.

Retail Industry News Week of 5/31/13

Mon, 3 Jun 2013 12:44:54 -0500

Amazon Launches Men's Cosmetics Store Bi-Lo To Acquire Sweetbay, Harveys, Reid's From Delhaize Where Simple Is The New Super FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Retail Industry News Week of 5/17/13

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:55:42 -0500

As CEO Burd Departs, Safeway Is A Different Company Kroger Contemplates Urban Options Green Zebra Identifies Three Portland-Area Locations Starbucks Invests In Improving Food Profile Sansolo Speaks: A Cool Approach to Management Fast, Forward, And Furious Food Lion Celebrates Significant Improvements To Stores In Five States Kroger CFO Offers Glimpse Of Future Plans Walmart Buys Tech Startups As Part Of Its E-commerce Strategy FastNewsBeat Executive Suite

Blog: Ranking the Top-Performing CPG Companies

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:41:34 -0500

Most studies measure brands’ success using a single metric, or perhaps a combination of two, such as dollar and volume sales. But that’s only a fraction of the whole picture. To gain a more complete view, we collaborated with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to rank the top-performing companies in the U.S. CPG industry based on a combination of three metrics—dollar sales growth, volume sales growth and market share gains. Using comprehensive retail- and consumer-market tracking data, we analyzed the 2012 performance of more than 400 public and private CPG manufacturers with annual U.S. revenues of at least $100 million. We generated three distinct top-ten lists of winning companies: large (more than $5 billion in retail sales), midsize ($1 billion to $5 billion in retail sales) and small ($100 million to $1 billion in retail sales). One primary takeaway from the report is there are various paths for growth. Some companies effectively manage innovation, others effectively manage pricing. So which companies took home the top honors? Among large companies, the top three performers were Lorillard, the Hershey Company, and Anheuser-Busch InBev. The top-performing midsize companies were Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., Chobani, and Starbucks, while the top-three small company spots went to TalkingRain, Idahoan, and Handi-foil. The road to success is different for each company, but several trends are stimulating growth for CPG manufacturers. Here are few of the insights we gleaned: Small and midsize companies are increasingly taking market share from large competitors. All top-ten small and midsize companies gained market share in 2012. In contrast, large companies have given up 1.4 share points as a group since 2009, amounting to more than $10 billion in lost sales. Focused portfolios are delivering results. Small and midsize winners are generally focusing on a few product categories, while the large winners that saw higher share growth tend to compete in fewer categories. Large CPG leaders are largely relying on pricing for growth. All 10 winners in the large company category show higher sales trends for dollar sales than volume. Larger companies have an opportunity to drive growth through more effective portfolio-mix management. Large manufacturers should consider expanding into categories with high growth potential through acquisitions or new product development, and should frequently re-evaluate their existing categories to determine and focus on the greatest opportunities. IRI is continuing to work with BCG to track company performance and ongoing trends shaping the CPG industry. We will update the report annually, and we’re excited to deliver further insight and foresight for our clients and the CPG industry overall. To request a copy of the full study, “The BCG-IRI Momentum Report,” please contact John McIndoe at John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com.

Blog: Data Visualization: Driving a New Analytics Paradigm

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:07:07 -0500

Tom Davenport of Harvard Business School has noted in a recent blog post (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/how_p_and_g_presents_data.html) that CPG leader Proctor and Gamble is regularly using visual dashboards to monitor product and industry trends and drive business decision making. This is a genuine success story of applying data visualization technology. Indeed, I have been an advocate and lead user of Spotfire for over a dozen years (see case study: http://spotfire.tibco.com/~/media/content-center/case-studies/cement-bloc-cs.ashx) and have developed insights from data visualization for a range of clients in industries including healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods. Data visualization is not only impactful for ongoing tracking of key performance indicators. In an analytics consulting organization, our goal is to mine high volume data streams for quantitative relationships that can lead to profitable business decisions. Based on our experience, we have found benefits across a wide range of analytics and modeling processes, from start to finish. For example, say you are a brand director with a manufacturer of fast moving consumer packaged goods. Here are just a few ways data visualization can more rapidly bring you insights: Dynamic price and trade monitoring: Data visualization can help you see at a glance at how pricing implementations are changing over time, across retailers and across geographies. What is the propagation of an agricultural commodity price increase? Are sales following price drops of a local retailer? How is your competitor changing its discounts across the marketplace? Where is private label creeping up to parity? These insights can be generated quickly on a visual heat map or in animated timelines. Rapidly uncovering causal relationships. In a marketing mix or a forecasting project, one tries to determine the key drivers of sales changes over time. The first stage is exploring correlations between huge numbers of variables and generating hypotheses of what those drivers might be. With data visualization, one screen enables viewing of product-by-product views of pricing, distribution, media investments, economic indicators, all as potential sales predictors, to quickly lead to a model design. Analytic model validation: Living in a world of “Big Data” does not guarantee the data streams are clean or compatible. Visualization allows you to explore the different input data sources and quickly detect outliers. In latter stages of modeling, visualization greatly facilitates validating the goodness of fit and testing for robust conclusions. Summoning benchmarks on the fly: In business, we generate lots of past product launches, ad campaigns and other promotions that can be valuable for future reference, but only if they are organized and retrievable in an insightful way. Using visual filters and high-dimensionality plotting of tools like Spotfire, one can rapidly summon exactly the relevant past experience for comparisons. We find that questions like “how does this compare to the other product, the other campaign, from last year?” can be answered on the fly and not written on a flipchart for next steps. In conclusion, our view at IRI is that data visualization is not merely an end product that is carefully engineered and deployed, like an airplane cockpit. Data visualization is in fact an ongoing process for raising your everyday analytics to the next level.

Press Release: IRI and SPINS Partnership to Drive New Insights and Accelerated Growth of Natural/Organic Industry

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:01:21 -0500

Collaboration Will Create a More Holistic View of This Fast-Growing Category CHICAGO – May 15, 2013 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) and SPINS LLC today announced a partnership to accelerate the growth of the natural and organic products industry by integrating SPINS’ unique natural/organic food segmentation and industry expertise with IRI’s Consumer Network™ household panel. This will create a powerful new natural/organic segmentation capability that empowers CPG manufacturers and retailers to more effectively identify and market to consumers and shoppers in the fast growing natural/organic sector. IRI is the global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies. SPINS is the leading information and insights provider for the natural and specialty products industry. "Our relationship with SPINS significantly expands IRI’s coverage within the natural/organic products industry and overall health and wellness sector,” said Robert I. Tomei, president of Consumer & Shopper Marketing, IRI. “It also enables us to collaborate with recognized domain experts to best understand business implications and offer the optimal natural and organic-based information, and consumer and shopper-based segmentation solutions to our clients.” As a result of this collaborative, comprehensive approach to understanding and segmenting consumers, an innovative perspective of consumers in the rapidly growing natural and organic as well as health and wellness sectors is now possible. This unique perspective is based on an integrated view of how these unique consumers think, shop and buy, as well as insights to understand and anticipate their needs. Integrating and activating those insights with IRI’s core consumer and shopper solutions empowers marketers to effectively execute strategic plans for distribution, marketing, trade spending and new product development. The IRI Consumer Network panel leverages in-home scanner-based purchase reporting and proprietary analytical solutions to assist manufacturers and retailers in assessing volume and share level trends based upon what is happening in the home: who is buying, where, how often, the level of brand and retailer loyalty, and the impact of consumer and shopper promotions. "The natural products market topped $80 billion in 2012. In the past year, nearly every household in the U.S. purchased natural products and more than two-thirds of households are buying organic products," said Tony Olson, owner and chief executive officer of SPINS. "The natural products industry continues to experience double-digit growth year over year, and to sustain this growth, the market needs complete solutions. We are thrilled to partner with IRI to provide manufacturer and retailer clients with advanced insights into the natural consumer so they can continue to respond to the growing demand and propel the industry forward.” About SPINS SPINS LLC is a passionate advocate for the natural and specialty products industry. Established in 1995, SPINS provides market measurement information and specialized insights into the trends that are top of mind for health and wellness consumers. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contact: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: + 1 (312) 474-3862 SPINS Contact: Jennifer Fuller E-mail: jfuller@spins.com Phone: + 1 (847) 242.1381

Blog: Finding Diamonds in the Rough; Thoughts on Identifying Analytics Leaders

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:43:58 -0500

One of my favorite comedic sets is a classic by the comic-social pundit Louis C.K., where he muses on the discontent he observes in people interacting with modern technology that just a few generations ago would have been considered nothing short of a biblical miracle. The concept of people’s annoyance with flight delays, slow internet connections in airplanes and the occasional dropped call are juxtaposed versus the true travel and communication limitations that existed not too long ago in a very humorous fashion, but one that hammers home a point about perspective with respect to modernity. Such is the life of the modern analytics professional. We are functioning in an era where analytics professionals are the new “rock stars” of business, perhaps tracking towards their own Showtime series like “House of Lies” is for management consultants. What was once considered to be a backroom profession has become front and center in the evolving business landscape. More and more, modern analytics professionals are expected to routinely deliver projects in a matter of days, where just a decade or so ago such projects would have been considered a multi-year research program conducted by leading academics. The result is the same modern impatience that Louis C.K. observes in society is perhaps even more prevalent in an “I want it yesterday” business environment. What this means is today’s analytics leaders cannot simply be modernized versions of the academic researchers who pioneered many of the methods we still use. Instead, they must be flexible, multi-faceted individuals who bring a mix of talents to balance the art and science of bringing data “big” and “small” to life. As such, the profile for analytic leadership has evolved beyond just being quantitatively savvy. Being analytic in today’s environment requires the following: Deep Quantitative Expertise: This is a table stake. To really be functional, useful and quite honestly meaningful, one must understand the tenets of the scientific method, have a broad comprehension of research methodologies and the ability to develop discipline out of perceived chaos. Whether one has studied in a mathematical, business, social or hard sciences environment is of less concern than having developed a discipline of thought and the ability to avoid dogma. Intellectual Adaptability: The leaders in the analytics and data sciences professions are not necessarily the most quantitatively gifted. In fact, the gifted have a tendency to be most dogmatic because they see their skills as their distinct advantage and miss the value of nuance. True analytics leaders recognize that that while their quantitative skills are important, their distinct advantage is the ability to adapt, evolve and leverage insights from other people and disciplines. The analytics person that fits in with the sales, marketing and strategy teams is much more valuable than the one that sets themselves apart. Creativity: A good analytics professional can take data, apply a method and deliver results in a timely fashion that meets the business request of the day. An analytics leader though, is able to do all of the same things except they are also able to show others the implications of their insights and extract significant additional value associated with the discovery journey that they took to drive forth the results. As an example, one of the most notable mathematicians of modern times is one Charles Dodgson; whose nom du plume, Lewis Carroll, authored Alice in Wonderland, the creativity of which is unchallenged. The point is that analytics leadership is as much about making insights accessible as it is about making them rigorous. The mix of analytic rigor that stimulates the mind with the ability to tell a story that reaches the heart is critical to drive acceptance and action. Comfort with Ambiguity: One of the toughest outcomes that analytics professionals and their colleagues struggle with the most is the non-result. The market research industry has accelerated the adoption of quantitative analyses in business via the notion that these techniques reveal insights that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. As such, the perceived value of analytics is diminished if there is not a result, and typically diminished even further if the result is not in the direction expected by the key business stakeholders. An analytics leader is sensitive to the needs of the business for directive insights, but not steered by them. They have the courage and foresight to acknowledge that sometimes there is no cause and effect relationship or that there are data/analytical limitations. But they don’t stop there. This is where the three previous characteristics come together. A true analytic leader takes the non result within the context of the business, their knowledge of other projects and provides their best effort at directive guidance based on their overall expertise and other insights. The rapid adoption of analytics across the business spectrum has opened up significant opportunities for quantitative professionals, but the growth brings about some challenges as that market attempts to adapt. Lately, I’ve seen more clients and young analysts looking to solve the business issue prior to engaging in the project, which pretty much defeats the purpose of the endeavor. True analytic leaders recognize that the discovery journey is as important as the ultimate insights, and are able to bring others along to really elevate from the experience. To be clear though, this is not to imply that analytics is only done well when done slowly, quite the contrary. The fifth critical characteristic of an analytics leader is the ability to move at a sometimes frenzied pace (Speed). While this seems to be a paradox with the notion of discipline, it is not. It’s actually the discipline, adaptability and creativity that enables an analytic leader to leverage their unique expertise to move swiftly, adroitly and successfully. In my next post on analytics within CPG organizations, I plan to discuss how an organization might go about developing a talent pool of analytic excellence.

Press Release: IRI Consulting’s New Health & Wellness Report Notes Brands and Products Must Fulfill a Comprehensive "Good for You" Promise to Achieve Success

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:48:51 -0500

CHICAGO – May 14, 2013 – Health and wellness, arguably the most compelling trend in today’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) environment, is also among the hardest on which to capitalize, notes IRI Consulting’s new executive briefing, “What’s in Store for Health & Wellness.” Growth trends indicate that a number of products with individual health and wellness claims have recently experienced declining sales; however, there is evidence that products providing a holistic approach that advances general health and well being are gaining market traction. Dollar Sales Growth Declined for Many Health and Wellness Claims in 2012 While six of the top 20 products with health and wellness claims enjoyed a dollar sales growth rate higher than the food and beverage industry average in 2009-2012, just three maintained that growth momentum in 2012 alone, indicating a significant slowdown. The report notes that dollar sales’ compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of six health claims grew faster than the food and beverage industry average of 3.4 percent. However, when dividing these results into 2009-2011 and 2012, it becomes clear that growth for several of these is slowing substantially, and even turning negative for some. For example, products with natural claims achieved a CAGR of 8 percent in the combined 2009-2012 period, very impressive when compared to the industry average. However, in 2012 alone, this slipped to 3.9 percent. Even more revealing, dollar sales of products with natural sweetener claims grew 5.3 percent in 2009-2012, but when broken down into the two timeframes, sales grew 11.8 percent in 2009-2011, but had a negative CAGR of 6.5 percent in 2012. How can marketers protect against the vulnerability of narrow health claims? “It is critical that manufacturers of health and wellness products peg their value proposition to comprehensive health and well being, an umbrella that covers multiple attributes like natural, low calories per serving and organic,” says Dr. Krishnakumar (KK) Davey, managing director, IRI Consulting. “Products with ‘one-off’ claims are much less likely to succeed. CPG marketers must focus on several factors that impact health and wellness to achieve long-term, sustainable success.” Successful Health and Wellness Products Address Multiple Factors IRI Consulting’s analysis identified the six success factors critical for long-term success. These include: Focus on Cohorts – The most successful health and wellness product portfolios are tightly aligned to the needs of key cohorts. For example, most products with health claims rely on sales to higher-income households for growth. Marketers must also pay attention to changing demographic profiles: income polarization, multi-cultural households and growth of the millennial generation. Ensure Message Clarity – Product messaging must be clear, overarching and impactful. Crowding product packaging with multiple health messages and logos can muddy the health and wellness value proposition. Champion Well Being – Brands should communicate a “well being” message versus a single, highly-specialized claim. Price Attractively – To make products accessible to a broad set of distinct consumer segments, marketers must pay extra attention to pricing. Many good-for-you products can command premium prices. Invest in Innovation – Compelling brand extensions, vivid new packaging, engaging promotions and value-added programs can lay a strong foundation for new product success. Using innovation to accelerate demand becomes even more vital, as dollar sales per new item is trending lower than in the past. Watch Regions – Regions act as microcosms for analyzing the potential success of health and wellness claims and for comparing the success of healthful products to other food and beverage offerings. “To achieve greater levels of success, manufacturers and retailers should develop a cohesive brand strategy that addresses questions, such as whether the company should execute against an overarching claim of well being or implement a strategy that covers both mainstream and niche products,” Davey continues. “Marketers should also focus on being first to market, creating a multi-year innovation pipeline, developing a clear go-to-market and channel strategy that increases accessibility, and redefining pricing to increase affordability.” About the New Health & Wellness Executive Briefing “What’s in Store for Health & Wellness” is the latest in a regular series of executive briefings published by IRI Consulting. The report utilizes IRI’s syndicated POS and panel data, along with targeted primary and secondary research to define key trends in health and wellness claims. Manufacturers leverage this information to fine tune their claims strategies. For more information on the report, contact Jamil Satchu at Jamil.Satchu@IRIworldwide.com. About IRI Consulting IRI Consulting provides strategic insights and actionable recommendations to leverage growth with support from IRI’s proprietary, granular data, analytics and technology assets. IRI Consulting combines consumer, expert and analyst perspectives with financial store-level data to develop deep understanding of the market and clients’ businesses. Solutions help clients address strategies for driving, funding and executing growth. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Retail Industry News Week of 5/10/13

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:24:55 -0500

Walmart Looks To Redefine Itself With New National Campaign In Detroit, Whole Foods Seeks More Than Sales And Profits Sansolo Speaks: Preparing for Retail Revolution Loblaws Launches Digital Loyalty Program Walmart Once Again Tops Fortune 500 List Whole Foods Said To Be Thinking Fresh, Easy, And Acquisition FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Blog: On Being Analytic: One Guy’s Perspective on Analytics & Industry

Wed, 8 May 2013 13:37:47 -0500

My personal obsession with books of Michael Lewis is finally starting to payoff in my professional career. First, The Blindside and its aftermath has reinforced the notion that persistence and conviction pay-off in the long run if guided by earnestness. Second, Moneyball and the resulting legions of sabermetricians did what I never thought could be done; it made analytics cool and somewhat mainstream. Finally, my most recent read, The Big Short provided very clear examples of how it’s not enough to simply “run models” to be analytically proficient; the true winners are those who understand how to leverage the insights to identify what isn’t obvious to rest of the world, which in some cases leads to truth revealed. This trilogy of Michael Lewis’ best sellers is more than just a set of great reads to me; in combination, the stories epitomize my professional evolution as an analytics professional in a business world that, in many cases, is still not quite clear what it truly means to be analytic. Both Moneyball and The Big Short provide clear cases where the thoughtful use of analytics yields success against the grain of conventional wisdom. In both instances, the real villains are the purveyors of performance management and planning routines that seemingly had always been successful, until it was shown that there is a better way. This is a highly relevant narrative to the current tide of businesses striving towards "Competing on Analytics" and navigating the sea of "Big Data." While many businesses are going “all in” on buying analytics software and creating the new positions that the consultants say they should, few are really adapting their organizations to be truly analytic in their culture. Instead, most companies are putting analytics to work within the existing conventional wisdom of their organizations and not truly evolving. Conventional strategies may yield short-term gains that suggest success, ultimately, though, these organizations are participating in their own demise and actually falling behind. Despite what the ads on TV or white papers claim, being analytic is as much a cultural mindset as it is a suite of capabilities and software. To be analytic means embracing discovery, rigor, debate and, most importantly, disruption. Simply running an advanced analysis like a marketing mix analysis year after year does not make an organization analytic, actually quite the opposite is the case. The organizations that are truly differentiated are those that regularly change up their programs; they subject their partners to peer review and enforce openness across their organizations as well their network of agencies. Where most companies embed analytics within their annual performance management routines, true growth companies are using analytics to splinter off opportunities, gain share and invent new markets, while the old firms struggle to understand where their business is going. This is where the lessons of The Blindside become most relevant to the narrative for analytic professionals; ultimately conviction, persistence and earnestness will enable analytics to truly blossom across businesses and protect them from the lurking threats. Truly evolving businesses will embrace the scientific principles of validation, discipline, debate, ongoing discovery and disruption as the true benefits of analytics. These same businesses are putting a greater emphasis on people with problem-solving skills based on insights rather than results reporters and process managers. To be truly analytic is not expecting data, models or surveys to deliver truth supporting incremental growth, but rather to leverage those solutions to discover new opportunities driving stepwise evolution. Next entry will focus on the people skills needed to be “analytic.” Tags: analytics, IRI, manufacturers, Michael Lewis, Retailers

Press Release: IRI MarketPulse Survey Finds Shopper Sentiment Rebounding in 2013

Wed, 8 May 2013 11:37:50 -0500

Many Consumer Segments Feel They Have Better Grip on Household Finances in Q1 2013; However, Millennials Are Notable Exception CHICAGO – May 8, 2013 – Rising gas prices and the expiration of the payroll tax cut have not dampened the spirits across most U.S. consumer segments. In fact, Information Resources, Inc.’s (IRI) latest MarketPulse™ survey results reveal that shopper sentiment increased notably during Q1 2013, largely because consumers feel more positive about their household finances. This is a marked difference compared to Q4 2012, when shopper sentiment dropped to its lowest point since 2011. “Consumers were feeling a bit of the gloom and doom as 2012 came to a close, because they simply didn’t know what to expect on the financial front for the new year,” says Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, IRI. “With a looming debt ceiling crisis and expiration of the 2 percent payroll tax cut, they were preparing for another bumpy ride. However, our latest MarketPulse survey finds that consumers weathered the latest round of economic storms very well and are feeling more optimistic than they have in quite some time. Of course, consumers will continue to be cautious about their spending, but we may see wallets open slightly more as we approach summer.” IRI Shopper Sentiment Index Reveals Sunnier Outlook IRI’s Shopper Sentiment Index provides deep insight into how the economy is impacting consumers and changing how they approach grocery shopping. The index provides perspective in terms of price sensitivity, brand loyalty and changes in spending required to maintain desired lifestyles. With a benchmark score of 100 based on Q1 2011 information, a Shopper Sentiment Index score of more than 100 reflects consumers that are less price driven, more loyal to favorite brands and better equipped to maintain their desired lifestyle without changes. Consumers’ concern about their financial health has been a constant since before the Great Recession began. And, as 2012 came to a close, sentiment dipped sharply to an index score of 94, which is the lowest the index has dropped since 2011. Uncertainty about 2013, particularly the debt ceiling crisis and the impending expiration of the 2 percent payroll tax cut, certainly played a major role in this outlook. But, as 2013 unfolded, many consumers found that the impact of these situations was less than anticipated, and sentiment has rebounded rather well to 103 at the end of Q1 2013. Everything isn’t coming up roses for all consumers, though. Millennials, who have been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn, continue to struggle to find financial health and stability. Among this group, the Shopper Sentiment Index has remained consistent at approximately 85, since Q1 2012. Payroll Tax Expiration Didn’t Keep Consumers Down for Long There were many news cycles devoted to the expiration of the 2 percent payroll tax cut in January, with many predicting that consumers would react by tightening their belts even more. Indeed, it hasn’t been easy for many, as 28 percent of overall consumers indicate that they now have less money to buy groceries due the expiration. However, among the hard-hit millennial population, 38 percent have felt additional pressure on their grocery budgets due to the tax cut expiration. Generation-X shoppers are in a similar boat, with 37 percent stating that their grocery budget has been negatively impacted. Among those aged 55-plus, only 21 percent are feeling an additional squeeze. The survey also asked consumers if they were having difficulty affording groceries and uncovered, again, that millennials are struggling the most. Twenty-two percent of overall consumers were having difficulty in Q1 2013, an improvement versus Q1 2011, when 27 percent were finding it hard to afford the grocery bill. There is no improvement among millennials, however. In fact, 38 percent of these shoppers were having difficulty in Q1 2013, which is an uptick versus 33 percent in Q1 2011. “This analysis is rather interesting, because it points to the fact that many consumers are finding it a bit easier to buy groceries in 2013, and that the payroll tax expiration didn’t impact consumers as hard as expected on this front,” says Viamari. “But, it also highlights the continued struggle of millennials that we’ve seen for the last couple of years, underscoring the critical need for CPG marketers to deliver solid value, particularly across this vulnerable consumer segment. Millennials are in the unenviable position of starting their independent lives in a tough economy, and they simply are having a hard time making ends meet.” Pain at the Pump Strains Wallets While many consumers may be feeling more confident when it comes to household finances and grocery buying, gas prices could begin to take their toll as the year wears on. According to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report, the average gas price for the first three months of 2013 was $3.64, an increase of 8.8 percent versus the first three months of 2011, but on par with 2012 prices. Even though this steep increase takes a big chunk out of consumers’ budgets, fewer consumers (44 percent) are feeling increased financial strain due to recent increases as compared to 57 percent around the same time in 2011. Here again, millennials are being hit hardest, with Generation Xers close behind. Fifty-six percent of millennials and 50 percent of Generation-X shoppers are feeling increased financial strain due to recent gas price increases. “Although these numbers aren’t as high as those found in 2011, they are still elevated, and we need to keep a close watch on how and where consumers choose to spend their money due to these pressures,” adds Viamari. For instance, 34 percent of consumers surveyed in Q1 2013 say they are reducing/eliminating trips to some of their favorite stores due to high gas prices. In addition, 10 percent of consumers are shopping convenience stores more frequently, because they are found closer to home. When taking a closer look at various consumer segments, millennials stand out as making more changes versus more established consumer segments, particularly those over the age of 55. “Reverberations from the economic rollercoaster continue to move through the CPG marketplace,” concludes Viamari. “It is essential that CPG marketers closely monitor these ripples and understand how they impact each and every target shopper. No two groups and no two shoppers are identical, so powerful marketing strategies must clearly convey an understanding of this fact.” About IRI’s MarketPulse Survey IRI provides new survey results at the end of each calendar quarter, covering shoppers’ behaviors and attitudes as it directly relates to their strategies for learning about, purchasing and utilizing CPG and healthcare products, as well as information regarding perceptions of economic conditions and their ability to provide for their families. For more information about customizing the research for a particular category or industry, please contact IRIMarketing@IRIworldwide.com. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

In the News: New Opportunities Emerge as Consumers Focus on Value

Tue, 7 May 2013 15:38:30 -0500

Despite signs of an economic recovery, shoppers remain cautious and frugal, relying heavily on value to decide which channels to shop, according to SymphonyIRI’s “2012 CPG Year in Review: Finding the New Normal.”

Retail Industry News Week of 5/3/13

Mon, 6 May 2013 15:24:09 -0500

Personal Shopping Service Adds Costco to Roster Sansolo Speaks: Competition, By the Dawn's Early Light Safeway Gets a New CEO Target Teams with Tech Magazine to Curate a Selection of Gadgets Walmart Locks and Loads for Battle with Amazon FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Blog: A Look Back at IRI Summit 2013–Activate Your Growth Engine

Mon, 6 May 2013 12:11:34 -0500

It’s been a couple of weeks since this year’s IRI Summit. As I sit here at my desk reflecting on all that took place, I can honestly say the event lived up to its promise and was one of our most memorable yet. We were excited to see more than 1,000 attendees from the CPG industry congregate at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. This year’s event was packed with provocative general sessions, engaging breakouts, exciting performances and the chance to network with colleagues and industry experts. What made this year’s Summit the most memorable were the week’s set of announcements that included the unveiling of our company rebrand back to IRI. The move back to IRI represents the company’s embracing of our rich heritage of disruptive innovation and embarking on an updated strategy we call “Growth Delivered.” Other announcements included corporate partnerships and new studies from IRI. Every year, Summit devotes a substantial amount of time to General Sessions—covering business intelligence, revenue growth and market strategies. These sessions are highly regarded as 100 percent of attendees found it the most beneficial part of Summit, according to the Summit 2013 Attendee Survey. This year was also the debut of a new event component: Client Specific Solution Clinics. These carefully designed clinics gave attendees one-on-one time with an IRI expert to discuss particular issues surrounding their marketing and sales initiatives. We were excited to learn that Summit attendees had an overly positive response, as 92 percent agreed that the event met or exceeded their expectations. We constantly strive to offer the latest information regarding innovative solutions created by today’s competitive and complex CPG and retail markets. We hope that future Summit events will continue to deliver growth, exceed expectations, ignite ideas and create actionable insights. Thanks for attending! Did you attend this year’s Summit? How was your experience this year? What would you like to see more of?

Webinar Replay: 2012 IRI New Product Pacesetters

Wed, 1 May 2013 15:20:39 -0500

2012 NEW PRODUCT PACESETTERS Pacesetter 100: The Fuel to Accelerate Growth New product success rates remain perilously low even though CPG and retail decision makers often devote massive resources to product development, marketing, merchandising and promotion. So, why devote so much time, energy and money to product innovation? It’s because new products have long been considered the lifeblood of the CPG industry. Are your new products truly breathing sustained life into their categories and your portfolio? Based on IRI’s newly released New Product Pacesetters report, this webinar outlines the stories behind the best of the best—the CPG products that helped sustain an industry through the longest and deepest recession since The Great Depression and those that are jump-starting a new, more exciting tomorrow. You will learn about the low success rate of many new product introductions and common attributes among the most successful new products. Manage expectations by establishing realistic benchmarks based on meticulously defined target markets. Utilize advances in technology to raise the bar on what you can bring to market and change integrations with your consumers. Establish and maintain a 360° understanding of your most important consumers and your competitive set, far beyond the walls of traditional CPG. Hosts: Susan Viamari, Editor of Times & Trends, and Larry Levin, Executive General Manager, Consumer Insights, IRI Duration: 60 minutes

Retail Industry News Week of 4/26/13

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:14:25 -0500

Kroger, Already A Big Data Leader, Testing Customer Scanning Technology Walmart Focuses On Made-In-America Initiative Sansolo Speaks: Lessons from a Trail Blazer NGA Releases Findings From Study Of Independent Grocer Impact Cub Foods Looks To Redefine Itself, Despite Its Placement In The Middle It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Walmart! Wakefern Donates $1 Million To St. Joe's Food Marketing School Starbucks CEO Believes Store Of The Future Will Link To Digital Experience FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch

Press Release: IRI Offers Mid-Market Manufacturers Market Advantage to Accelerate Business Performance

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:57:10 -0500

Strategic Insights to Generate New Levels of Revenue Growth among Mid-Market CPG Manufacturers CHICAGO – April 29, 2013 – To arm mid-market manufacturers with comparable high performance and market intelligence solutions as large manufacturers, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) announced today an enhanced configuration of its powerful Market Advantage™ solution tailored specifically for mid-market partners. This version of Market Advantage offers varying levels of scope, customization and consultative and technical services. In addition to Market Advantage, IRI also is offering an enhanced configuration of its Advantage on Demand analysis suite to better meet the needs of mid-market manufacturers. Advantage on Demand delivers targeted, high-impact insights, such as tracking where a retailer's shoppers are making trips and spending category dollars, creating the most effective pricing and trade plans at retail, and identifying shopper segmentation at the household level to target promotional activity. IRI Market Advantage and Advantage on Demand are part of the company’s Revenue Growth Accelerator solutions to help small manufacturers grow. “By offering Revenue Growth Accelerator solutions to the mid market, IRI is effectively removing barriers to unlimited business success,” says Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI. “Market Advantage is uniquely tailored to meet the wide range of mid-market needs and budgets and reveals strategic insights that lead to new opportunities in the marketplace.” “Our ultimate goal is to activate the growth engines of mid-market CPG manufacturers, enabling them to exceed growth targets through best-in-class information, analytics, technology, consulting and subject matter expertise,” says Piyush Chaudhari, president of the Americas, IRI. Market Advantage and Advantage on Demand address the multiple business challenges mid-market CPG manufacturers face, such as ensuring successful product launches, delivering profitable innovation, increasing market share, elevating retailer partnerships and empowering the organization to make fact-based decisions. Market Advantage is IRI's point-of-sale, market intelligence solution powered by the Liquid Data™ platform. This solution offers unique capabilities and enables insights and efficiencies not possible with traditional market measurement solutions. Varying levels of customization, cross-category segmentation, and business modules addressing issues, such as new item launch intelligence, health and wellness insights, retailer custom hierarchy alignment, econometric indicator relationships, and store-level retail execution are some of the unique offerings of Market Advantage. The Market Advantage solution fills the gap between traditional custom market measurement databases and syndicated databases. Custom databases are high cost, complex, and time consuming to implement. Syndicated databases are more cost effective but lack the segmentation depth and customized views that are relevant to each manufacturer’s business. Market Advantage provides a cost-effective, configured solution that delivers relevant and widely accessible standard reports and also enables complex and iterative analyses previously too costly or impossible to execute due to technical limitations. Market Advantage enables: Brand managers to better understand their competition’s strengths and weaknesses and expand the business into previously uncovered verticals and markets Market research to drive improved business performance with a higher level of insights Sales executives to quickly identify opportunities and course correct where needed Category managers to execute product launches more successfully with unique insights and compelling analyses of new product launches across categories Field sales to deliver unique and consultative analysis presentations that designate them as the “go-to” vendor among retailers Market Advantage delivers best practices as well as customized reports and analysis of key business issues through an easy-to-use, visually engaging interface that drives adoption and institutionalizes the use of insights in all decisions across the organization. Additionally, Market Advantage provides comprehensive outlet coverage across food, drug, Walmart, mass merchandiser, dollar, club, military and IRI’s state-of-industry AllScan Convenience Store Tracking™ service and drills down to national, regional, state, local and store levels as well as by media market and retail account. Advantage on Demand is a service harnessing the Advantage suite of solutions powered by IRI Liquid Data and offers service ranging from client-centric and ad-hoc reports to analysis projects and pilot programs. With Advantage on Demand, mid-market manufacturers are empowered to accelerate their revenue growth through the delivery of targeted, high-impact insights across consumers and shoppers, price and trade, marketing mix and retail execution. Advantage solutions add immediate value by taking a business-issue based approach to address critical needs quickly and affordably. Market Advantage and Advantage on Demand are powered by Liquid Data, IRI’s transformative technology platform that breaks down the barriers to deep, complex, iterative analysis and is fast, easy, and insights focused. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

In the News: How P&G, Ford and Wendy's Are Redefining Value

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:21:19 -0500

Brands can no longer bide their time, fending off store-brand options while waiting and hoping for consumers' wallets to fatten. About 40% of the U.S. population is still downtrodden, concerned or otherwise worried about their financial futures, according to IRI research.

Retail Industry News Week of 4/19/13

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:36:55 -0500

Fairway Places A High Number On Its Value, Sees A Future With 300+ Stores Sansolo Speaks: Reality Check Is The Cupcake Trend Coming To An End? Bristol Farms To Open Santa Monica Store FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Press Release: U.S. Consumer-Packaged-Goods Winners Identified in New Ranking

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:55:19 -0500

Study by The Boston Consulting Group and Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) Shows That Price Increases and Distribution Gains Drive Performance of Large Consumer-Packaged-Goods Leaders, While Share Gains Propel Small and Midsize Stars Study Is the First of Its Kind for CPG Companies and the Result of a New Collaboration Between BCG and IRI to Assess and Report on Ongoing Trends Shaping the Industry CHICAGO, April 22, 2013—A new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) has identified the top-performing companies in the U.S. consumer-packaged-goods industry. It is the first study to compare both public and private CPG companies using a combination of three metrics—dollar sales growth, volume sales growth and market share gains—based on comprehensive retail- and consumer-market tracking data. BCG and IRI analyzed the 2012 performance of more than 400 CPG manufacturers with annual U.S. revenues of at least $100 million. Recognizing that players in different size categories face different opportunities and challenges, the research team generated three distinct top-ten lists of winning companies: small ($100 million to $1 billion in retail sales), midsize ($1 billion to $5 billion in retail sales), and large (more than $5 billion in retail sales). Among large companies, the top three performers—ranked on a combination of dollar sales growth, volume sales growth, and market share growth—were Lorillard, the Hershey Company, and Anheuser-Busch InBev. The top-performing midsize companies were Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., Chobani, and Starbucks. And the top-ranked small companies were TalkingRain, Idahoan, and Handi-foil. The analysis is the first result of a new collaboration between BCG and IRI to assess and report on ongoing trends shaping today’s CPG industry. “Our research with IRI shows that there is no single formula for success in the CPG industry,” said BCG’s Jeff Gell, a Chicago-based senior partner. “Companies are winning in various ways—through superior execution of their base businesses, innovation, and better management of price-volume tradeoffs. We are excited about working with IRI to bring distinctive analyses and compelling insights to the marketplace.” The findings reveal that most winning companies are successfully growing their base businesses through gains in distribution. Pricing, however, is a key source of dollar sales growth for many of the large-company leaders, with growth in dollar sales outpacing volume sales growth. In contrast, growth in volume sales is a key source of dollar sales gains for small and midsize stars, suggesting that a more sustainable rise in consumer demand is powering performance. These drivers of growth underscore a significant trend in the CPG industry: small and midsize companies are increasingly taking market share from large competitors. All top ten small and midsize companies gained market share in 2012, with eight of the small-company winners grabbing at least 1.0 percentage points. Since 2009, large companies as a group have ceded 1.4 percentage points in market share, a drop that amounts to more than $10 billion in lost sales. “From this joint research, we’ve uncovered that small and midsize manufacturers’ growth at the expense of large manufacturers is significant,” said Dr. Krishnakumar (KK) Davey, managing director at IRI Consulting. “Small and midsize manufacturers are in a unique position to strengthen relationships with their retail customers as they drive growth in many categories. They are expected to garner greater attention from retailers through increased shelf space and merchandising activity.” “We believe that our collaboration with BCG will continue to deliver great insight and, most importantly, foresight for our clients and the industry at large,” Davey added. Other findings from the research: Among large-company winners, only three are growing from both their base businesses and innovation. Steps such as launching innovations that are incremental and do not detract from the existing portfolio can help balance growth from both parts of the business. Small- and midsize-company winners are generally concentrating on a few product categories in which they have a competitive advantage and experience strong consumer demand. They are also driving trends in the marketplace and developing first-mover advantage. Small and midsize companies are gaining significant share from larger players, suggesting that there are advantages to focused portfolios and small-company agility. There is an opportunity for larger companies to drive growth through more effective portfolio-mix management—by expanding into categories with high growth potential (through acquisition or new product development) or by reevaluating existing categories to prioritize focus where opportunity is greatest. To request a copy of the study, “The BCG-IRI Momentum Report,” or to arrange an interview with one of the authors, please contact Alexandra Corriveau at +1 212 446 3261 or corriveau.alexandra@bcg.com, or John McIndoe at +1 312 474 3862 or john.mcindoe@IRIworldwide.com. About The Boston Consulting Group The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy. We partner with clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their enterprises. Our customized approach combines deep insight into the dynamics of companies and markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results. Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with 78 offices in 43 countries. For more information, please visit bcg.com. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com.

2012 IRI New Product Pacesetters

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:57:32 -0500

Throughout the past several years, the United States weathered a wide variety of storms, both literally and figuratively. The Great Recession was followed by a long and very unsteady recovery. All the while, employment and underemployment continue to be a considerable challenge, and gas prices are once again inflated, leaving consumers tentative about today’s economy. Mother Nature has unleashed her own flurry of storms. Drought conditions, hurricanes and super storms around the world in recent years have dealt a sizable blow to crops, driving up cost of inputs and, ultimately, consumer prices. It is not surprising, then, that consumers continue on a relentless pursuit for value. They simply have no money to waste on products that do not provide value. It’s critical for CPG marketers to understand, though, that value does not necessarily mean CHEAP. In the end, value means different things to different consumers, and it means different things across different categories. Explored throughout this report, CPG marketers are successfully embracing “the new,” whether it’s ingredients, technologies and ideas, to deliver enhanced value to consumers and drive growth across their own brands. Success is not confined to the “big players” in the industry. Smaller companies can, and do, play a big role in driving industry change by bringing to market unique products that really identify and deliver against critical consumer needs and wants. This report provides insights into the most powerful CPG product launches of 2011 and 2012, and reveals some of the key secrets that led to their successes. These products are best-in-class examples of how to beat the daunting new product odds.

Press Release: IRI Announces Most Successful Consumer Packaged Goods Brands of 2012

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:57:31 -0500

IRI New Product Pacesetters™ Deliver Enhanced Value to Consumers and Drive Growth Across CPG Brands and Categories CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS – April 17, 2013 – In 2011-2012, nearly 1,900 new CPG brands hit retail shelves across the U.S. multi-outlet geography, which includes traditional grocery, drug and mass market retailers, as well as sales from dollar and club channels, Walmart and military commissaries. Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) announced today that only 11 percent of those launches met the stringent, industry-recognized benchmarks of exceptional first-year sales success required to achieve 2012 New Product Pacesetter status. The 200 top-selling CPG launches of the year, dubbed “IRI’s New Product Pacesetters,” each captured more than $13 million in year-one sales across the multi-outlet geography, with an individual average of $39.5 million in first-year revenues. “IRI’s 2012 Pacesetters are best-in-class products that have truly beaten the daunting new product odds,” says Larry Levin, executive vice president, general manager, Insights and Thought Leadership, IRI. “In fact, the manufacturers of these Pacesetter brands showed a quiet resolve and determination to stimulate growth despite a challenging economic environment in 2012.” Food and Beverage Launches Capture $43.4 Million in Year-One Sales on Average Among food and beverage champions, average year-one dollar sales for the top-100 brands were $43.4 million. New food and beverage brands addressed long-standing trends around wellness, indulgence and convenience. Importantly, though, the most powerful launches of the year also delivered more to today’s finicky, frugal and fast-moving consumers. They provide new options that serve cross-occasion eating behaviors, support proactive wellness efforts and satisfy desires for intelligent indulgence. 2012 New Product Pacesetters: Top 10 Food and Beverage Brands ($ Millions) (Total Year-One Dollar Sales, Multi-Outlet) 1. Dannon Oikos $283.8 2. Starbucks K-Cups $198.9 3. Bud Light Platinum $162.2 4. TruMoo $158.3 5. Breyers Blasts! $147.3 6. MiO $127.6 7. Sparkling ICE $122.7 8. Nature Valley Protein Bars $95.7 9. Orville Redenbacher’s Pop Up Bowl $92.1 10.Daily’s Frozen Pouches $89.2 Source: IRI New Product Profiler™ Non-Food Champions Secure $36.1 Million in Year-One Sales on Average In the non-food arena, average year-one dollar sales for the top-100 brands were $36.1 million. Several long-standing trends remain important, including professional results in the home, healthier and happier pets and sustainability, and the new launches across non-food aisles addressed these trends. But, the most powerful launches of the year took it a step further. “Consumers want more results with less effort, ideally at a lower price point versus professional services, and Pacesetter non-food manufacturers really delivered in 2012,” says Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, IRI. “From health and beauty care to home and pet care, CPG manufacturers leveraged new ingredients and advancing technology to empower consumers in more ways than ever before.” 2012 New Product Pacesetters: Top 10 Non-Food Brands ($ Millions) (Total Year-One Dollar Sales, Multi-Outlet) 1. Allegra $342.6 2. Colgate Optic White $141.1 3. PetArmor $126.4 4. Mucinex Fast-Max $84.6 5. Crest Complete Multi-Benefit $82.9 6. HUGGIES Little Movers Slip-on $82.2 7. Milo’s Kitchen $79.3 8. Febreze CAR Vent Clips $69.5 9. Olay Body Collections $64.5 10.CAREFREE ACTI-FRESH $61.1 Source: IRI New Product Profiler™ New Products Attain Average of $50.4 Million in Year-One Sales in Convenience Stores In the convenience-store arena, average year-one sales across the top-20 2012 IRI New Product Pacesetters were $50.4 million. “The power of trends around wellness and the quest for foods that support nutritional goals are immense,” continues Levin. “The top-selling launches in the convenience-store channel really underscore this phenomenon. Even in the convenience-store channel, where indulgence is often toward the top of consumers’ minds, healthier-for-you innovation is being well received.” 2012 New Product Pacesetters: Top 10 Convenience Store Brands ($ Millions) (Total Year-One Dollar Sales, Convenience Store Channel) 1. Bud Light Platinum $224.5 2. Monster Rehab $161.4 3. Skoal X-tra $118.2 4. TruMoo $95.7 5. Lipton 100% Natural $60.1 6. REESE’S Mini’s $39.8 7. MiO $30.0 8. Dr Pepper TEN $28.9 9. Rockstar 2X $20.9 10.Magnum $19.8 Source: IRI New Product Profiler™ “The class of 2012 IRI New Product Pacesetters is remarkable for many reasons,” concludes Viamari. “These products are bringing consumers increased value at a time when value is more critical than it has been in recent history. They are doing this by harnessing many and varied ingredients and technologies to deliver products that do things better with less effort; taste better, with enhanced nutritional value; and bring excitement, without breaking the bank. These products are leading the CPG industry into tomorrow. And, they are delivering growth for the manufacturers that bring them to market.” About the Report The IRI Times & Trends Report, “2012 New Product Pacesetters,” is available exclusively from IRI, the leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. The findings of this report were compiled based on insights from IRI InfoScan® Reviews, New Product Profiler™ and the 2012 IRI New Products Survey. To download the full report or listen to the New Product Pacesetters webinar replay, visit: http://www.iriworldwide.com/Insights/Publications/NewProductPacesetters.aspx. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: New IRI DigitaLink™ Study Demonstrates Increasing Importance of Effective Online Strategies to CPG and Retailers

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:57:27 -0500

IRI Expands 2012 Study to Include European Shoppers’ Online Profiles CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS – April 17, 2013 – More than double the number of U.S. shoppers turned to online social networking in 2012 to follow companies or brands as compared to a year ago, IRI’s new DigitaLink™ segmentation study, released today, reveals. In Europe, U.K. shoppers are most likely to compare prices online before making a purchase, buy a CPG product online and purchase a used item from another person online, when compared to both other European shoppers and U.S. shoppers. IRI completed the new DigitaLink study as part of its ongoing analysis into how shoppers research, purchase and use CPG products, where they purchase them and what factors drive shopper decisions. DigitaLink applies IRI analytics capabilities to information from the company’s Consumer Network and MarketPulse™ research to segment shoppers based on their use of online resources, and then assist CPG and retail leadership teams to optimize their social networking strategies. This year’s DigitaLink study also includes for the first time information about the online habits of French, German, Spanish and U.K. shoppers. “Social networking has impacted the shopping experience like no other influencer in the past,” says Srishti Gupta, executive vice president and general manager, New Media Solutions, IRI. “However, the level of impact on households varies tremendously. For CPG and retail decision makers to develop and execute social networking strategies with the highest ROI, it’s critical to understand how different households harness online resources. DigitaLink provides this assessment and forms the basis through which CPG and retail leaders can build more effective social networking strategies.” DigitaLink divides shoppers into five broad segments, based on their opinions and use of digital devices and social networking tools. These include “Show Me the Money,” “Digitize Me!,” “Wired for Work,” “Socializers” and “Technophobes.” Definitions of these segments are available in the press release announcing last year’s DigitaLink findings. In the United States, “Digitize Me!” Category Nearly Doubles in Size In addition to the doubling of shoppers following companies or brands on online social networking, other key U.S. findings of the new DigitaLink study include: The “Digitize Me!” segment, those most plugged into online social networking, nearly doubled in size, representing 22 percent of shoppers in this year’s study, as compared to 12 percent of last year’s Shoppers are increasing their use of online social networking to follow retailers for learning about deals, coupons and news at dramatic rates; led by dollar stores, which witnessed a nearly four-fold jump, club stores with a 270 percent increase and drug stores with a 250 percent increase Among the online activities that have grown the most in popularity include using social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn (50 percent state they frequently use these sites versus 37 percent in the 2011 survey), uploading photos (21 percent in 2012 as compared to 11 percent in 2011) and using Twitter (11 percent in 2012 versus 5 percent in 2011) The new DigitaLink report devotes a section to analyzing the Digitize Me! category, since this group is most likely to tap the capabilities of digital devices and online resources. The report found Digitize Me! shoppers typically access the Internet from more than four devices, spend more time online than the other groups, often simultaneously from multiple devices, personify the concept that mobile is a “behavior,” not a technology, and have fully integrated the Internet into their lives, using it for a broader variety of tasks than any other segment. “IRI’s new DigitaLink study underscores the need to understand in minute detail all digital influences on shopper behavior and activities,” Gupta continues. “Some segments, such as Digitize Me! shoppers, represent an outstanding opportunity for CPG and retail marketers to impact shoppers with well targeted messages, while others, such as Technophobes, will never generate a digital campaign ROI worth the investment.” European Shoppers Rely on Online Resources Less European shoppers generally rely on online resources less than their American counterparts, but with some notable exceptions. U.K. shoppers are more aggressive than Americans about comparing prices online before making a purchase (37 percent versus 34 percent), buying a CPG product online (36 percent versus 24 percent) and buying a used item from another person online (10 percent versus 5 percent). And, they are generally more open to buying a variety of CPG categories online. Spanish shoppers are more likely to share something they have created themselves, such as artwork, than both their European brethren and U.S. shoppers (12 percent for Spanish shoppers versus 10 percent for Americans). They also tend to tell friends about their online purchases more than other shoppers (9 percent among Spanish shoppers versus 6 percent for Americans). Shoppers in surveyed European countries are generally less wed to use of the Internet and digital technology than their American counterparts. Fifty-eight percent of surveyed U.S. shoppers agree with the statement, “It would be difficult for me to give up access to the Internet,” as compared to just 37 percent of Spanish shoppers, for example. Similarly, 42 percent of U.S. shoppers state, “It would be difficult for me to give up my cell phone,” whereas responses were in the mid-20 percent range for shoppers in most European countries.” Anders Rave, director of analytics and shopper knowledge for IRI in Europe says, “Europeans may spend more time online than American shoppers but when it comes to using online as part of their shopping mix, the U.K. is ahead of the curve. Shoppers across Europe spend more of their online time on the path to purchase looking for information and comparing prices than they do purchasing online compared to American shoppers.” About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: IRI Advanced Analytics’ Revenue Growth Management Practice Expands by Revealing New Price, Trade and Promotion Opportunities

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:57:27 -0500

Solution Trifecta Combined with Value-added Services Create New Levels of Sales and Market Share Growth CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS - April 17, 2013 – CPG manufacturers and retailers are accelerating their growth through the sophisticated application of advanced analytics, many as a result of working with Information Resources, Inc.’s (IRI) Revenue Growth Management (RGM) practice. The practice focuses on the disciplines of strategy, advanced predictive modeling and solutions, and in-store execution to help clients realize accelerated profit and growth. The RGM practice includes cross-functional capabilities across IRI Advanced Analytics, Consumer & Shopper Marketing and Consulting groups. Between 2011 and 2012, the RGM practice increased its client base by 16 percent and U.S. revenues grew 23 percent year over year. The foundational framework underlying RGM is a fundamental re-engineering of a company’s go-to-market strategy. Rather than focusing on ad-hoc studies and narrowly focused tools, the Intelligent Revenue Management framework integrates customer and brand strategies with advanced predictive analytics using granular data and converts the strategies into executable tactics through advanced solutions. IRI works with clients to implement these strategies that deliver targeted profit opportunities. “Revenue growth management is the single biggest driver of measurable growth for our clients and the industry,” said Robert Holston, executive vice president and division lead, IRI Advanced Analytics. “There is a huge opportunity for tangible growth when RGM is thought through holistically. Manufacturers that are winning are moving beyond just a focus on price tactic optimization and instead are focusing on an integrated strategy rich with analytics and deeply connected to retail execution.” To build on the success of the RGM practice, IRI Advanced Analytics is introducing today, at IRI’s 2013 Summit Conference, enhanced 2.0 versions of three software solutions available to clients: Price Trade Advantage™, Trade Planner™ and Trade Value Drivers™. These solutions leverage the capabilities of an improved technology platform, featuring a new user interface and expanded functionality. These solutions connect with an integrated approach to address the opportunity of RGM. Price Trade Advantage Offers Superior Price and Promotional Management Price and Trade Advantage enables manufacturer decision makers to predict and improve pricing and promotion strategies by providing predictive results through a series of web-based diagnostic reports and market simulations. Powered by sophisticated store-level analytical pricing models, the solution provides an end-to-end application that enables planning and evaluation of alternative price and promotion scenarios, analysis of price points and thresholds, and review of success of past tactics. Trade Planner Facilitates Improved Trade Spending For trade marketers seeking visibility into the ROI on trade spend, Trade Planner is a robust trade event-level analytics and planning solution. Trade Planner is powered by IRI’s store-level, analytical models that help provide the true picture of trade events performance by matching trade promotion management (TPM) data with IRI’s POS data. Tactical in nature, the solution offers two modules that provide a seamless flow from post-event ROI analysis to flexible, trade-plan development. Post Promotion Analysis enables business users to calculate precise ROI using analytical methodologies, for example, by simulating market response in absence of everyday low price (EDLP) buy downs. The Event Planning Calendar provides a graphical view of future trade events and predicts their impact on financial, sales and volume goals using multiple what-if scenarios. Trade Value Drivers Analyze Past Performance to Assist Planning for the Future Designed to support revenue growth generation, Trade Value Drivers is a trade-focused version of Business Value Drivers, IRI’s hosted, analytically driven advanced reporting solution that helps manufacturers attribute and evaluate the effectiveness and performance of their prior period business strategies. Trade Value Drivers is tailored specifically to the needs of category and revenue growth managers. It provides users with analysis and insights across a range of drivers, such as key base drivers of base price, distribution, trends and competitive effects, plus trade drivers across price reduction and quality merchandizing. The application allows for a more granular drill-down analysis at price promoted group (PPG), retail market area (RMA) and week levels to reveal deeper insights around base, discount, frequency, and effectiveness. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Follow IRI Advanced Analytics at @analytics2020 and IRI at @iriworldwide. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: SymphonyIRI Group Rebrands to IRI

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:17:05 -0500

Company Embraces Rich Heritage of Disruptive Innovation in CPG and Retail, Enhances Focus on Delivering Growth CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS - April 16, 2013 – SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. announced today that it is embracing its founding name of Information Resources, Inc. and rebranding as IRI. Andrew Appel, IRI’s president and chief executive officer, announced the new branding during the opening day of the company’s 2013 Summit conference, held at the Wynn Las Vegas. This year’s conference theme, “Activate Your Growth Engine,” reflects this evolution of the company’s direction. “Since joining the company, I’ve spent time with more than 500 CPG and retail executives, discussing how we can help move their companies forward,” says Appel. “Focusing on activating and accelerating growth across sales and marketing is the theme I have heard repeatedly.” The embrace of the IRI brand is underscored by a business strategy and mission to deliver growth for clients across the globe by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses. “IRI has a rich heritage of innovation and going beyond the data, leveraging advanced analytics and enabling technologies to help our clients excel and win,” adds Appel. “We have the leadership, the people, the unique assets and the distinctive capabilities to deliver on our new strategy and make a real difference for clients. We’re taking the best of what we’ve been boldly forward.” IRI’s “Growth Delivered” business strategy concentrates on six integrated disciplines: Robust Operating Performance: Delivering enhanced operating excellence across all core processes Forward-Looking Insights: Leveraging forward-looking insights into actionable advice to deliver improved business performance Revenue Growth Acceleration: Driving revenue growth acceleration for CPG manufacturers and retailers across sales and marketing Authority on Big Data: Applying knowledge and experience with “big data” to achieve new levels of innovation and foresight People and Client Development: Helping empower employees and clients to grow to their fullest potential Global Expansion: Providing robust, integrated global data coverage and analytical capabilities “Our rebranding signifies our promise to continue providing ingenious solutions and capabilities for our clients to enable growth in a highly fragmented, competitive and complex market,” adds Appel. “We are well positioned to be the catalyst that enables CPG and retail companies to take advantage of new opportunities.” About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: IRI and Costco Wholesale Announce Significant Enhancements to Costco CRX Platform and Launch of Costco CRX Mexico

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:17:05 -0500

CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS – April 16, 2013 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the exclusive provider of Costco point-of-sale (POS) and inventory information to the manufacturer community, and Costco Wholesale today announced several significant improvements to their Costco Collaborative Retail Exchange™ (CRX) program, a single, global solution for category, POS and supply chain tracking at Costco, and the launch of Costco CRX Mexico. “Costco is excited to debut the updated Costco CRX program as our enhanced data and technology will make it even easier for our valued manufacturer community to obtain specific, real-time information about their business at Costco,” said Brad Shelton, executive vice president, Retail Client Solutions, IRI. “Costco is consistently impressed with IRI’s ability to transform our POS information into actionable business insights for manufacturers, and we’re confident that the platform’s new global POS and supply chain management capabilities will further improve our manufacturers’ communications and overall success in Costco stores.” Launched in 2004, the state-of-the-art Costco CRX technology platform gives manufacturers a detailed solution for total Costco tracking. Rather than relying on several disparate data sources to gather information, manufacturers can use this single, overarching tool to obtain a full view of Costco’s global business. The platform provides a consistent set of Costco internal data points to meet all Costco manufacturer needs and facilitate a collaborative relationship between manufacturers and buyers. In August 2012, IRI and Costco migrated the Costco CRX program to the state-of the-art Liquid Data™ technology platform, enabling faster insights. Several data enhancements have also been added during the past year, including category tracking and real-time data. “IRI is committed to growing with Costco as they continue to expand as one of the world’s leading retailers,” said Cindi Harper, senior vice president, Retail Insights and Solutions, IRI. “We developed these innovative new data offerings to directly address vendor requests, and we’re excited to continue improving the Costco CRX program to provide a valuable solution for any manufacturer that wants to improve performance at the world’s largest wholesale club.” Enhanced Category Data Promotes Benchmarking and Proactive Category Performance Management The Costco CRX program’s new “Category Tools” service—the enhancement most frequently requested by participating vendors—provides critical performance benchmarking capabilities. Prior to April 2013, vendors were only able to access their own data, but the new function allows manufacturers to measure performance against the rest of their category as well as all releasable Costco subcategories and segments. With new category data, subscribing manufacturers can identify category trends, track their category performance and gain valuable insight into the competitive landscape. The “Category Tools” service also provides a historical view of seasonal trends and the competitive landscape during the past three years. Historical data allows manufacturers to quickly identify any slight change in category performance and adjust accordingly, while also providing valuable insight for promotional activities, product demonstrations and inventory quantities. Real-Time Sales and Inventory Data Enable Rapid Reaction to Changing Trends In December 2012, IRI and Costco began releasing daily sales and inventory data to the manufacturer community, meeting manufacturers’ requests for a real-time data solution. Every day of the week, the Costco CRX program delivers the previous day’s sales metrics for all items in all stores—a service that no other retailer provides currently. This timely information allows manufacturers to react immediately to the changing retail environment, including identifying and adjusting inventory and streamlining new product launches. Costco CRX Mexico Meets Growing Global Demand In addition to equipping the Costco CRX solution with enhanced technological features, IRI and Costco Wholesale have expanded the program with the launch of Costco CRX Mexico. More than 750 global vendors have participated in the Costco CRX service since it launched in the United States in 2004 and in Canada in 2009. “The Costco CRX platform has been a tremendous success in the United States and Canada, so we’re thrilled to be able to offer our manufacturers in Mexico the same quality solution and enable a more global view of Costco’s sales,” said Mark Feldman, director of sales, Costco Mexico. A Complete Supply Chain Management Solution Because of Costco’s low operating margins, manufacturers must be extremely diligent with forecasting and order management to avoid inventory issues. With Costco CRX’s new, daily, updated suite of supply chain management measures, including POS and inventory information, subscribers can make faster business decisions, driving more accurate forecasting and demand planning, more efficient business practices and better overall success at Costco. The inclusion of three additional inventory metrics (in transit, on order and orders received), complements the program’s existing inventory measures (inventory on hand and average days of supply) to create a full supply chain management solution. Since the launch of Costco CRX’s enhanced supply chain capabilities in 2012, manufacturers have been able to gain a never-before-seen view of their product before it even reaches Costco, allowing for significantly more detailed and accurate forecasting. With these improved forecasts, Costco CRX subscribers can optimize inventory levels at each warehouse, reducing out of stocks and carrying costs, and ultimately lowering operational costs. Improved Seasonal Vendor Program For seasonal items, the difference between daily and weekly sales and inventory insights can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars of order adjustments. However, Costco CRX’s new real-time data gives manufacturers the information needed to make these adjustments before it’s too late. Future Platform Enhancements to Include UPC Level Data In Q2 2013, Costco and IRI will further improve the Costco CRX platform with the addition of UPC-level data. The new UPC component of the Costco CRX database will allow sales visibility by sizes and colors sold at Costco, enabling improved performance tracking of any item with multiple UPCs. This enhancement is particularly critical for apparel and media vendors seeking to manage inventory levels against consumer demand. About Costco Wholesale Costco Wholesale is the largest wholesale club operator in the U.S. The company operates 460-plus membership warehouse stores serving 45 million cardholders in 37 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and the UK, primarily under the Costco Wholesale name. The Company also operates Costco Online, a U.S. electronic commerce web site, at http://www.costco.com. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: IRI and BlueKai Join Forces to Deliver Direct-to-Consumer Audience Platform for Greater Scale in Digital Audience Buying and Beyond

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:17:04 -0500

CPG Manufacturer Agencies and Digital Marketers Can Increase Return on Marketing Investment via New Platform CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS – April 16, 2013 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a leading provider of innovative solutions and services for CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies, has joined forces with BlueKai, a leading complete enterprise data activation platform. The collaboration has resulted in a new direct-to-consumer digital platform to provide CPG manufacturers, agencies and media planners/buyers with the ability to utilize purchase-based, third-party data for targeting at scale. The ability to identify and target prospects and customers is becoming a cross-channel endeavor for many CPG marketers. Digital marketing is an increasingly important part of the advertising mix, especially with today’s savvy shoppers and their extensive product knowledge. Given the increased spending on digital marketing, it is even more critical to understand how these efforts drive results in both online and offline worlds. Marketers are under constant pressure to achieve better results and increase their return on advertising through more precise targeting to focus valuable media dollars on those consumer segments most likely to yield exceptional marketing returns. To address this challenge, IRI and BlueKai have collaborated to deliver a digital direct-to-consumer activation platform that combines BlueKai’s data platform with IRI’s segmentation and predictive modeling solution, ProScore™ Targeting. This platform will focus on shopper segments most valuable to CPG manufacturers, launch direct-to-client, return-on-investment (ROI) studies and facilitate the development of new measurement products. “BlueKai can provide scale and efficiency through their technology expertise and existing publisher, agency and client relationships,” says Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI. “Our strategic partnership enables us to take our targeting solutions and push them into a turnkey data activation system for Fortune 500 CPG manufacturers across thousands of categories, subcategories and brands.” The partnership will also enable the consolidation of different data sources, such as interest, shopping and ecommerce transactions under one technology umbrella to achieve even greater scale for audience buying within one tracking and activation platform. “We’re thrilled to work with IRI to combine our expertise in data management with their expert intelligence on CPG shoppers,” says Omar Tawakol, chief executive officer, BlueKai. “This collaboration enables marketers to tap into quality CPG targeting data and seamlessly activate it to any media channel via BlueKai’s pre-connected platform.” About BlueKai BlueKai is the world’s first and only complete enterprise data activation solution for intelligent marketing. BlueKai offers its customers a system for managing and activating all their 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data in all marketing and customer engagements. BlueKai represents the only end-to-end SaaS solution for marketers and publishers looking to maximize their cross-channel marketing efforts and create a proprietary solution for unlocking reach, scale and efficiency using data. BlueKai leads the data-driven marketing space with the industry’s first, and most advanced, Data Management Platform as well as the industry’s first, and most well-connected, Data Exchange. BlueKai currently works with thousands of companies and is currently trusted by almost half the Fortune 30 brands to activate their data. In 2013 BlueKai was named to Forbes “50 Most Promising US Companies” list as well as Fast Company’s “10 Most Innovative Global Companies in Big Data.” About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: IRI and 7-Eleven® Launch 7-Exchange Next Generation Category Management Solution

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:17:03 -0500

Creates a “Single Version of the Truth” between 7-Eleven and Manufacturer Partners CHICAGO and LAS VEGAS – April 16, 2013 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies, and 7-Eleven, Inc. today announced the launch of 7-Exchange Next Generation™ solution. This new solution will help ensure 7-Eleven and subscribing manufacturer partners work from a “single version of the truth” for such things as identical basket-level transaction data, promotion optimization, trip-mission segments, store segmentation, same store and time-of-day information. This approach will facilitate collaboration and accelerate return on investment for joint activities. “This new solution offers the manufacturer a more robust way to partner with 7-Eleven on their category management processes,” said Brad Shelton, executive vice president, Retail Client Solutions, IRI. “The new 7-Exchange will provide detailed insights into the purchase patterns of almost 7 million guests who visit 7-Eleven in a typical day.” With 7-Exchange Next Generation, 7-Eleven is the first convenience retailer to share basket-level transaction data with its partners through this program to accelerate innovative and more customer-focused products and merchandising approaches. The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution will include standardized category management workflows to encourage stronger alignment between all of 7-Eleven’s external manufacturer-partner activities and internal category management processes, including analysis, execution and measurement of key category sales information. Jim Hendrickson, 7-Eleven’s manager of market research and consumer insights, said, “The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution and its brand-affinity insights provide the detailed data manufacturers and 7-Eleven need to more effectively identify product assortment and merchandising opportunities, design more effective promotional strategies, and identify high- value, cross-merchandising opportunities. This unprecedented access to precise basket-level data gives our manufacturer partners the improved insights they need to thrive at 7-Eleven.” Other key benefits of the 7-Exchange Next Generation service include: Category management process workflows: The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution features standard report templates and workflows to facilitate manufacturer collaboration with 7-Eleven’s category managers. Daypart and conversion analysis: 7-Exchange is powered by time-stamped transaction data for analyzing trends by time of day and day of week. By benchmarking their performance versus category and competing manufacturer performance, decision makers can quickly identify time periods where they might not be maximizing opportunities. Promotion and markdown analysis: The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution measures the impact of promotions and markdowns at the most granular level possible. Using this specific, isolated data, 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners can easily identify which promotions and markdowns are working and which are not, and adjust their strategies accordingly to maximize returns. Trip mission segmentation: Identifying the links between shopper intent and actual purchase patterns has traditionally presented a challenge for 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners, but the 7-Exchange solution demystifies this correlation by classifying every 7-Eleven transaction into one of 10 trip-mission segments. With this insight, 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners can optimize assortment, promotions and other strategies to entice shoppers from each trip-mission segment. Affinity purchase analysis: The 7-Exchange solution’s basket-level transaction data provides previously unavailable product cross-purchase information, giving 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners a higher degree of insight into which products sell best together and how to create highly targeted affinity merchandising and promotional communications and campaigns. Unparalleled results measurement capabilities: 7-Exchange Next Generation’s granular transaction data (UPC, store, basket, timestamp) is updated weekly, giving 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners an unmatched ability to measure the results of all targeted communications promotions and merchandising activities. The new solution’s frequent data updates enable 7-Eleven and its manufacturer partners to build, run and measure specific test and control scenarios without the typical delays associated with other similar solutions. “7-Exchange Next Generation offers IRI clients faster access and more granular insight to 7-Eleven’s basket-level transaction information than ever before,” said Eric Lang, vice president, Shopper Marketing, IRI. “This access enables a more collaborative, insightful and efficient business strategy and execution process with 7-Eleven’s category management team to further grow category and total store sales.” The 7-Exchange Next Generation solution is deployed using IRI’s Retail Advantage™ platform, the latest module under the Retail Advantage product portfolio that empowers integrated insights and closed-loop marketing for retailers and their supplier partners. With its transaction-level data, the Retail Advantage platform is a powerful data-analysis tool that delivers improved access to integrated shopper, basket, panel, POS and third-party insights. Additionally, the Advantage platform offers subscribers the flexibility to expand the 7-Exchange service to include “rest of market” and loyalty data. About 7-Eleven, Inc. 7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 10,000 7-Eleven® stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven has some 50,000 stores in 16 countries. During 2011, 7-Eleven stores generated total worldwide sales close to $84.8 billion. 7-Eleven has been honored by a number of companies and organizations recently. Accolades include: #2 on Forbes magazine’s 2011 list of Top Franchises for the Money; #3 spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 list for 2012, #3 in Forbes magazine’s Top 20 Franchises to Start, and #2 in Franchise Times Top 200 Franchise Companies. 7-Eleven was named No. 3 on Fast Company magazine’s 2013 list of the “World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail.” Hispanic Magazine named 7-Eleven among its Hispanic Corporate Top 100 Companies that provide the most opportunities to Hispanics. 7-Eleven received the 2010 Retailer of the Year honor from PL Buyer because of the company's private-label brand initiative.7-Eleven is franchising its stores in the U.S. and expanding through organic growth, acquisitions and its Business Conversion Program. Find out more online at www.7-Eleven.com. About IRI IRI is a leader in delivering powerful market and shopper information, predictive analysis and the foresight that leads to action. We go beyond the data to ignite extraordinary growth for our clients in the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries by pinpointing what matters and illuminating how it can impact their businesses across sales and marketing. Move your business forward at iriworldwide.com. # # # IRI Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@iriworldwide.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Press Release: SymphonyIRI Enhances Beverly A. Grant’s Role to Include Client Strategy in Addition to Leading Retail Solutions

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:08:55 -0500

Grant Brings Extensive Depth and Breadth of Leadership Experience in Retailer-Manufacturer Collaboration and Unique Client Development Domain Expertise CHICAGO, April 12, 2013 – SymphonyIRI Group, Inc., a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter healthcare companies, announced today that it has enhanced Beverly A. Grant’s role to now include chief client strategy officer in addition to her current duties as president of Retail Solutions. She reports to Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, SymphonyIRI. “Since joining us last year, Beverly has been a great asset to SymphonyIRI, and her proven track record as a strategist makes her ideally suited to take our client engagement model to the next level,” says Appel. “She has a vast amount of client experience, interactions and relationships and is the right leader to help us accelerate growth for our CPG and retail partners.” Before joining SymphonyIRI, Grant spent 26 years at Procter & Gamble in various roles, including vice president, general manager and chief channel officer, North America Grocery Channel; and global business director of Beauty, Market Strategy and Planning, Food, Beverage and Pet Nutrition. Most recently, she led Procter & Gamble’s $8.5 billion retail grocery business, which is a recognized leader in traditional retailer category management and the emerging discipline of shopper execution. “I’m thrilled to take on this new role at SymphonyIRI and tap into my broad experience in the CPG space,” says Grant. “In today’s economic climate, it’s extremely important to have the right strategy in place, and I look forward to working with our clients more closely and delivering the solutions and insights they need to succeed.” "Beverly's involvement with our client teams will help improve dramatically the caliber of our offerings and elevate our ability to serve clients with distinction,” adds Piyush Chaudhari, president of the Americas and Global Strategy, SymphonyIRI." About SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. # # # SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Blog: Success Spotlight: ConAgra Gets Results by Understanding Shoppers’ New Media Habits

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:10:50 -0500

Retailers and marketers increasingly rely on digital media to reach consumers, but it is impossible to effectively interact with consumers without understanding how they use social, mobile and online media. As technology continues to rapidly emerge, marketers must grasp how consumers use digital media while shopping. During our Summit breakout session, Liz Mohr, Director of Shopper Insights for ConAgra Foods, and I, will highlight ConAgra’s vastly effective retailer-specific digital marketing campaign that stimulates increased trips and basket sizes. I will present SymphonyIRI research that segments shoppers according to their use of technology, particularly during their shopping trips. Liz will detail how companies can create and execute segmentation and activation strategies based on shoppers’ online behaviors that yield better results. We hope attendees will walk away with insights on each shopper segment’s unique characteristics, and better understand how this information allows marketers to implement successful digital campaigns and earn stronger ROI. You can join @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation on new media habits of today’s shoppers by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You can find out more information on the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Press Release: Leading Food Service Authority Technomic to Present Strategies for Leveraging Fresh Prepared Foods to Accelerate Growth at 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit Conference

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:06:43 -0500

WHO: Bob Goldin, Executive Vice President and Director, Research & Consulting Division, Technomic, Inc. Wade Hanson, Principal and Director, Retailer Meal Solution Practice Group, Technomic, Inc. WHAT: Offering fresh prepared foods can be a critical growth driver and key differentiator for grocery and club stores. Other channels, including convenience, drug and dollar stores, are attempting to get in the game with their own unique offerings. In their 2013 Summit breakout session, “How and Why Retailer Fresh Prepared Foods Are Gaining Share,” Technomic’s Bob Goldin and Wade Hanson will provide an overview of the fresh prepared foods segment, outline “winning” business models and identify conditions necessary for retailers and suppliers to be successful. Technomic offers rich information, insights and consulting services to the food service industry and ideal expertise for leading a discussion on fresh prepared foods. WHY: Manufacturers and retailers are continuously seeking new opportunities to achieve growth and differentiation. Fresh, prepared food is a category that received limited attention from retail decision makers until recently. In addition, CPG and retail decision makers are eager to gain a 360-degree view of the shopper that includes not only what they research, buy and purchase for consumption at home, but also in restaurants and other venues. Technomic’s solutions and expertise will help Summit attendees take better advantage of fresh prepared food market opportunities, as well as gain additional perspective on consumer behavior and the impact of these behaviors on the food service industry. WHEN: Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 2-2:50 p.m. PDT WHERE: 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit Wynn Las Vegas Latour 5 Conference Room Las Vegas, NV To register: http://bit.ly/Xe0lys About Technomic: Technomic provides clients with the facts, insights and consulting support they need to enhance their business strategies, decisions and results. Its services include numerous publications and digital products, as well as proprietary studies and ongoing research on all aspects of the food industry. About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and over-the-counter healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- Contacts: SymphonyIRI Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675 Technomic Chris Urban E-mail: curban@technomic.com Phone: (312) 876-0004

Press Release: Nation’s Top CPG, Retail and Thought Leaders Reveal Insightful Approaches to Activate Growth at 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 13:08:57 -0500

WHAT: Building on its reputation for raising and tackling the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail industries’ most pressing business issues, SymphonyIRI Group is hosting its 2013 Summit at the Wynn Las Vegas. This world-class conference features an impressive roster of keynote speakers, who are each distinguished leaders within their industries. WHY: Understanding the current and future trends shaping the CPG and retail space and translating those insights into new and innovative growth strategies is the key to success in today’s CPG marketplace. At the 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit, CPG leaders from top manufacturer and retailer companies will uncover new insights to help them better understand consumers and shoppers and learn how to predict emerging opportunities to activate growth. WHO: Building on the theme, “Activate Your Growth Engine,” the agenda for the 2013 Summit will deliver strategies for finding growth opportunities with shoppers via cutting-edge content, predictive analytics, emerging technologies and retail best practices. To deliver these compelling perspectives, SymphonyIRI has assembled an impressive roster of keynote speakers, including: April 16, 2013 8:30-9:15 a.m. Andrew Appel President & Chief Executive Officer, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. “Activate Your Growth Engine” 9:15-9:45 a.m. Ann Mukherjee Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Frito-Lay North America “Transforming Tomorrow Today” 10:15-10:45 a.m. Jim Lecinski Managing Director, Google “Winning in the Zero Moment of Truth” 10:45-11:45 a.m. Nate Silver Pollster & Author “The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail, But Some Don’t” April 17, 2013 8:40-9:40 a.m. Peter Sheahan CEO, ChangeLabs & Author “Making Money in the Cracks: Counter-Intuitive Strategies for Finding Growth and Exploiting New Market Opportunities” 9:40-10:10 a.m. Frederick Larmuseau Senior Vice President, North America, Reckitt Benckiser “The Challenge of Engineering Outperformance” 10:30-11:30 a.m. Michael Treacy Author “Sustaining Double-Digit Growth in any Economy” 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. John Mackey Co-Chief Executive Officer of Whole Foods; He Shares Title with Walter Robb “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” WHEN: April 15-17, 2013 (All times listed are PDT) WHERE: 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit Wynn Las Vegas 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109 http://www.cpgsummit.com About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Blog: Get Personal with Hyper-local Targeting

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:12:46 -0500

Frequently in digital marketing, more is more. But, in some instances, while it can also be an opportunity for decision makers, “more” is actually more of a headache. Hyper-local targeting integrates big data and powerful marketing solutions to target the right product, the right price and promotion through the right channel to a targeted shopper. When marketing something as simple as toothpaste, the choices are nearly endless: peppermint, spearmint, advanced whitening, 12-hour breath control. Given that less than 50 percent of grocery products are sold in grocery stores, what channel(s) should marketers select? And the questions go on. During a breakout session, “Getting Personal with Hyper-local Targeting,” at our upcoming SymphonyIRI Summit, I, along with Willis Duran, Director, Targeting Strategy: CPG & Retail at AOL Advertising, will discuss how to build a strategy that effectively leverages big data and powerful solutions to answer these and related questions. Our focus will be on harnessing these solutions to accelerate sales activation. We will also discuss integrating POS, consumer panel and AOL data. With this information, we can isolate buyers of a brand and target specific incentives designed to increase purchase volume. Or, we can isolate buyers of a competitive brand and target a specific promotion to grab share from a competitor. We will illustrate our points with a recent case study where in just a few short weeks the campaign drove a nearly 6 percent sales lift in dollars for a CPG brand, based on a match-market analysis. Sound interesting? Join our session and come with questions, observations and ideas. If you want to join the discussion early, tweet @symphiri anytime. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit is April 15-17 at the Wynn Las Vegas. More information on the agenda, speakers and other breakout sessions as well as registration is available at: www.cpgsummit.com

Retail Industry News Week of 4/5/13

Mon, 8 Apr 2013 13:45:16 -0500

Sansolo Speaks: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell PCC Makes Commitment To Sell Ethically Sourced Cocoa Walgreen Health Clinics Expand To Handle Chronic Diseases Best Buy To Begin Opening In-Store Samsung Boutiques FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Blog: Integration is the Name of the Game: “Integrating Data in a Big Data Environment” Webcast Recap

Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:05:36 -0500

In today’s fast-paced environment, CPG organizations must have quality data to maintain a competitive edge. Yet, ensuring high data quality and timely data integration in a big data environment can be a major challenge. With numerous disparate data sources, multiple data formats and increasingly high data velocity, many organizations are struggling to accurately and effectively process all of their data in near real time. Handling big data can be a daunting task, and poor big data management can create an uncertain and volatile situation. However, with good integration and the right set of tools, big data becomes entirely manageable. On March 21, Robert Routzahn, marketing manager for IBM InfoSphere Information Server Team, and I presented an InformationWeek webcast entitled, “Integrating Data in a Big Data Environment.” We led off with a discussion of the complexity of big data and the challenges that arise as a result of the “Four Vs”: Volume – the sheer amount of data available Variety – the combination of structured and unstructured data from numerous disparate sources, such as manufacturers, retailers, distributers, websites and third party sources Velocity – the frequent addition of new products and constantly changing product information Veracity – the integrity and trustworthiness of various product information For example, SymphonyIRI works with more than 2 million active products in the United States alone (volume), with more than 3,000 new products added each week (velocity), and our data comes from a broad assortment of sources (variety), some of which are more reliable than others (veracity). In order to put their big data to work, CPG organizations need a continuous, automated data solution that allows them to effectively standardize, classify and integrate their data, essentially transforming fragmented product data into actionable product information. For accurate classification, a successful data solution needs the ability to standardize phrases and words within phrases, and must be able to account for both syntax and semantics, i.e., being able to register “Red Door” as a brand name, and “Red” as a color. At SymphonyIRI, we’ve successfully tackled our data integration challenges with IBM’s InfoSphere DataStage and QualityStage, which provide a simple, reliable means of organizing and tracking complex product data. These data solutions categorize our data into more than 800 product groupings based on more than 600 unique product attributes and allow us to easily develop repeatable processes. Big data can be a significant asset, but only if that data is manageable. For CPG organizations looking to maintain a competitive advantage, the right data management solution is an essential tool for putting big data to work. How are you managing big data, and how has your organization benefitted? Share your experiences in the comments section below! If you missed the InformationWeek webcast and would like to learn more, you can to register for a recorded version of the WebEx here or view the complete slide deck here.

Webinar Replay: State Of The Snack Food Industry

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 13:59:17 -0500

STATE OF THE SNACK FOOD INDUSTRY Presented by SymphonyIRI Group and the Snack Food Association Snacking behavior has clearly escalated in recent years, catapulting the blurring of eating occasions to a whole new level. From frequency and time of day to goals and desires, many snacking influencers are impacted by age and life stage. Understanding how all the pieces fit together is critical, since it’s really the only way to truly serve and satisfy target consumers. Are you poised to deliver exciting new options to keep the attention of consumers who have expanded their snack consideration set well beyond traditional snack aisles? Originally featured at SNAXPO 2013, this presentation discusses the snack food industry’s performance in 2012 and presents the latest industry trends, up-to-date snack food sales data, and consumer insights for major snack food categories. Understand the new, broader snack environment Develop highly tuned marketing programs that bridge the brick and mortar and click and mortar worlds seamlessly Win a larger share of stomach across dayparts Host: Sally Lyons Wyatt, Executive & General Manager, Client Insights, SymphonyIRI Group; with a special introduction from the Snack Food Association Duration: 60 Minutes

In the News: The mass-market fragrance landscape is a tale of two scenarios

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 12:11:31 -0500

In drug stores, such as Walgreens and Duane Reade, fragrances are open and inviting and sold alongside testers to sample scents. Other mass retail chains stash fragrances in what Larry Levin, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer & Shopper Insights at SymphonyIRI Group, described as “prisons.” Keeping fragrances under lock and key could very well contribute to the 4.4% decline in mass market fragrance sales in 2012. Sales fell to $995 million–the first time in several years mass fragrance volume didn’t exceed the $1 billion mark. “I think part of the problem is that few retailers are doing what you see at Duane Reade, where they are bringing interaction back to the fragrance section,” Larry said. Select Duane Reade stores have a fragrance bar where shoppers can spritz up to 40 different scents on their wrists. “If retailers could at least have testers, there may be a better chance of converting [to sales],” he explained. Target also has various tester options, ranging from tethers to prevent shoppers from stealing the tester, to bottles affixed to the shelves. Too many other stores, Larry said, lock up fragrances for fear of pilferage. “I visited one Los Angeles store where it is a struggle to get a fragrance – it takes the fun out of shopping. Something has to be done after two years of decline. It’s the albatross around the mass market because everything else [in beauty] continues to grow, especially nail.” Coty Beauty U.S. said it is working to free fragrances. “As a leader in mass fragrance, Coty pioneered the evolution of locked cases to open sell,” said Derek Bowen, senior vice president of marketing, Coty Beauty U.S. “Unlocking fragrances drives category growth and results in double-digit profit growth.” Coty is also developing tester bars and individual tester bottles on retailers’ walls. Derek said the testers are showing sales growth on the overall houses and “incredible” expansion on individual items with the testers. “Retailer participation is expanding as the results are speaking,” he said. Beyond in-store sampling, a lack of innovation siphons sales, according to Mark Crames, chief executive officer of Demeter Fragrance Library. “There is no more mass fragrance – just old and tired designer fragrance or short-lived celebrity fragrance,” he said. “The industry will launch 300 fragrances this year and 297 of them will be olfactory indistinguishable from each other.” Mark suggested mass fragrances are “simply a less qualified version of the designer scents.” His solution is to start making creative, high quality fragrance, simplified for daily use for a broader audience. Larry’s statistics confirmed that few of the launches in the past year did little to drive consumer appeal. “They struggle to get out of the box,” he said. Only Someday by Justin Bieber cracked into the top selling list as a new item last year. Its sales of $9.3 million put it in fifth position for women’s behind established names such as Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, Viva La Juicy, Red Door and In Style. “In general, consumers are not adapting to new products,” Larry said. The trend is even more notable in men’s scents where value brand Bod Man was tops, followed by classics Stetson, Curve for Men, Davidoff Cool Water and Drakkar Noir. The top selling men’s debut was McGraw Soul2 Soul at $3.7 million. Coty’s Derek said consumers are responding well to body mists and body sprays, which deliver incremental sales instead of stealing from traditional eau de toilettes. A few hits he named are Playboy VIP for Him Body Spray and Playboy for Her Body Mist as well as three light scents under the adidas banner. The future is crucial. “Fragrance is growing beautifully in prestige and department stores, people are still spending money. It is time manufacturers take care of the stepchild and drive sales,” Larry concluded.

Press Release: SymphonyIRI’s Robert Holston to Highlight $10 Billion CPG and Retail Opportunity through Better Use of Advanced Analytics During ARF Re:think Plus Webcast

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 09:37:55 -0500

WHO: Robert Holston, Executive Vice President and Division Lead, Symphony Analytics, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. WHAT: Robert Holston will outline how CPG and retail managers can achieve significant top-line growth impact through a well-executed analytics strategy that focuses on four key initiatives: granular pricing and revenue management, optimization of trade promotion activity, improved innovation development and management, and targeting and personalization of media and 360-degree shopper engagement. In Holston’s presentation, “Analytics2020: A Growth Odyssey, Powering Performance and Marketplace Impact,” he notes that for a manufacturer with $5 billion in annual revenues, the annual potential top-line growth impact can be $185-$235 million. Benefits can also include increases as high as 14 percent in operating income and up to a 12-percentage point higher return on stock performance. WHY: Holston points out that consumers and shoppers are increasingly dynamic. They research the products they plan to purchase and channels at which they will purchase them through more sources than ever before. As late as the 1980s, print, television, radio and embryonic personal computers were the primary means through which shoppers received information. Today, channels range from these traditional media to a wide range of social media, satellite radio and smart devices. However, analytics technology has also advanced, enabling decision makers to keep pace. These advances center around predictive models and science, optimization software and technology, integrated granular data and highly-trained talent to harness the potential of these solutions. WHEN: Wednesday, April 3, 3-3:30 p.m. EDT WHERE: Re:think Plus is a series of webcasts on April 3, 10 and 17, 2013 To register: http://www.thearf.org/rethink-plus-2013.php About ARF: Founded in 1936 by the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) is dedicated to aggregating, creating and distributing research-based knowledge that will help members make better advertising decisions. ARF members include more than 400 advertisers, advertising agencies, associations, research firms, and media companies. The ARF is the only organization that brings all members of the industry to the same table for strategic collaboration. The ARF celebrates more than 75 years as the industry's authoritative source of advertising knowledge. For more information, visit: http://www.thearf.org. About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Retail Industry News Week of 3/29/13

Mon, 1 Apr 2013 14:21:19 -0500

The New Supervalu Makes Executive Changes Sansolo Speaks: Leadership Lessons from the Top To Fight Showrooming, Australian Store Charges Fee For Looking But Not Buying Locker Up: Walmart Tests New Pickup Model For Online Orders FastNewsBeat Executive Suite

Press Release: SymphonyIRI to Moderate Panel on Real-Time Marketing and the Fast-Paced Digital World at IAB Social Media Agency Day

Mon, 1 Apr 2013 08:36:49 -0500

Phil Ripperger to Lead Discussion with Executives from BabyCenter, Everyday Health and Unilever WHO: Phil Ripperger - Vice President of Sales, New Media Solutions, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. WHAT: Phil Ripperger will be a featured panel moderator at the IAB Social Media Day event, “Planning for Real Time.” He will lead a discussion with executives from leading health and beauty brands, including Unilever, BabyCenter and Everyday Health, on the tools and insights that can help drive social effectiveness in the consumer packaged goods industry. WHY: IAB Social Media Agency Day seeks to focus on the importance of keeping up-to-speed with the fast-paced digital world. With the widely known Super Bowl Twitter post by Oreo®/Digital Agency 360i and the 2012 Presidential election (e.g. “Binders full of women” and Big Bird) as prime examples, enhanced targeting and instantaneous results have influenced media planning greatly. At this event, leading brands, media and technology partners will share examples of social analytics and highlight case studies that have impacted real-time marketing practices. The audience will gain additional insights on the speed of the digital culture via topical discussions covering: The meaning of real time and how social media fits into the equation Quality examples of real-time marketing and its impact Measurement best practices and what successful results look like WHEN: Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 2-5 p.m. EDT WHERE: AppNexus Theater 28 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor New York City, N.Y. http://www.iab.net/socialmediaagencyday About Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net. About SymphonyIRI Group SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

In the News: Frugal foodies, quick serve competition and health quests: Snack firms take heed...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:41:21 -0500

Snack firms must battle with frugal consumers, expanded competition and the challenge to remain innovative, exciting and healthy, a leading sector analyst says.

Blog: GRP vs. ROI: Identifying the Best Approaches for Measuring Multi-Channel Campaigns

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:30:58 -0500

Digital marketing is rapidly becoming an important component of marketing programs, with digital media campaigns now consuming a larger percentage of media buying. However, digital media planning and ROI measurement are challenging since the traditional concepts of GRP do not translate well. Taken a step further, marketers are tasked with effectively evaluating and comparing results from various campaign tactics including digital marketing, traditional print, television, radio and out of home. At the upcoming 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit, I will moderate a panel that includes senior executives from Insight Express and Rentrak to discuss strategies to identify and implement the best metrics for media planning and buying. We will also discuss approaches to increase total media ROI through a consistent cross-channel measurement. Attendees will be exposed to different types of evaluation examples that dig deeper into pure digital programs in addition to digital programs integrated with traditional campaigns. Our session will take place on Tuesday, April 16 from 2:00 – 2:50 p.m. in Margaux 2. You can join @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation on best approaches for measuring multi-channel campaigns by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You may find out more information about the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Blog: Disciplined Data Management Essential for Successful Digital Media Campaigns

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:42:01 -0500

In today’s increasingly fragmented media landscape, forward-thinking CMOs are increasingly using audience data to optimize the media buying process. Precise data is not only essential for delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, but is also mandatory for evaluating a campaign’s overall success. As data’s role in media-buying grows, the process of planning, executing and managing an effective digital media campaign is becoming increasingly complicated. To simplify matters, marketing executives are turning to Data Management Platforms (DMPs), holistic solutions that centralize and organize all audience data. The right DMP can help optimize targeting, tracking, analytics, not to mention overall ROI. At this year’s Summit, I will moderate a panel discussion between Cory Treffiletti, senior vice president of Marketing for BlueKai,and Pam Forbus, vice president of Strategic Insights for Frito-Lay,entitled, “Media Mania: Data Discipline Drives Effective Media Buying.” The breakout session will accentuate the benefits of streamlined, disciplined data usage across various aspects of digital media buying, including cross-media targeting, data collection and campaign evaluation. Attendees will learn the objectives and mechanics of a DMP and discover how the right DMP can simplify the entire digital media buying process and improve ROI. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You can find details on the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions and sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com. Join the conversation on Twitter by following @symphiri #sigsummit.

Retail Industry News Week of 3/22/13

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:23:45 -0500

Publix Tests Nutrition, Meal Planning Services Sansolo Speaks: Destroying Success the Family Way Safeway Files For Blackhawk IPO Walmart Says Its E-commerce Sales Are Accelerating Faster Than Expected Starbucks Expands Loyalty Program To Grocery Aisles Supervalu Completes Sale Of Five Banners To Cerberus-Owned Albertsons LLC Starbucks To Open 3,000 Stores in Americas Over Next Five Years FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

In the News: Why Beer Marketers Don't Spend Much on Joe Six-Pack Anymore

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:59:02 -0500

Subpremium Suds Like Busch, Keystone Light Yield 'Fast Nickels,' But Advertising More-Expensive Brews Brings in "Slow Dimes'

SymphonyIRI Speaks: Shopper Marketing Summit

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:28:03 -0500

April 8 - 10, 2013 Location: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel - Schaumburg, IL Description: The Shopper Marketing Summit is a gathering of industry intelligence; an intimate setting where executives across the entire ecosystem of shopper marketing - consumer product marketers, retailers, agency executives and solution providers - converge to collaborate, learn and share experiences and insights about the ever-evolving path to purchase. SymphonyIRI Speakers: Larry Levin, Executive General Manager, Consumer Insights, SymphonyIRI Group Session Timing: Wednesday, April 10 - 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Session Description: New Media Mix: The Impact for Marketers - Hear insights and expertise from Valassis on how shifts in shopping, purchasing and media behaviors are compelling marketers to re-evaluate media plans and how these shifts connect with value-conscious consumers throughout the path to purchase (using the McKinsey & Company cyclical model). Then listen to a panel of leading CPG, retail and agency executives discuss real-life examples of proven integrated media strategies, the changes in shopper marketing and the importance of targeting the right consumer with the right offer in the right media. In this session, you'll hear: How to target and engage consumers with the media of their choice before, during and after the purchase. Real-life examples of implementing the new media mix from industry experts. An understanding of how to apply a combination of print and digital - the new media mix - to drive shopper programs. Learn More: http://www.shoppersummit.com/

SymphonyIRI Speaks: Human Resource Management Association of Chicago 2013 Leadership Series: Metrics - Driving Business Results

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:12:36 -0500

June 5, 2013 Location: The Standard Club - Chicago, IL Description: Hear case studies from panelists who have successfully drawn insights from human capital data to reach their company goals and drive business results. Program topics will include talent management, HR trends and workforce analytics, evaluating performance, and strategic human capital challenges. SymphonyIRI Speakers: Piyush Chaudhari, President of the Americas, SymphonyIRI Group Session Timing: 8:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Learn More: http://www.hrmac.org/events/event.asp?EVENT_ID=662&F_DATE=6%2F5%2F2013

Blog: Harvesting the Pearls of New Products: Lessons Learned

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:57:57 -0500

Even during the very best of times, launching a successful CPG product is a challenge. Despite the challenges and perilously low new product success rates, manufacturers and retailers continue to enhance their new product development initiatives…and for good reason. After all, new products create buzz and excitement, help consumers with their daily lives and build and strengthen brand loyalty. In today’s world, the success of new products is dictated heavily by the shopper’s pursuit for value and innovation, so it’s more important than ever for CPG and retail decision makers to devote massive resources to product development, marketing, merchandising and promotion to communicate these product attributes. At the upcoming SymphonyIRI Summit, my colleague, Larry Levin, executive general manager of Consumer Insights, and I will address this issue and offer insights into common attributes of the most successful new products. We will also discuss the best new CPG products of 2012 and how they managed to breathe life into the industry. Do you have best practices you’d like to share? What was your favorite new CPG product launch of 2012? You can join @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation about new CPG products by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You can find out more information on the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Press Release: SymphonyIRI Featured in InformationWeek’s “Integrating Data in a Big Data Environment” Webcast

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:18:12 -0500

WHO: Jay Yusko, Vice President of Technology Research, SymphonyIRI Group WHAT: Jay Yusko will join Robert Routzahn, marketing manager, IBM InfoSphere Information Server Team, to discuss how SymphonyIRI successfully tackled its data integration challenges in an upcoming InformationWeek Webcast: “Integrating Data in a Big Data Environment.” Learning points that will be discussed include: The critical capabilities a data integration and data quality solution must provide in a big data environment How those capabilities are deployed to optimize performance The business benefits of the capabilities WHY: Ensuring good data quality and timely data integration in a big data environment is a significant challenge facing many organizations. Numerous data sources, multiple data formats and increasing data velocity combine to create a highly uncertain and volatile situation for any organization that needs to process all of that data in near real time, or in batch. WHEN: Thursday, March 21, 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT WHERE: Register online at: https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1005592&K=CAA1AC About Jay Yusko: Jay Yusko is vice president of technology research at SymphonyIRI Group. His primary area of research focuses on data quality, product information management and classification of consumer packaged goods product information. He has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in computer science from DePaul University and a doctorate in computer science from Illinois Institute of Technology. He has worked in the area of artificial intelligence and expert systems since the early 1980s. Yusko has served on the IBM InfoSphere Customer Advisory Board, the QualityStage Technical Advisory Board and the QualityStage Customer Design Review Board. He is an IBM Champion in the area of the IBM InfoSphere product line. He holds a patent on product similarity and has two patents pending: a second patent on product similarity and another on product information management. About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

State Of The Snack Food Industry Webinar

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:51:38 -0500

STATE OF THE SNACK FOOD INDUSTRY Snacking behavior has clearly escalated in recent years, catapulting the blurring of eating occasions to a whole new level. From frequency and time of day to goals and desires, many snacking influencers are impacted by age and life stage. Understanding how all the pieces fit together is critical, since it’s really the only way to truly serve and satisfy target consumers. Are you poised to deliver exciting new options to keep the attention of consumers who have expanded their snack consideration set well beyond traditional snack aisles? Originally featured at SNAXPO 2013, this presentation will discuss the snack food industry’s performance in 2012 and present the latest industry trends, up-to-date snack food sales data, and consumer insights for major snack food categories. Understand the new, broader snack environment Develop highly tuned marketing programs that bridge the brick and mortar and click and mortar worlds seamlessly Win a larger share of stomach across dayparts Host: Sally Lyons Wyatt, Executive & General Manager, Client Insights, SymphonyIRI Group Date: Wednesday, April 3rd Time: 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. PT; 11:00 to 12:00 p.m. CT; 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. ET Register today!

Retail Industry News Week of 3/15/13

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:14:25 -0500

Fairway Said To Be Planning April IPO Sansolo Speaks: Finding Killer Apps That Work Study: E-commerce On Track To Be Ten Percent Of All U.S. Retail Sales Whole Foods Plans Upscale Health Resort Target Expands Health Clinic Presence In Windy City Area FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Press Release: SymphonyIRI’s Sally Lyons Wyatt to Deliver the State of the Snack Food Industry at 2013 SNAXPO

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:27:12 -0500

WHO: Sally Lyons Wyatt – Executive & General Manager, Client Insights, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. WHAT: SymphonyIRI’s snacking expert, Sally Lyons Wyatt, will discuss the snack food industry’s performance in 2012 and present the latest industry trends, up-to-date snack food sales data, and consumer insights for major snack food categories in her presentation “State of the Snack Food Industry” at SNAXPO 2013. WHY: Snacking behavior has clearly escalated in recent years, catapulting the blurring of eating occasions to a whole new level. From frequency and time of day to goals and desires, many snacking influencers are impacted by age and life stage. Understanding how all the pieces fit together is critical, since it’s really the only way to truly serve and satisfy target consumers. Consumers are looking for exciting new options to satisfy their quest for hunger, nutrition and indulgence across dayparts, and they have expanded their snack consideration set well beyond the traditional snack aisles to do so. As a result, competition within the industry has risen to a whole new level, and it’s time to get those competitive juices really flowing. To develop a keen understanding of how to grasp the rays of light that are shining through the ongoing economic clouds, snack marketers must view their industry through a new, broader lens. Attendees of this presentation will gain deep new insights that will help them to: Understand the new, broader snack environment Develop highly tuned marketing programs that bridge the brick and mortar and click and mortar worlds seamlessly Win a larger share of stomach across dayparts WHEN: Monday, March 18, 9-10 a.m. EDT WHERE: Tampa Marriott Waterside Tampa Convention Center Tampa, FL http://www.snaxpo.com About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Blog: Take Evasive Action - Use Sophisticated Revenue Management Analytics to Avert Margin Squeeze

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:39:58 -0500

As global commodity and energy prices rise, the CPG industry continues to experience and witness an increasing disconnect between manufacturers’ ability to price appropriately and shoppers’ appetite to accommodate price increases. Despite shoppers’ unwillingness to pay more for certain products, commodity prices continue to rise, forcing CPG leaders to make difficult choices regarding their pricing strategy. Given the challenges in the marketplace, it has become crucial for CPG and retail decision makers to develop and implement informed and creative pricing strategies by leveraging analytics to reveal pricing programs that are both consumer and margin friendly. In our breakout session, “Navigating Price Turbulence 2.0: Avoid the Squeeze,” we will present an overview of the most critical analytic elements required to build a successful revenue management program: setting the price, getting the price and keeping the price We will demonstrate that a well thought out, multi-pronged analysis program will enable CPG leaders to develop pricing strategies, optimize promotional tactics, and drive successful execution through their organizations and down to retailers and consumers. We also will highlight case studies that illustrate a framework to successfully develop these capabilities. You can join @Analytics2020 and @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation on revenue management analytics by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You can find out more information on the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Blog: Winning the Integrated Marketing Marathon: New ROI Metrics Go Past Marketing Mix Modeling to Maximize Long-Term Results

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:50:06 -0500

Long-term integrated marketing strategies require intensive planning and thorough evaluation of numerous disciplines and activities. It’s a lot of work, but the juice is worth the squeeze. The benefits include sustained increases in revenue and profitability, as well as optimized resource allocation. The long-term power and value of integrated marketing is clear, but comprehensive marketing plans remain extremely difficult to organize and evaluate. Marketing mix modeling as it is executed today ignores consumers, and traditional ROI metrics do not always present the full picture from long-term brand sustainability. For example, assessing a marketing strategy based on the effectiveness of its individual components does not account for the very real impacts the various components have upon one another. Marketing mix has become an essential foundational research technique, particularly from a marketing accountability management and optimization perspective. However, this entry-level strategy is not enough on its own. Brands seeking to stay ahead of the competition need to overlay other analytics tools on top of marketing mix to really maximize information value and drive sustainable brand growth. By adding advanced performance measurement and optimization strategies, marketers can move beyond contemporary utilitarian mix modeling applications. New evaluation strategies account for the sum total of all marketing efforts and are more conducive to executing an effective, long-term integrated marketing strategy. Why isn’t marketing mix modeling enough on its own? Which new metrics and measurement tactics are most effective? What are the critical phases of developing an optimal long-term marketing plan? Which consumer conversion drivers impact micro-level consumption, and which brand equity drivers have the strongest impact on brand health and consumer perception? We will address these and other key questions during my breakout presentation, “Moving Beyond Marketing Mix Modeling: New Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Results,” at the SymphonyIRI Group Summit 2013. Based on work conducted with Professor Carl Mela of Duke University, the session will review key capabilities for creating and measuring a successful, long-term, integrated marketing plan. Join Symphony Analytics executive Patrick Moriarty,Ph.D., and me on Wednesday, April 17 in LaTour 5 at 2 p.m. to gain insight into the critical phases of developing an optimal long-term marketing plan. We will use case studies from actual strategy projects to illustrate key points and will provide details on how to drive thoughtful, directive insights that effectively measure marketing ROI to drive brand conversion at a consumer level. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. To view the schedule, find out more about speakers and breakout sessions, and register to attend, please visit: www.cpgsummit.com.

Retail Industry News Week of 3/8/13

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:05:51 -0500

Rite Aid Expands Online Doctor's Care Program Sansolo Speaks: Postcards From the Future Supervalu Announces Executive Changes Walmart Sees Small Format Stores As Making Competitive Inroads Peapod Battles FreshDirect in NYC FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch

Press Release: SymphonyIRI to Detail Performance and Market Trends for Branded and Private-Label OTC Products and Dietary Supplements at CHPA 2013

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:41:44 -0500

WHO: Bob Sanders, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Client Insights, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. Larry Levin, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Consumer Insights, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. WHAT: Bob Sanders and Larry Levin will provide a comprehensive overview of recent industry performance and emerging trends for branded and private-label, over-the-counter (OTC) products and dietary supplements in a joint presentation, “What’s In, What’s Out, What’s Ahead: OTC Marketplace Trends.” Sanders and Levin will address a variety of OTC topics, including industry forecasts, consumer and shopper psycho-demographics, innovation, industry analytics and marketing practices. Sanders and Levin will help audience members better understand how current and emerging trends will specifically impact their business throughout 2013. WHY: Value consciousness is no longer a segment but a macro trend enabled by technology. While this is evident in all of the research, the path to purchase varies significantly across different segments of shoppers. Certain shoppers deliberately plan their shopping trips, while others are influenced to a greater extent in the store. These differences support the importance for identifying, prioritizing, refining, optimizing and activating the purchase decision. WHEN: Tuesday, March 12, 10 a.m. EDT WHERE: CHPA's 2013 Annual Executive Conference The Ritz Carlton Golf Resort Naples, FL http://www.chpa-info.org/AEC/ About CHPA: The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), founded in 1881, is a member-based association representing the leading manufacturers and distributors of nonprescription, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and dietary supplements. Many CHPA member products provide millions of Americans with safe, effective, and convenient therapies for the treatment and prevention of many common ailments and diseases. For more information, visit: http://www.chpa-info.org/. About SymphonyIRI Group: SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Blog: The Virtual Crystal Ball: A Glimpse at Shoppers’ Minds

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:16:15 -0500

With the millions of options available to consumers today, how can you ensure that they will be motivated to select your product at the shelf at that moment of truth? Many factors contribute to a buyer’s choice, some more obvious than others. These factors can range from brand loyalty to “pre-store” path and purchase activities to everything they see once in the store, including product packaging, pricing, shelf placement and in-store communications. At the upcoming 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit, I will co-present a case study with Daniel Jenski, associate director of analytics for Mondelez. We will provide insights on how companies can elevate sales with in-store marketing activities to stimulate shopper engagement and win a sale. Attendees will walk away from the session with knowledge on how to effectively utilize virtual shopping and post-shopping surveys to increase the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. Our session will take place on Tuesday, April 16 at 3:15 p.m. in LaTour 5. You can join @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation on shoppers’ minds, choices and motivations by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You may find out more information about the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Blog: Exciting and Activating Shoppers: Shopper Marketing Strategies Provide a Playbook

Fri, 8 Mar 2013 09:16:35 -0600

Does your company have the ability to excite and activate shoppers, driving them to actually purchase a product or visit a store rather than simply considering a brand or banner? Core research, analytics and other competencies enable companies to better understand specific details regarding consumer and shopper behavior, but do not motivate purchasing decisions alone. Companies must effectively leverage these tools to convert data and insights into strategic, actionable campaigns, stimulating growth at the consumer and shopper level. I, along with my colleague, Wendy Solomon, will co-present at the upcoming 2013 SymphonyIRI Summit with Ivan Arrington, senior manager of insights at Butterball, LLC on “How Can You Excite and Activate Shoppers? Shopper Marketing Strategies Provide a Playbook.” During this breakout session, we will provide the latest in shopper marketing strategies and insights. We will also demonstrate how to accelerate a company’s growth by applying these insights throughout the entire organization. Our hope is that attendees will walk away with the ability to apply their knowledge of shopper behavior and attitudes to their company’s tactical and executable activation plans. The session will take place on Monday, April 15 at 3:00 p.m. in Margaux 2. Join the discussion, ask questions or provide us with your thoughts about what else you’d like to get out of this session by leaving comments on this blog or reaching out to us on Twitter: @Symphiri. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You may find out more information about the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

Times and Trends: CPG Year in Review Webinar Replay

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 15:48:37 -0600

TIMES & TRENDS: 2012 CPG YEAR IN REVIEW Finding the New Normal Although the official end of The Great Recession was nearly three years ago, the country is far from establishing a firm foothold on economic growth and stability. Consumers and marketers alike are very aware of this reality, and as a result, 2012 was yet another year marked by conservative consumer behaviors. Amplified industry competition is yet another key influencer of 2012 trends. Are you utilizing learnings from 2012 to rev up your engine and stimulate growth in 2013? To move ahead effectively, it is important to begin by reflecting on the past. This webinar explores the lessons of 2012 through the lens of economic, channel, department and category performance. Watch this session to benchmark your performance versus the industry and understand market opportunities and risks for the coming year. Understand which 2012 trends are forecasted to continue into 2013 as well as which new trends you can expect to become pervasive. Gain an intimate understanding of permeating market forces and how they impact your most important shoppers. Build a bridge of near constant and real-time communication with these shoppers that will drive purchase behavior and solidify long-term shopper loyalty. Host: Susan Viamari, Editor of Times & Trends, SymphonyIRI Group Duration: 50 Minutes

Press Release: MSA Adds SymphonyIRI Scan-Based Convenience-Channel Benchmarks To Its Dataservices Portal for Wholesalers

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 13:21:06 -0600

Pittsburgh, PA – March 1, 2013 – Management Science Associates, Inc. (MSA) and SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. are forming an alliance that will bring the SymphonyIRI AllScan™ Convenience Store Tracking Service to the convenience distributor community through MarketView on Demand™, a web-based application that offers best-practice insights based on data captured by AllScan. MSA will act as the exclusive reseller of MarketView on Demand’s projected consumer take-away data, delivering valuable convenience marketplace performance, benchmark, price and promotional information through its Dataservices portal. "Creating an affordable and agile offering of SymphonyIRI's industry-standard AllScan projected scanner data for the distributor community is yet another advancement in equipping wholesalers with critical marketplace data to help them understand and grow their business," commented Suzy Silliman, Managing Director of MSA's Information Solutions Division. "The wholesaler has a wealth of enterprise and shipment-oriented data available but has always been reliant on its suppliers for consumer purchase data. MarketView on Demand will equip distributors who want to be self-sufficient and provide visibility into ‘black holes’ like retail pricing and item performance within DSD (Direct Store Delivery) and hybrid categories." "MSA supports a network of more than 3,000 wholesaler sites and has the infrastructure in place to deliver relevant views into the AllScan data tailored to the needs of distributor subscribers," explained Kevin O’Malley, Senior Vice President of Content Product Management, SymphonyIRI. "SymphonyIRI sees this as a tremendous opportunity to increase the use of AllScan throughout the channel and reinforce it as the ‘single source’ of convenience store insights across manufacturers, distributors and retailers." MarketView on Demand will be available from MSA with trended weekly data in a variety of time aggregates in the reports starting with Q1 2013. Available reports include Product Performance Rankings within each SymphonyIRI category for Total U.S., four census regions and eight SymphonyIRI regions. MSA can align SymphonyIRI’s 300-plus categories to NACS’ categories as an enhancement to the basic offering upon request. In addition to item rankings within categories, the reports include Cross Category Performance and Growth, and New Emerging Products Tracking. AllScan revolutionized the industry with its 100 percent, point-of-sale based sample. It delivers highly-accurate data and unmatched business insights to help manufacturers, distributors and retailers improve category management effectiveness and retail execution. SymphonyIRI receives data from more than 19,000 scanning stores generating accurate and granular coverage of the entire TDLinx/NACS-defined channel, including all 149,000-plus independents, small chains and large chain stores. MSA’s Dataservices portal is the web destination where wholesalers manage their store/item-level MSA data submissions for critical trade dollars and category management activities, track their promotional product distribution goals, access the industry’s most robust shipments-data benchmarks and leverage MSA reporting solutions for competitive advantage. About SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. About MSA MSA is the acknowledged leader in data management, integration and analysis in the consumer goods, media and metals industries. Since its incorporation in 1963, MSA has partnered with customers to identify areas where innovative uses of data can foster growth or drive efficiency. Combining its expertise with the tools of information management, analytics, data management, and software and systems technology, MSA develops, integrates, implements and maintains products and services in various functional and vertical domains. Within processes, departments, across large and small enterprises, and throughout demand and supply chains, MSA helps customers put their data to work. For more information, go to www.MSA.com. MSA’s Information Management Solutions (IMS) Division specializes in the development of software and other systems that facilitate the collection, processing, analysis and delivery of business data and information. Data sources managed by MSA include distributor shipments, inventory and reference data, as well as manufacturer shipments, syndicated sources and consumer takeaways. Additional information about IMS can be found at www.MSA.com/cpg_connection/. Contact: Shelley Hughes SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. Email: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: 312-474-3675 Steve Levey Management Science Associates, Inc. Email: SLevey@MSA.com Phone: 412-362-2000

Retail Industry News Week of 3/1/13

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 12:32:46 -0600

Report: Flowers Foods Set To Finalize $360 Million Wonder Bread Acquisition Sansolo Speaks: The Changeable Nature of a Reputation Publix Mulling Bid For Harris Teeter The Real Secret Inside Fast Feeders' Hidden Menus FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Press Release: SymphonyIRI Beer Expert Provides 2012 Year-End Results on Beer Category and Craft Beer Segment

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:32:22 -0600

WHO: Dan Wandel – Senior Vice President, Beverage Alcohol Client Insights, SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. WHAT: The beer category saw its sales improve in 2012, which was driven in large part by innovation throughout the category. SymphonyIRI beverage alcohol expert, Dan Wandel, will examine how the beer category and craft segment performed during the past year and also will discuss the outlook in 2013 for the craft beer segment in his presentation, “Yes! Craft CAN,” during the Brewers Association Power Hour interactive teleconference. WHY: The craft segment continues to be one of the true success stories in the beer industry for the past several years, and 2012 was no exception. Wandel’s presentation will take a closer look at where craft beers are succeeding and will address such critical questions as: What were the latest sales trends for the beverage alcohol category for 2012? How did the beer category and craft segment, in particular, perform in 2012? What were the top-selling craft beer styles in 2012? What were the hot new beer brands in 2012? Which vendors are driving craft sales growth? WHEN: Feb. 28, 2013, 12 p.m. CT WHERE: Brewers Association Power Hour Online, Interactive Teleconference Series Free for Brewers Association members; for all others, $99 to participate To pre-register, contact Pete Johnson at pete@brewersassociation.com http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/business-tools/power-hour About SymphonyIRI Group SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. -###- SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

Blog: Eager to Sustain Profitability? Try Adopting New Strategic Approaches to Elevate your Growth!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:20:28 -0600

Your company, brands, categories and retail partners enjoy a competitive advantage and effective growth as a result of your strategic management, right? At least, I hope that’s the case. Yet, many CPG leaders invariably succumb to the wicked cycle of increasing price promotions and the inability to drive margin improvement. A hovering 2 percent annual organic growth haunts CPG companies, encouraging market leaders to seek new tactics with integrated approaches to planning pricing, collaborating and executing to drive performance. Companies that practice revenue growth management experience higher rates of success in sales, market share and brand strength. For example, a company that earns $5 billion in sales may be able to generate enough value to earn an additional $100-200 million. Here are some examples of how a company can maximize this opportunity: Channel investment towards strategic brands that align with evolving shopper trends. Develop advantageous partnerships with top retailers and redirect investments disproportionately towards those retailers. Improve the ROI on pricing and trade investments across both EDLP and shopper marketing events. Develop a robust pricing strategy and price architecture that supports growth and addresses the challenges from major competitors. At the upcoming 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit, Columbia University Professor Garrett van Ryzin and I will present leading academic work, practical commercial advances and new developments in online pricing dynamics. Our breakout session will further elaborate on how companies can elevate growth prospects with new frameworks and perspectives that form a comprehensive plan for each product. Audience members will learn how to effectively apply these concepts to brand, commercial and sales planning. You can join @Analytics2020 and @Symphiri on Twitter for a conversation on revenue management analytics by using #sigsummit. The 2013 SymphonyIRI Group Summit will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas from April 15-17, 2013. You may find out more information about the agenda, speakers and breakout sessions as well as sign up to attend here: www.cpgsummit.com.

SymphonyIRI at Conference: NACDS Total Store Expo

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:55:31 -0600

NACDS Total Store Expo August 10 – 13, 2013 Location: Sands Expo and Convention Center - Las Vegas, NV Description: The Total Store Expo is a new concept for trading partners. It will promote Teamwork, Synergy and Execution. It will feature Trade Show Excitement and allow for both Tactical and Strategic Exchange. When the NACDS Total Store Expo debuts August 10 – 13, 2013, our industry will participate in a one-of-a-kind business development opportunity. By combining the best of the Marketplace Conference, the Pharmacy and Technology Conference and the Supply Chain & Logistics Conference, participants will have opportunities to take their trading partner collaborations to the next level. Be sure to visit SymphonyIRI Group in booth 4141! Learn More: http://tse.nacds.org/

Retail Industry News Week of 2/22/13

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:25:25 -0600

Google Considering Opening Retail Stores Best Buy Makes Price Matching Policy Permanent West Oakland Residents Try To Raise Funds To Open A Local Supermarket Albertsons Unveils New Leadership Roles, Emphasizes Company Roots Plamann To Retire From Unified Grocers Safeway Tests New Debit Card In Sacramento Stores FastNewsBeat The MNB Wal-Mart Watch Executive Suite

Press Release: New SymphonyIRI Report Recaps 2012 CPG Trends and Predicts Trends for 2013

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:05:42 -0600

Recession-era Frugality Remains; Millennials Continue to Make Valuable Impact; and “New” Media Transitions to “Traditional” Media CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2013 – Reverberations from the nation’s economic rollercoaster ride have been felt throughout the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry for several years now, and 2012 was no exception. Consumers are still attempting to ease budgetary strains and are embracing a wide variety of money-saving strategies. The latest research from SymphonyIRI Group’s Times & Trends, “2012 CPG Year in Review: Finding the New Normal,” provides insights into today’s capricious consumers and the impact their behaviors are having on CPG growth trends. “For 2012, we forecasted that shoppers would continue to define value largely based on price, manufacturers and retailers would pass ongoing commodity price increases on to the shopper, and private label sales would continue in their current ranges,” says Piyush Chaudhari, president of the Americas, SymphonyIRI. “These predictions largely came to pass, and we expect 2013 to resemble these same trends in many ways.” SymphonyIRI predicts shoppers will remain frugal in 2013, even though there will be continuing signs of economic recovery and strengthening. In addition, the following trends identified in 2012 will continue in 2013: Shoppers will reduce the number of channels they visit. Share of consumers shopping at fewer than five channels grew three percentage points between Q1 and Q4 2012, and SymphonyIRI believes this will continue as shoppers limit spending to channels that are perceived as offering the best value. While an increasing number of positive economic signs are emerging, count on shoppers to remain intensely focused on value. There is enough negative news about the federal budget deficit and costs of the new healthcare law, for example, to reinforce shoppers’ frugal behaviors left over from the last recession. Millennials are becoming the new baby boomers. They are a 50-million-strong-shopping group now forming habits and loyalties. Tailoring offerings to this group and providing outstanding service will pay dividends for decades to come, both literally and figuratively. “New” media is rapidly becoming traditional media. The trend of shoppers leveraging the Internet for information and deals is growing and will continue to gain momentum, as millennials age and a new generation that is even more tech savvy than the millennial generation enters the market. ”The nation is far from having a firm foothold on growth and stability, and consumers and marketers alike are very aware of this reality,” says Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, SymphonyIRI. “Consumers’ pursuit for value is as intense as ever, and it has served to amplify industry competition. Innovation that supports key shopper rituals, such as those around self-driven, home-based living, is being well received in the marketplace and will continue to help spur growth.” To effectively compete in 2013, CPG manufacturers and retailers should consider the following action items: Identify opportunities and risks: Manufacturers should closely track the evolving competitive set at the channel and retail level, including traditional brick-and-mortar as well as the online arena, to ensure appropriate alignment of distribution strategies. Retailers should use value-oriented pricing and promotion programs to protect and grow share, particularly across categories that are most closely aligned with the needs and wants of key shoppers. Evaluate pricing and promotional strategies: Manufacturers should continually re-assess and adjust pricing to maintain optimal price gap between private label and name brand offerings. Retailers should adopt everyday pricing strategies that underscore their value proposition and rely on promotional pricing to address short-term tactical opportunities. Enhance new product development initiatives: Manufacturers should constantly evaluate product development opportunities at the value and premium ends of the spectrum, including those that address key consumer trends. Retailers should explore opportunities to partner with manufacturers to develop complementary national and private label assortments across categories. SymphonyIRI Times & Trends Webinar SymphonyIRI is offering a free webinar entitled “2012 CPG Year in Review,” at 11 a.m. CT on March 7. To register for this webinar, hosted by Susan Viamari, editor of Times & Trends, visit: http://www.symphonyiri.com/NewsEvents/EventsWebinars/CenterStore/tabid/281/Default.aspx. About the Report This month’s Times & Trends, “2012 CPG Year in Review: Finding the New Normal,” is a free report available from SymphonyIRI, the world’s leading innovation partner that enables CPG, retail and healthcare companies to create and maximize new opportunities. The findings of this report were compiled based on information from SymphonyIRI Market Advantage™ and SymphonyIRI Consumer Network™. To download the report, visit: http://www.symphonyiri.com/Insights/Publications/TimesTrends/tabid/106/Default.aspx. About SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. SymphonyIRI Group is a global leader in innovative solutions and services for the CPG, retail and healthcare industries. SymphonyIRI uniquely combines powerful market and shopper information, predictive analytics, flexible technology solutions and consulting services to help its clients drive and grow their businesses. For more information, visit: http://www.SymphonyIRI.com. # # # SymphonyIRI Group Contacts: John McIndoe E-mail: John.McIndoe@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3862 Shelley Hughes E-mail: Shelley.Hughes@SymphonyIRI.com Phone: (312) 474-3675

In the News: New York’s Ale Awakening: How a Cocktail City Learned to Love Beer

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:32:05 -0600

In the News: New York’s Ale Awakening: How a Cocktail City Learned to Love Beer

In the News: Yogurt Boom - ‘Greek’ phenomenon achieving pacesetter status

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:32:05 -0600

In the News: Yogurt Boom - ‘Greek’ phenomenon achieving pacesetter status

In the News: SymphonyIRI Group, 8th & Walton to offer insights on Walmart POS data

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:32:05 -0600

In the News: SymphonyIRI Group, 8th & Walton to offer insights on Walmart POS data

Times & Trends: 2012 CPG Year In Review Webinar

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:39:40 -0600

Although the official end of The Great Recession was nearly three years ago, the country is far from establishing a firm foothold on economic growth and stability. Consumers and marketers alike are very aware of this reality, and as a result, 2012 was yet another year marked by conservative consumer behaviors. Amplified industry competition is yet another key influencer of 2012 trends. Are you utilizing learnings from 2012 to rev up your engine and stimulate growth in 2013? To move ahead effectively, it is important to begin by reflecting on the past. Based on SymphonyIRI’s newly released Times & Trends report, this webinar explores the lessons of 2012 through the lens of economic, channel, department and category performance. Attend this session to benchmark your performance versus the industry and understand market opportunities and risks for the coming year. Understand which 2012 trends are forecasted to continue into 2013 as well as which new trends you can expect to become pervasive. Gain an intimate understanding of permeating market forces and how they impact your most important shoppers. Build a bridge of near constant and real-time communication with these shoppers that will drive purchase behavior and solidify long-term shopper loyalty. Host: Susan Viamari, Editor of Times & Trends, SymphonyIRI Group Date: Thursday, March 7th Time: 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. PT; 11:00 to 12:00 p.m. CT; 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. ET Click here to register today!

Times and Trends: CPG Year in Review - Finding the New Normal

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:05:10 -0600

Three years after the official end of The Great Recession, the new world of consumer packaged goods (CPG) presses on. June of 2010 marked the beginning of the recovery. From the start, few, if anyone, thought the recovery would be quick and easy. Some, perhaps, understood the long and difficult road to recovery, and what a long trip it has been! The economy has improved, but is far from having a firm foothold on growth and stability, and consumers and marketers alike are very aware of this reality. As a result, 2012 was yet another year marked by conservative consumer behaviors. The pursuit for value is as intense as ever, and it has served to amplify industry competition. This is the story of an evolving consumer packaged goods industry. It is an industry that is moving toward a new tomorrow. But, to move ahead effectively, it is important to begin by reflecting on the past. After all, history is the best teacher. The year 2012 certainly provided many lessons for CPG marketers. This issue of Times & Trends explores those lessons through the lens of economic, channel, department and category performance. The report is intended to help CPG marketers understand those lessons and resulting market opportunities and risks by benchmarking performance versus the industry.

Blog: Anyone Still Watching?

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:29:27 -0600

Viewing Habits, Like Everything Else about TV, Are Changing – Part 1 It wasn’t so long ago that the television was a piece of furniture in the living room that the family sat around after dinner. There were about five channels and all were black and white. As recently as 10 years ago, TVs were still at least one foot deep, viewers could plug in cable, a DVD player and maybe a receiver, but not much else. Fast forward to today, and there is little resemblance to the TV experience of old. A thick TV today measures one inch versus one foot, hundreds of channels abound, people stream video from their laptops, connect their TVs to the Internet and create viewing experiences beyond the wildest dreams of the first TV owners. Along with the TV and its various components, how people view TV and its role in their lives has also changed. With so many options for entertainment today available on so many different devices, does television advertising still have the same impact on consumers? The answer is yes and no. Even with the growing popularity of streaming devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, the ever-expanding content available from Netflix, Hulu and other online sources and the newest developments in mobile, 96 percent of homes still watch TV the traditional way. In fact, as a result of streaming video and the ability to time shift, we are watching more hours of television in our homes than ever. Not only are consumers watching more, but individuals are increasingly able to customize their programming. The number of TVs has now surpassed the number of people per household, so different family members can watch their own programs simultaneously. And, while consumers watch an average of only 16 channels, their channel options continue to grow as well, with the number of channels available doubling in the last 10 years. That is a lot of personal choice. This raises the question: If consumers are watching more TV, does that mean they are more receptive to advertising messages? A survey by Forrester indicates that the answer is no; as many as 80 percent of smartphone users multitask while watching TV. Some are Tweeting, others are reading news on their favorite stars, while the majority are talking on the phone or engaged in other activities unrelated to the TV program. This means consumers are paying less attention to the program and to the advertisements within the program. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. Advertisers that find a way to attract consumer attention despite these multiple distractions can gain an advantage over their competition. Not to be deterred, networks too are coming back with newer gimmicks to increase television engagement, especially with digital resources—an expanding trend being Social TV, where publishers are leveraging online social media to let viewers interact and express on TV content. Adding Twitter hashtags to broadcasts, streaming tweets from celebrities and Facebook integration of shows are some common methods. More on what all this means for advertising effectiveness in part 2 of this post...

Retail Industry News Week of 2/18/13

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:21:02 -0600

In Pennsylvania, Two C-Store Chains Vie For Loyalty, Sales Sansolo Speaks: The War for Mealtime Goes On Publix Begins Offering Digital Coupons Fresh Wars Fought By Fast Feeders Harris Teeter Exploring Possible Sale Starbucks Evolves Eastward Aldi Targets Down Under FastNewsBeat

Blog: You Made an Assortment Plan – Now What? Optimizing Execution of In-Store Strategies

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:32:53 -0600

In-store marketing strategies have always been important for driving growth, but in today’s recovering economy, the right shelving, pricing and promotion strategies have become even more essential for attracting consumers—many of whom remain extremely cautious in their purchasing decisions. In order to drive profitable growth across key categories, savvy retailers and manufacturers are working together to jointly define ideal product assortments and develop effective price and promotion strategies. But, is all this planning paying off? CPG retailers and manufacturers can spend hours on end developing growth strategies; however, all of that planning will be wasted if the tactics are not translated into assortment, shelving and pricing tactics and executed properly. As Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems once said, “Vision without execution is just a hallucination.” At this year’s Summit, Bret Quereau, director of Marketing Insights for Mark Anthony Brands, and I will present a breakout session to introduce new approaches that retailers and manufacturers can employ to optimize their actual execution of various in-store tactics. During our presentation, “Avoiding ‘Vision Hallucination’ with Optimal Assortment,” we will detail not only how to determine the right product assortment, pricing, promotion, etc., but also how to make sure these strategies are being executed efficiently to deliver the desired portfolio and category growth. Retailers and manufacturers in attendance will also learn strategies for launching innovations in a manner that maximizes incrementally while reducing cannibalization. Join us Tuesday, April 16 at 2:00 p.m. in Lefleur 2 to learn more about planning assortment and other in-store marketing tactics, as well as methods for ensuring that plans are implemented correctly to maximize ROI. Also, be sure to check out the Summit 2013 schedule to plan the rest of your time at the action packed event, and don’t forget to register at www.cpgsummit.com!