Shopper Insights in Action 2009 Speaker: Diane C. Wallace

Diane C. Wallace
Vice President, Shopper Marketing
The Coca-Cola Company

Diane leads the Shopper Marketing organization and the Shopper Marketing center of excellence for Coca-Cola North America. Diane assumed the role of Vice President in 2007 based on the leadership role she played in the transition of the organization from Retail Marketing to Shopper Centric Retail Marketing. Diane joined Coca-Cola in 2003 as Director, Retail Customer Marketing. She was promoted to Group Director, Shopper Marketing, in 2006.

During her six years at Coca-Cola, Diane has been instrumental in leading: the increased engagement with retailers in the areas of shopper insights, the increased shopper insights and shopper marketing capabilities within Coca-Cola North America; and the development and execution of idea driven, brand centric, shopper relevant merchandising approach at retail. Her team is responsible for the development of the retail channel strategies, marketing plans and in store merchandising looks of success, as well as the ownership o f the shopper insights and marketing relationships with retailers.
Prior to joining Coca-Cola, Diane spent four years with The Eastman Kodak Company. She was recruited to Kodak in 1999 as the Group Director, Customer Marketing and Category Management. After two years, she was promoted to Vice President, Sales Strategy, Planning and Execution. During her tenure at Kodak, Diane instrumental in leading: the creation and transition to customer centric brand planning; increased headquarter and field based customer marketing and category management capability; and, increased customer execution results of national brand initiatives.

Diane began her professional career at The Quaker Oats Company. During her ten plus year career at Quaker, Diane held numerous headquarter and field based brand marketing, sales and sales planning positions.

Diane holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from The University of Tennessee. She resides in Atlanta with her husband and two young children. She is active in a variety of community and non-profit interests.

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Consumer Concerns About Food Safety

This post on retailwire discusses that according to a study by IBM, less than 20 percent of consumers trust food companies to produce and sell food products that are safe and healthy for them to eat. The large number of recalls within the last couple of years has really had quite an effect on the perception of the consumer. According to the study, consumers want more information about the food products they purchase, in order to ensure the safety of their families. This is something that retailers and food companies will have to keep in the back of their minds when stocking retailer shelves this year.

Variety reduced on retailers shelves

The Wall Street Journal took a look at how many retail companies are reducing the variety of available products at their stores. After stores have reduced the variety of different products available, they have found that it has actually increased sales and lifted profit in certain situations. It is also resulting in more shelf space becoming available to large brands, a good example would be Campbell's in the soup aisle. There is a trend showing as well that many suppliers are cutting back on the number of varieties they're introducing to the market.

Read the full article here.

Alice.com Offers CPGs Direct to Customers

Just launched in beta, Alice.com offers free shipping and built in coupons for customers to purchase household goods. The makers of Alice are banking on the idea that the CPG market is relatively untapped online--although mega retailer Amazon.com, offers many of the goods. According to a report on AuctionBytes.com, "Alice.com CEO and co-founder Brian Wiegand said, "The vast majority of consumers don't buy their household essentials online, and we set out to change that at Alice by taking a completely fresh approach to the CPG industry. By eliminating the traditional retail layer, we allowed the companies that produce these goods to connect directly with the people who use them. The result is a neutral platform for CPG manufacturers to work together as an industry and channel their resources in exciting new ways for the consumer."

AuctionBytes.com continues, "consumers create an account on Alice.com and select and save all of their favorite products, ordering only the items they need. Alice.com keeps track of items and reminds users when they are running low. Each shipment is bundled together in a single "Alice" box and delivered directly to the consumer."

Will the ability for consumers to buy their household products online interfere with the local grocery chain? If the popularity gains intensity, will we see more coupons and special offers to grocery shoppers? We'd like to hear what you have to say about Alice.com and the CPG online market.

Alice.com Bypasses Retailers on New Consumer-Goods Shopping Platform

Kroger Thrives by Listening to Their Customers

This post in retail wire discusses how the grocer Kroeger has managed to receive higher same-store gains than its rivals by keeping a close tab on the shopper behavior of its customers.

David Dillon, chief executive of Kroger, gives an example of their style when he mentions:

"We send our very best customers coupon books specifically targeted at what they actually buy. The redemption rate of these coupons is significantly higher than other coupons."

Dillon ends by saying that it is important to know what your competitors are doing, but it is far more important to pay attention to what your customers want in your stores.

Brand Loyalty Falters in Recession

Reuters reports that brand loyalty has taken a turn for the worst during the global recession. Companies who were once. According to a study from the Catalina Marketing Corporation, "just four out of 10 brands held on to at least half of their highly loyal customers from 2007 to 2008." The loss in brand loyalty may be related to the increase in private label brands by Wal-Mart, Target and regional grocery stores.

What other factors may be steering customers away from specific brands? Is price the only issue?

Follow us on Twitter to share your thoughts!

Retailer Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy

This post on retailwire discusses how the apparel retailer Eddie Bauer will be filing for bankruptcy for a second time since 2003. The chain, which is targeted to those with an average income of $77,000 has not made a profit in three years. The prolonged recession has definitely taken its toll on this classic retailer, which has been around since the 1920's. What are some other clothing chains that are facing the same problem?

Home Depot looks to revamp their instore marketing

Home Depot is working on reshaping their current marketing plan to reach out to customers to let them know that it's easier to shop at their store now.

"We've reduced the number of SKUs, and increased in-store marketing. And we're striving to eliminate rebates, coupons, sweepstakes, and gift cards. We don't have to want consumers to have to do something else to save money when they leave the store, like fill in a rebate card," stated Craig Menear, EVP of merchandising.

Read the full article at MediaPost.

Reminder: Free Webinar Tomorrow by MarketTools: Quality Research on a Budget

There are a lot of online survey tools available these days that allow you to do one-off research projects for next to nothing. While these inexpensive tools are relatively fast and easy to use, they don’t always yield quality results on which you can base important decisions. Why compromise? There are ways to do quality research without breaking the bank. Let us tell you how.

Join us to hear how your peers are doing high-quality research on very limited budgets. Our panel of experts will discuss their experiences and provide real-life examples of how they’ve been able to do it. During this one-hour webinar you’ll learn:

* Five simple guidelines for doing quality research
* How a panel can reduce your research cost and improve quality
* What companies are doing to deal with “professional” survey respondents
* When is it a good idea to call in the experts
* And much more…

Facilitator:
Mike Waite

Panelists:
Chris Schroll, Senior Manager Strategic Research & Analysis, Wolters Kluwer
Pat Merrill, Founder/General Partner, Merrill Research
and other research leaders from Fortune 500 firms

Register below, make sure to mention priority code MWS0025BLOG
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/375147800

Small Steps by Marcal: The Eco-Friendly Paper Company

According to this article in CPG Matters Marcal will be re-launching its brand after mixing up some shopper insights and marketing tactics to create a new brand that represents taking steps to a greener earth. They will re-launch as Small Steps by Marcal.

The company will take unwanted wastes from office garbage, junk mail, and waste from printers and use it for something good. Small Steps distinguishes itself from other companies marketing green paper products because most of them do not make their own product. Small Steps does the full line of pulping, paper making, and converting.

More retailers offering iced coffee

The USA Today looks at the growing popularity of iced coffee and how different companies are taking advantage of this new craze. It's recently surpassed the sales of iced tea for breakfast, with women and teenagers buying the most iced coffee. Starbucks, McDonalds, Dunkin' Donuts, 7-11 and Coldstone Creamery are just some of the retailers offering more iced coffee. Read the full article here.

Image source: Agoosa

Ready to scan your own groceries?

Newsday has a report on how local Stop & Shops in the Long Island, New York area are allowing their customers to scan their grocery items as they shop throughout the store. The store in Hampton Bays uses the ScanIt Motorola Scanner and allows customers to scan their loyalty card into the system, then then take the scanner with them throughout the store. Using their loyalty card, the scanner can then offer them promotions based on their past purchases. Then customers can load their cart as they choose packing their groceries to go home as they shop. Read the full article here.

Meetings Drive Business

This is why companies need to continue to invest in business meetings. Not only will those who attend gain new and fresh perspectives from other attendees, but they'll hear from top companies who have lived by the same philosophy. Investment in yourself and innovation are the key to your business. What have you done recently to invest in your business?

Are you thinking of attending an event this year? What would you expect to gain from the experience?

Meetings Drive Business

Walmart seeing new shoppers

In a recent piece at the Dallas Morning News, they look at how some higher end shoppers have begun to frequent WalMart in these trying economic times. Although many of the shoppers aren't ready to admit they're WalMart customers, WalMart is taking steps to ensure they stick around after the recession is over. They're remodeling stores to appear cleaner, faster and friendlier. Walmart is gaining market share across the US, including a 40% share in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

Read more about the new shopper at WalMart here.

Amazon Selling Private Label Goods

The online behemoth, Amazon has entered the private label arena with new home offerings made by Pinzon products and Strathwood products. Seeking to rival their "offline" competition of Wal-Mart and Target, Amazon is rumored to do even more within the home goods space--grocery delivery, anyone?

(Look out FreshDirect)

Because of Amazon's sheer size, it seems that the giant could dip its hands into any category of products and shoppers and discover a huge profit.

According to AuctionBytes.com, "Amazon.com launched Strathwood, an Amazon private label brand, in April 2004 with Outdoor Patio Furniture, Décor and Lighting categories. It launched Pinzon by Amazon.com in October 2005 with Bedding and Utility, Bath Towels, Tabletop, Kitchen Utensils and Knives categories, and in 2008, it introduced Pinzon Indoor Furniture.

Do Shoppers Want to Buy More?

A recent post at RetailWire discusses how many economists foresee an end to the recession soon, and that fewer consumers are cutting back on shopping. The article gives an example of how last year 60 percent of respondents of a study said they were cutting back on frozen food, compared to the latest report which only 34 percent are cutting back.

Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail, recently told Time that

"People have done an awful lot of cutting back in the last 18 months. There's not much more they can do. They've figured that it's not the end of the world here, and there are places where you can open up your wallets."

Do you think that consumers are finally getting back into their old shopping habits?

Target Goes "Bananas" to Keep Up with Wal-Mart

Anne D'Innocenzio and Emily Frederix of The Columbus Dispatch report that, Wal-Mart, is rapidly picking up new shoppers as its powerful low-cost message resonates in the recession. So, Minneapolis-based Target plans to stock more fresh food, including bananas, and play up its low prices.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is expanding its selection of nonessentials, such as home furnishings, and improving the quality of store-brand food such as thin-crust pizza and ice cream.

...

While Target wants to keep its innovative edge, for growth, it is clearly turning to groceries, including the introduction late last year in some of its general merchandise stores of prepackaged perishables such as bananas and bagged lettuce. It plans to expand the concept to 100 new or remodeled stores by year's end and to most of its new or remodeled stores in the next three years.

Will Target become the black horse in this retail race for customers? Could we see more families turning to local supermarkets for essentials?

Draftfcb's Lucas: Shopper Marketing Is More Than Just Shelf Talkers

We invite you to check out a great interview that Jim Lucas did with Brandweek in which he discusses shopper marketing and how retailers must utilize it as more than just placing items on a shelf.

Lucas discusses that shopper marketing has become so popular now with retailers across the global looking to maximize their customers experience while improving their own revenue.

Check out Jim Lucas' thoughts and let us know that you think.


From Brandweek, Over the course of his career, Jim Lucas has worked with Frito-Lay, Kellogg, Kroger, Procter & Gamble and others and has watched shopper marketing evolve. Now evp/director of Draftfcb’s shopper marketing division, Lucas sees the industry at a crucial point and compares shopper marketing to digital because it is a vortex of change as more packaged goods companies realize the importance of in-store marketing and retailers become aware of their power. Lucas spoke with Brandweek editor Todd Wasserman about the changing nature of shopper marketing.

Draftfcb's Lucas: Shopper Marketing Is More Than Just Shelf Talkers