The Shopper Insights in Action 2010 Full Program is Now Available

Download the Brochure Now to preview the 70+ speakers and over 50 sessions that make this the most comprehensive agenda on why we buy and how to take action.

The top rated shopper-focused event in the world is back with ALL NEW CONTENT and KEYNOTES to help the retail and CPG industry advance and ultimately sell more.

Collaborate with the best in your industry as BRANDS, RETAILERS and their PARTNERS come together to analyze the changing shopper mindset, translate insights into opportunities and explore emerging trends influencing the retail world.

The focus for 2010:
Historically, it was the SHOPPER in the RETAIL environment. Today, it's the RETAILER in the SHOPPER'S environment. Join your industry this July to make sense of the new shopping economy.

ALL NEW KEYNOTES
OFFER A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION INTO THE SHOPPER PYSCHE

• DAN ARIELY, Behavioral Economist & Best-selling Author of Predictably Irrational & Living Irrationally
• LEE EISENBERG, Author of Shoptimism
• KIT YARROW, PH.D., Consumer Psychologist, Author, Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail
• DAVID BELL, Professor of Marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• MARK CHANGIZI, Professor of Cognitive Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Author, The Vision Revolution

Register by March 12th to lock in our $500 early bird discount!


Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities Available
Please contact Jon Saxe at jsaxe@iirusa.com or call 646.895.7467

Wal-Mart Announces Private Label Eggs to be Cage-Free

In a move to better serve their customers by offering humane products, Wal-Mart has announced that their private label "Great Value" will only offer cage-free eggs.

"By ensuring that all of its private label eggs are cage-free, Wal-Mart is helping the egg industry move away from battery cage confinement of laying hens," said Paul Shapiro, senior director of The HSUS' factory farming campaign. "Wal-Mart's move is a positive one, and we hope its competitors follow suit."

Many supermarket chains have taken steps to increase their sales of cage-free eggs, including Harris Teeter, Winn-Dixie, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Safeway. National restaurant chains—including Burger King, Wendy's, Denny's, Red Robin, Quiznos, Sonic, Hardee's and Carl's Jr.—have also started using cage-free eggs.

Learn more: Wal-Mart: Private Label Eggs All Cage-Free

Walgreens to Buy Duane Reade

New Yorkers no longer have their own drug store chain thanks to Walgreen's recent decision to purchase Duane Reade. The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal, an all-cash transaction that includes the assumption of $480 million in debt, is Walgreen's largest retail acquisition ever. It will tack on 257 stores in the New York area, the biggest drugstore market in the U.S. The Deerfield, Ill.-based chain had been slow to build a presence in New York, with just 13 stores in Manhattan and 70 in the broader metropolitan area.

What do you think of the acquisition by Walgreens? What will become of Duane Reade's newly minted private label line?

Using Ethnography as a Tool for Identifying Opportunities and Building Customer-Relevant Strategies at the Intersection of Lifestyle and Life Stage

We'd like to highlight a presentation by Ruth Sando, Cultural Anthropologist, BARBARA PERRY ASSOCIATES entitled, "Using Ethnography as a Tool for Identifying Opportunities and Building Customer-Relevant Strategies at the Intersection of Lifestyle and Life Stage," at The Life Stage Marketing Summit 2010

The Life Stage Marketing Summit 2010

May 10-12, 2010

Hotel Sax

Chicago

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Staying current with the lives and experiences of your customers in various life stages is an on-going challenge for brands. Although we have more and more data, to really connect we need to understand that what is truly important in defining the lifestyles of your customers. How can we identify those “weak signals” that are leading indicators of true attitudinal and behavioral trends?

In this experiential workshop, you will learn by doing and having fun. We will begin at the hotel with a briefing that will cover the basic “How To’s” of ethnographic immersion and observation Then we’ll receive our top-secret team missions: small group assignments (similar to a scavenger hunt) that will send us out to explore our environment for lifestage and lifestyle insights. Next, we’ll split into teams for an afternoon of discovery and exploration in Chicago. Finally, at the end of the day, we’ll return to the hotel for an hour debriefing.

During the day, we will focus on the three critical stages of team ethnography:
1. The Get Ready Work
2. The Fieldwork Experience
3. Making Meaning of immersion data– the So What? And Now What?

We will end by exploring both what we learned and how to facilitate a team’s ability to build actionable insights from ethnographic data.
You will learn:
• Basic theory and principles of ethnographic immersion – what you’re doing and why
• How immersion and observational research fit into the bigger picture of ethnographic tools
• The skills of in-context observation, including slowing down, looking deeply and expanding perceptions
• How to use this approach, with a team, to generate new insights and creative

Private Label Stocks Soar

Seeking Alpha reports that private label food stocks are soaring in this market. Rick Shea writes, Treehouse Foods (THS), Ralcorp and AIPC are the best pure plays in the food manufacturing sector that focus on private label manufacturing. Treehouse continues to add companies and categories (recent Sturm Foods purchase) and is positioned as the top private label focused company. Ralcorp acquired Kraft Foods (KFT) Post cereal division and so far has struggled to deliver positive results.

What sort of new measures will CPGs implement to combat this out-performance by private label manufacturers? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Meijers Scales Down with Focus on Groceries

Dana Hunsinger of The Indianapolis Star reports that the Meijer, the Midwest mega retailer is set to open smaller stores throughout the Midwest that will focus on groceries.

"We're definitely looking at markets like Columbus, Detroit and Indianapolis. And down the road, if there is an opportunity, we could definitely go into Indianapolis," said Frank Guglielmi, Meijer spokesman. "It lets us put stores where we never would have been able to put one before."

The new concept is about half the size of traditional Meijer stores, at about 100,000 square feet.

The traditional stores carry a fairly steady mix of merchandise from store to store. The new concept will try to find a niche and sell groceries that reflect the ethnicity and demographics of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Learn more: Meijer's new approach focuses on groceries, niches

What do you think of this move by Meijer? Will we see the "friendly acres" diminish in favor of smaller stores? What are the major benefits of this move?