Category: Marketing

March 1, 2019

Five Things Companies Do Right When Preparing for the Digital Shopper

Hints: Agility, Partnerships, Centricity, Development, North Star

In a session at the recent Groceryshop conference, “Evaluating the People, Processes and Technologies of the Digital Shopper,” which you can view in its entirety, Suketu Gandhi, a partner with the consulting firm A.T. Kearney, spoke of what happens when a business – any business – reaches the point at which 15 percent of its revenue comes via its digital channels.

A.T. Kearney’s work with clients has shown this 15 percent threshold is when that company’s digital business really begins to accelerate even more quickly, and it doesn’t always do so in a comfortable linear fashion.

However, Gandhi described a second threshold that’s even more significant than that first one: Across all industries, once that 15 percent milepost has been reached, a business can count on a lifetime increase in revenue of 30 percent—all because of the digital channels it has created.

February 27, 2019

The Total Food Frontier

Thank you to FMI partner, Nielsen, for this insightful review of fast moving consumer goods. Enjoy this complimentary Nielsen webinar.    For years, we as consumers shopped for groceries in […]

February 26, 2019

Mining Shopper Data to Build Sales

Today, tens of millions of baby boomers are entering into the declining consumption stage of life; they’re consuming less of everything. At the same time, the millennials following right behind them have not yet reached the stage of their lives where they are increasing consumption.

In his presentation at Groceryshop entitled “Compete and Thrive! Realize the Full Potential of Cohesive Shopper Insights,” David Portalatin of the NPD Group challenged food retailers to do two simple things one after the other: Focus on understanding the shopper’s needs, and then execute on the insights discovered.

February 24, 2019

It All Begins with Food – Working Creatively with Your Retailers

Food retailers around the country provide food and beverage experiences that seem to be tailor-made for their customers and their unique lifestyles. An emerging brand has the opportunity to partner with their retailers and work creatively to find the right promotions and customer engagements that will drive sales.

February 7, 2019

Emerge Subscriber Benefits from Nielsen

We are excited to announce the next evolution of Nielsen and FMI’s longtime partnership which will drive additional value for you. Together, as partners we have combined resources to bring industry opportunities to you such as review industry exploring the growing market trends for shopping for food and beverage online. Now, we are teaming up to offer FMI Emerge subscribers a personalized approach to understanding marketplace insights based on purchase and consumer behaviors for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) or Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost.

February 3, 2019

Building A Culture of Trust and Transparency in Food Retail

In a few weeks, I’ll be traveling to Seattle for one of my favorite research projects—the ethnographic interviews that are part of our annual U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report. These interviews take place in shopper’s homes and we inquire about their grocery shopping and meal preferences. During these interviews, I love to ask participants to fill in the blank to this sentence, “I trust my grocery store to ______.” For a while, I got responses like “sell safe food,” “be clean” and “have a good assortment of food.” But in recent years, I hear more answers along the lines of “give me product information,” “know where my food comes from,” and “be good to their employees.” This shift in consumer values, uncovered in the face-to face interviews is further verified by our expansive Trends survey findings. Our research shows consumer’s reporting the following as important attributes when choosing their primary store:

Accurate information displayed (65 percent);
Courteous, friendly employees (51 percent);
Knowledgeable employees (49 percent);
Provides information beyond the package (23 percent); and
Open and honest about business practices (48 percent).
In many ways, shoppers are looking for food retailers to have a culture of trust and transparency across their organization, which presents retailers with the challenge of how do you make transparency a vibrant part of your company identity from the C-suite all the way to the associate on the store aisle?

January 20, 2019

The Importance of Transparency and How Does Transparency Differ Across Demographic/Generational Segments?

Consumers want a closer connection to food. Explore what shoppers expect from their grocery store in the way of transparency.

“Transparency is an imperative for growing consumer trust and loyalty.” These wise words are offered by FMI’s Doug Baker, vice president, industry relations in assessing The Transparency Imperative research study released in September by FMI, with support from Label Insight. This research looks at product labeling and transparency from the consumer perspective and why brand owners should care. Here are some key questions that this research addresses.

January 18, 2019

Top Trends in Fresh: Hyperlocalization, New Supply Chains and Prepared Food

There’s nothing stale about the fresh category in retail, which is arguably turning the food retail business on its head. It’s the ultimate disruptive category when it comes to competing for share of the food retail business.

Disruption
Food retailers will continue to find ways to distinguish their businesses in the marketplace by focusing on fresh. Even after years of growth, fresh foods segments are being tapped for bigger space allocations in the store over the next two years, given that shoppers continue to gravitate toward these categories, per the 2018 U.S. Food Retailing Industry Speaks operations survey. Our research suggests that retailers have found ways to further engage consumers and differentiate with fresh foods, better-for-you categories, and private brands, among key growth segments. They are advancing same-store sales and planning new investments in their businesses.

The latest trends in localization, supply chain methods and prepared foods include how to win within each meal prep state and how the most successful retailers integrate them all the ways in which CPG manufacturers and retailers are using various tactics to accelerate sales in the perimeter.

January 15, 2019

Pressing Question – Are You Operational Ready for $100 Billion Food and Beverage Online?

The age of the digitally engaged food shopper has arrived, with each day seeing more shoppers moving from experimenting with online food shopping to fully embracing it. Total digital maturation in online grocery shopping is a mere five to seven years away according to research prepared by FMI and Nielsen.

We all know that. This research indicates consumers could be spending as much as $100 billion on online groceries by 2022. Within the next five to seven years, 70 percent of U.S. consumers will regularly purchase consumer packaged goods online.

Consumers today have tools that give them access to detailed information about the products they are looking for. Those digital tools also enable them to buy the products and services they want in ways that are disrupting the traditional food retail model.

Research from Nielsen and FMI over the last three years indicate that not all food retailers are as prepared as we could be to meet the needs of the digitally engaged food shopper and are at risk of missing the opportunity to serve this growing sector.

This past year, FMI’s initiatives to supply food retail with the information it needs to rise to the digital challenge has been enhanced with help from new partners like AT Kearney, Eversight, Precima and the NPD Group.

New Report: FMI Evaluates the Power and Focus on Shopper Health and Well-Being at Retail

Food Marketing Institute Foundation today unveils a pre-release of its 2019 Power of Health and Well-being in Food Retail, an exploration into the consumer mindset of what wellness means to them and what they expect from their grocery stores. The analysis explores the broader definition of “well-being,” as food retailers are increasingly perceived as an ally in their shoppers’ pursuits of health.

Sue Borra, RD, FMI chief health and wellness officer and executive director of the FMI Foundation, suggested that the overall topic of health and wellness is gradually expanding into “health and well-being.” Borra said, “Wellness is still a highly relevant term for our industry, but well-being has a broader definition, including aspects such as emotional health, energy levels, and sleep behaviors.”

“At FMI, health and well-being is a core competency and practice that influences the very fiber of our programs – from mining consumer insights across all areas of the store and online to strategizing about shopper expectations from retail. The Power of Health and Well-being at Retail tells a dynamic story of how food retailers are meeting consumer desires for taste and enjoyment, discovery and mindful connection.”