ConAgra Generates Quality Shopper Insights
Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., ConAgra Foods Inc. is one of North America's leading packaged food companies, with a strong presence in consumer grocery as well as restaurant and foodservice establishments. As a leader in multiple segments of the food business, ConAgra Foods produces innovative products that make meals and snacks great-tasting, convenient and affordable. ConAgra's consumer brands are found in 98 percent of U.S. households and 26 are ranked first or second in their category. ConAgra Foods also has a very significant presence in commercial food products and is one of the nation's leading specialty potato providers to restaurants and other foodservice establishments. Popular ConAgra Foods consumer brands include: Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt's, Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, and Peter Pan, among many others.
The Challenge
ConAgra management has always prioritized securing high-quality data and information from market research and takes pride in its ability to keep a finger on the pulse of consumer desires and demands. However, as with many manufacturers, ConAgra was not satisfied with the quality of the insights into behaviors and attitudes it was sharing with its retailer customers to drive fact-based collaboration and ultimately increase sales.
In 2006, ConAgra started a new functional group to gather key insights for the entire organization with a goal of better understanding shopper needs and interests in a format that would be most useful to its retailer customers. ConAgra's primary goals with the new Shopper Insights & Analytics group included ensuring its sales team had real-time access to the most comprehensive set of shopper data to help retailers customize their go-to-market strategies and address shifting economic trends. In addition, ConAgra was eager to implement a more standardized approach to analyzing and utilizing panel data across their entire organization -- from the sales team out in the field to the company's C-level executives.
The Approach
Danica Konetski, senior director of Shopper Insights Analytics for ConAgra, learned about IRI's Shopper Insights solution and recognized immediately ways it addressed ConAgra's need for instant and easy access to improved and more comprehensive shopper insights.
Key to IRI's implementation of the Shopper Insights solution was training ConAgra's team of over 100 users within their Category Leadership, Shopper Insights and Marketing departments. ConAgra quickly recognized and put into effect the solution's ability to provide an elevated level of analysis derived from highly-detailed shopper data which in turn would deliver heightened value to the company's retailer customers. Moreover, as a demonstration of the company's acceptance and commitment to IRI's solution, ConAgra branded and trademarked their customized version of the tool to be called S3.
Konetski explains, "Speed to insights and broader access to the capabilities enabling those insights have been critical to our success the last four years at ConAgra. Further, our shopper seasons research has served as the foundation for understanding how the various phases of the year shape the way moms manage their households, enabling us to design customized shopper marketing programs at retail that resonate with our retailer customers,' shoppers and ultimately ConAgra Foods consumers."
The Benefits
IRI's Shopper Insight solution was a game changer for a systematic and repeatable way. ConAgra's sales team is now able to generate an unprecedented level and quality of shopper insights and essentially enable instant access to every type of panel analysis such as share of wallet, buyer conversion and trip mission segmentation. Additionally, the comprehensive training ConAgra received provided the company with the flexibility and capability to run nearly every level of analysis internally, on the fly, utilizing this solution. This eliminated an extra step and added dependency on IRI for this type of data.
"We have realized two critical strategic benefits that have given us a competitive advantage: Deeper, more strategic engagements with our most valued retailers partners; improved ROI associated with our shopper marketing programs at retail, on average a nearly 26 percent better return versus our strictly trade-driven merchandising events," says Konetski.
The standardized approach and clear framework of analysis delivered by the Shopper Insights solution also helped simplify the preparation process for customer engagements. For example, ConAgra's executives and field representatives are now provided with various "templates" to help facilitate creation of custom analyses, provide more creative recommendations for retailers and approach their business in new ways.
Still to Come
Konetski says that ConAgra will continue to explore ways in which it can innovate in a disruptive way to drive even more compelling shopper insights: evaluating cognitive and emotional response to packaging, shelf layout and aisle navigation in store; developing an improved understanding of the need states that drive shoppers to the store and products purchased on those need states; "fully integrating our behavioral targets into our capabilities suite and deepening our evaluation of shopper marketing events through the lens of the shopper."
When first building out shopper insights practice at ConAgra, Konetski knew it was important to equip the retail-facing teams with the tools necessary to quickly deliver shopper-centric insights to customers. This helped serve as the foundations of the team's success. "We leveraged our solutions suite to build out behavioral targets identifying retailers' most valuable shoppers, how they behave in store and out and key categories and merchandising tactics to keep them delights in store."
Konetski adds, "We also embedded team members within our sales teams located near customer headquarters to enable a deeper understanding of our customers' most difficult business issues. Finally, a key component of our success has been to measure the shopper marketing events that have been built so that we can learn and adjust future events to be even more impactful; in that way we continue to be smarter about how we activate our insights in store."
The Challenge
ConAgra management has always prioritized securing high-quality data and information from market research and takes pride in its ability to keep a finger on the pulse of consumer desires and demands. However, as with many manufacturers, ConAgra was not satisfied with the quality of the insights into behaviors and attitudes it was sharing with its retailer customers to drive fact-based collaboration and ultimately increase sales.
In 2006, ConAgra started a new functional group to gather key insights for the entire organization with a goal of better understanding shopper needs and interests in a format that would be most useful to its retailer customers. ConAgra's primary goals with the new Shopper Insights & Analytics group included ensuring its sales team had real-time access to the most comprehensive set of shopper data to help retailers customize their go-to-market strategies and address shifting economic trends. In addition, ConAgra was eager to implement a more standardized approach to analyzing and utilizing panel data across their entire organization -- from the sales team out in the field to the company's C-level executives.
The Approach
Danica Konetski, senior director of Shopper Insights Analytics for ConAgra, learned about IRI's Shopper Insights solution and recognized immediately ways it addressed ConAgra's need for instant and easy access to improved and more comprehensive shopper insights.
Key to IRI's implementation of the Shopper Insights solution was training ConAgra's team of over 100 users within their Category Leadership, Shopper Insights and Marketing departments. ConAgra quickly recognized and put into effect the solution's ability to provide an elevated level of analysis derived from highly-detailed shopper data which in turn would deliver heightened value to the company's retailer customers. Moreover, as a demonstration of the company's acceptance and commitment to IRI's solution, ConAgra branded and trademarked their customized version of the tool to be called S3.
Konetski explains, "Speed to insights and broader access to the capabilities enabling those insights have been critical to our success the last four years at ConAgra. Further, our shopper seasons research has served as the foundation for understanding how the various phases of the year shape the way moms manage their households, enabling us to design customized shopper marketing programs at retail that resonate with our retailer customers,' shoppers and ultimately ConAgra Foods consumers."
The Benefits
IRI's Shopper Insight solution was a game changer for a systematic and repeatable way. ConAgra's sales team is now able to generate an unprecedented level and quality of shopper insights and essentially enable instant access to every type of panel analysis such as share of wallet, buyer conversion and trip mission segmentation. Additionally, the comprehensive training ConAgra received provided the company with the flexibility and capability to run nearly every level of analysis internally, on the fly, utilizing this solution. This eliminated an extra step and added dependency on IRI for this type of data.
"We have realized two critical strategic benefits that have given us a competitive advantage: Deeper, more strategic engagements with our most valued retailers partners; improved ROI associated with our shopper marketing programs at retail, on average a nearly 26 percent better return versus our strictly trade-driven merchandising events," says Konetski.
The standardized approach and clear framework of analysis delivered by the Shopper Insights solution also helped simplify the preparation process for customer engagements. For example, ConAgra's executives and field representatives are now provided with various "templates" to help facilitate creation of custom analyses, provide more creative recommendations for retailers and approach their business in new ways.
Still to Come
Konetski says that ConAgra will continue to explore ways in which it can innovate in a disruptive way to drive even more compelling shopper insights: evaluating cognitive and emotional response to packaging, shelf layout and aisle navigation in store; developing an improved understanding of the need states that drive shoppers to the store and products purchased on those need states; "fully integrating our behavioral targets into our capabilities suite and deepening our evaluation of shopper marketing events through the lens of the shopper."
When first building out shopper insights practice at ConAgra, Konetski knew it was important to equip the retail-facing teams with the tools necessary to quickly deliver shopper-centric insights to customers. This helped serve as the foundations of the team's success. "We leveraged our solutions suite to build out behavioral targets identifying retailers' most valuable shoppers, how they behave in store and out and key categories and merchandising tactics to keep them delights in store."
Konetski adds, "We also embedded team members within our sales teams located near customer headquarters to enable a deeper understanding of our customers' most difficult business issues. Finally, a key component of our success has been to measure the shopper marketing events that have been built so that we can learn and adjust future events to be even more impactful; in that way we continue to be smarter about how we activate our insights in store."