Danone & Wells Enterprises Harness Consumer Data To Uncover Trends & Optimize Promotions
Getting rich in data can give CPG companies an edge as they mold consumer insights into patterns for potential upcoming consumption trends. It’s how Danone was able to get in early on the protein-rich, GLP-1 hype track.
Twice it had launched its Silk protein products in the past — and twice it backed off. With the sudden popularity of weight-loss drugs, however, Danone saw its chance to redesign what it had and use insights from the past seven years to harness an early view of where the category could go.
Now, it’s identifying potential patterns that could see a boon for products that combine stimulants (such as coffee) with protein.
Sometimes you hit critical mass the first time, while other moments require more patience and the ability to make mistakes — to be iterative and innovative in the right ways, shared Rob Hammond, VP of revenue growth management at Danone, during a recent virtual panel produced by the Frozen and Refrigerated Association of the Northeast.
More: Danone Revamps Yogurt Packaging Using Consumer Insights
A Data- and AI-Supported Strategy
Without a foundation for housing that data, however, the company wouldn’t be able to achieve true business alignment.
“When we started this journey, we had data in disparate locations. We did not have it centralized. We had different sources and different teams using that,” said Hammond. “Our No.1 priority was to get that into one place and then encourage citizen development within that and democratize that data to be able to use it.”
That progress is what has allowed Danone employees to “row in the same direction,” using the same data source to more clearly line up objectives with business goals. The company focuses on four core areas of metrics: customer value, consumer ROI, internal ROI on investments, and environmental impact.
As part of this, AI has played a supporting role, transforming an analyst into a data scientist “with the ability for AI to take that warp speed step to be able to create script, to be able to create resources, platforms, etc., to allow us to make decisions much more quickly,” said Hammond.
Also read: Danone AI Partnership To Optimize Supply Chain and Workforce
Identifying the Value for Consumers
Promotions play a pivotal role in capturing consumer interest at key moments. According to Sunny Yurasek, head of advanced analytics and RGM at Wells Enterprises (manufacturer of Blue Ribbon and Halo Top ice cream), there have been recent trends around health and sizing down product sizes, but if you don’t promote when the competition is promoting, CPGs will simply see volume moving from one size to another.
Trade promotion management must be holistic and collaborative, she said, working alongside finance and sales execution and functioning within the context of the current environment.
“I think promotion sometimes looks horrible from an ROI percentage standpoint, but it has a place to play in this dynamic, in this economy, in the sentiment around the consumer,” said Yurasek during the panel presentation. “So now it’s understanding that something looks bad, but has a place to play.”
It’s a balance between promotion ROI, overall product performance, market share, and margin, she said. From a data standpoint, it’s not always black and white — there’s a little gray mixed in when making critical decisions.
