In November 2012, Shopper Marketing magazine and the Path to Purchase Institute surveyed hundreds of CPG marketing executives to determine just how ready, willing and able the top retail chains are when it comes to partnering with brands and executing both in-store and along the path to purchase.To complement the data provided in the 2013 Trends charts that appear below and at right, we queried analysts who watch the ongoing retailer-brand dance about both retail chains as a whole and about specific players in the marketplace.Retailers admitting that they might have a problem and actually wanting to collaborate is an important first step to take, says Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop Consulting, but that doesn’t mean execution will start ramping up easily and smoothly. As this chart indicates, some retailers are more willing than others to collaborate on high-level merchandising solutions. “They’re interested in doing more to tap the insights of suppliers,” Bishop says. “One of the things in the background here is that the whole idea of shopper marketing, and the collaborative nature of shopper marketing, is easier to say than it is to do. You get step-change increases in receptivity to shopper marketing insights and collaboration when, first and foremost, a new generation of leadership takes charge.”Making Concerted EffortsPatrycja Malinowska, managing editor of the Path to Purchase Institute’s P2PI.org, sees retailers generally following Target’s lead toward seeking out exclusive product offerings from the brands. “Target publicly appealed to vendors a year ago to provide more exclusives, and now Walmart is kind of following suit with a surge in custom offerings, and it’s spilling over into other channels. I wouldn’t be surprised to see dollar stores get there – they really are trying to advance their [collaborative] marketing.”James Sorensen, senior vice president, retail & shopper, at TNS Global, has noticed the same thing, adding that club stores for many years have asked for special-sized packages. “This isn’t totally new,” he says. “For every retailer, their ideal is that a brand will launch a new product in their [store], exclusively. That’s been happening, but it feels like there is more of a concerted effort on the part of brands to figure out how they can – at least with those key customers, the Walmarts, the Targets, the Krogers of the world – offer up exclusive new products and lines of products, going beyond a package change.”Rachel Donovan, director of retail insights at Kantar Retail, says that brands and retailers both are expanding their view of the path to purchase. “Shopper marketing is reaching further back into the shopping process, reaching consumers as they form their lists,” she says. “Suppliers need to be willing to engage with [retailers] on that – it’s much more around the marketing messaging and reaching out to shoppers, as opposed to development of the product itself.”Brands and retailers have been making more concerted efforts to partner in the digital space (see chart), for example by linking coupon offers across websites or with digital apps. Regarding the latter, Sorensen figures a third party will move into the space to organize it better. “Shoppers don’t want to have five different apps that have you go to 10 different websites,” he says. “A single third party that links them together is where it’s going to go.”Sorensen also senses that retailers have been more attuned to how their private labels fit into the mix. “I’m seeing more and more focus on understanding emotion in the store and how that ties to the brand experience that the retailer is trying to create,” he says. “The brands know that side of it – the emotional connection. I’m starting to see the retailer asking those questions.”Mass Merchants at a GlanceOur charts reveal that Walmart’s “Rollback” program is among the best performers and Target Racing among the worst for delivering program ROI (see chart). And Target is rated highly for its ability to execute across multiple touchpoints (see chart). Meijer, meanwhile, received high marks for its willingness to collaborate on merchandising solutions (see chart).From an in-store execution standpoint (see chart), Walmart is “eager” to partner with brands but remains “perennially challenged” by a business model that relies on “everyday low price,” which leads to labor turnover, says Mike Troy, editor of Connecting Northwest Arkansas. “If you’re a brand, and you’re looking to execute a program with Walmart, you have to view it through the lens of the store operator first, and ask yourself, ‘Are they going to be able to execute this? Am I building complexity into my program that’s going to doom it to failure?’”Scott Mushkin, managing director at Jeffries & Co., says manufacturers perceive that Walmart will speed new programs through their 3,000 stores since they’re all one system – and not “a bunch of regional operations” as grocery banners tend to be.Walmart has become “increasingly innovative and interactive,” looking to “win social and mobile customer connections,” says Robin Sherk of Kantar. “Walmart is one of the few mass media left in today’s fragmented environment.”Malinowska believes Walmart has continued to increase in-store activity and executions, stepping up investment in co-marketing campaigns and in the digital space. Although it has stepped up collaborative activity recently, Walmart’s campaigns still tend to be broad-based rather than focusing on particular manufacturers – which has been more Target’s style.Target has forged “tons of exclusives” with brands aimed at creating a unique shopping experience, Malinowska says, as well as more co-marketing campaigns than almost any other retailer. “Target lets manufacturers leverage their insights in stores to test their ideas,” she says. “Target’s strength lies in its in-store execution, dedicated endcaps or unique signage to enhance the visibility of a product.”Target has become “more of a house of brands than, say, 10 years ago” because of the addition of food and consumables, Troy says. But overall, “They continue to do what they do.”Bishop says Target has done a nice job partnering with brands on marketing messages. “A fair amount of its style and grace in advertising is attributable to the supplier marketing talent that it has been able to leverage,” he says.Sorensen says Target understands branding its stores like no other retailer, and he believes both the launch of P-Fresh and the expansion in the urban market will be to the chain’s benefit. “There’s been a huge explosion of shopper marketing,” he says. “Target has a little bit more to operate with because of its branding position than Walmart, where obviously price is going to be a key lever.”Mushkin isn’t sure whether Target’s P-Fresh push will be beneficial to brands overall because it might or might not grow overall volume.Supermarkets at a GlanceSafeway’s Club Card/Fresh Values and Kroger’s Plus Card loyalty programs are rated among the best at delivering positive results for brands (see chart). And Kroger’s “Game Day Greats” Super Bowl marketing program delivers ROI, according to our survey (see chart).Sorensen says Kroger has successfully refined its ability to compete with Walmart, a must given its core geography, and the chain is shifting to a more “branding-centric view.” “They’re very aggressive in the private-label space, coming out with not just good alternatives to national brands, but almost saying, ‘We want superior products.’”Safeway’s “Just for U” program, which lets loyalty cardholders download coupons and other customized offers based on their purchase history, has seen “promising” early results, although its execution is not comparable to Kroger; for its part, Kroger is moving a ton of volume, which “gets the attention of pretty much everybody,” but its decentralized local banners might make execution a little slower than, say, Walmart.Safeway, which hasn’t needed to compete with Walmart as much, has nicely executed the “experiential” strategy that it embarked upon a decade ago – but the lack of emphasis on price has hurt them, Sorensen adds.Malinowska says Safeway has done “a lot of work to align shopping with merchandising” to solve problems for consumers through strong collaborations with CPGs. Seasonal campaigns like back to school and the holidays have been popular with brands, while the rollout of “Just for U” has definitely gotten people’s attention. “They could do more in terms of manufacturer involvement,” she says, although “I don’t know if that’s because they’re just rolling it out.”Mushkin believes Supervalu has improved execution but has less access to manufacturer programs because “they move less product every day they’re in existence,” he says.Supervalu promotes local merchandising and leveraging the equity of its local banners, but it faces challenges given its “reputation for high prices,” says Mike Paglia, analyst for Kantar.Bishop sees ShopRite (along with mass merchant Meijer) as among the most receptive to working with CPGs. He describes Kroger as “quite receptive, between ‘somewhat’ and ‘very.’ The kind of scale of operation probably holds them back a little bit,” but their use of dunnhumby’s insights has made them more receptive.Bishop rates Ahold’s U.S. banners similarly. He says Safeway is “very disciplined” but that discipline makes them only modestly receptive. “ShopRite is one of the most progressive from the standpoint of trying not only to keep up with but anticipate where shoppers are going,” he says.Warehouse Clubs at a GlanceClub stores are focused on differentiating their “offers” to consumers with something “out of the norm,” Donovan says. But at the same time they’re asking for exclusivity, they’re simultaneously developing their own brands, like Kirkland Signature at Costco and Sam’s Choice at Sam’s Club. “They want to involve suppliers, but they want to promote their own brands, too.”Troy sees Sam’s Club as facing the same challenges as Walmart, only more so. “If you can’t make it simple, they’ll say, ‘No, we can’t do this,’ because they know what the constraints are when it comes to executing things,” he says. “Products at Sam’s are supposed to come in on a pallet, on a truck, and then go straight to the floor.”Bishop puts Costco in the top tier of retailers who are receptive to working with CPGs. “They are probably in the process of opening up to more shopper insights,” he says. “They have won for a long time by being an efficient business model, being a really aggressive buyer, and selling to people who have money.”Drugstores at a GlanceCVS/pharmacy’s ExtraCare and ExtraBucks Rewards programs deliver above average ROI to CPG partners, according to our survey (see chart).Mushkin sees CVS’s ExtraCare program as a major advantage given the “tremendous amount of information” the chain has gained about its customers over a 15-year period. “They’re good about sharing those insights with CPG partners. They’re good about executing promotional activities across their chain,” he says.Walgreens, in contrast, has been losing volume and seen supplier relationships strained as a result, Mushkin adds. It did just launch its chainwide Balance Rewards loyalty program in September.Bishop says that while all drugstores have faced challenges due to the “turbulent” prescription drug market, Walgreens “has done a wonderful job of connecting digitally. They’re right at the front of the parade with their apps, their websites.” He agrees with others who say that CVS’s strength is its loyalty program.Both Walgreens and CVS are very focused on developing their own private-label portfolio, which has made them competitors to suppliers’ brands, Donovan says. Walgreens’ green-oriented Ology brand, for example, doesn’t immediately jump out as a store brand. “I almost joke sometimes, when talking about their private brands, that I’m waiting for one or both of them to become the ‘Trader Joe’s of the drugstore channel,’” Donovan says.Dollar Stores at a GlanceDollar stores are the fastest-growing channel in retail, Sorensen notes, and leading chains “seem to be experimenting with new formats, to ‘up’ the experience of their stores. I keep coming back to this theme of going to more of a branding experience.”Family Dollar and Dollar General are trying to maintain their core shopper base while reaching out to higher-income shoppers, which means they’re trying to improve their credibility through format, layout and signage, Paglia says.But by and large, Troy says, “They’ve got somebody running the register and keeping an eye on the back door, and that’s it. If you want something done in a dollar store, you’re on your own.”