How Do You 'Measure' Up?

Chicago — The practice of measuring shopper marketing is evolving rapidly, thanks to new data-gathering capabilities and the fact that CPGs are making it a higher priority. Everyone wants the best return on investment possible; the conundrum is how best to determine ROI.Some companies have proprietary data-gathering methods, some reorganize to emphasize the importance of shopper marketing ROI, and all companies fall back on practices that have always and will always work. The search for industry standards and all-encompassing best practices goes on, and the pursuit of these is the topic of a Shopper Marketing Summit general session – "CPG All-Star Panel: Challenges and Solutions in Measuring Shopper Marketing" – on April 9 in Schaumburg, Ill.Anne Chambers, chief executive officer of The Capré Group, will moderate the panel discussion, which is comprised of members of an ROI leadership committee established in 2012 to explore the challenges of measuring shopper marketing initiatives and to develop a set of recommendations based on best practices and results. The panel consists of Elizabeth Egan, director of shopper marketing capability, The Coca-Cola Co.; Michael Tilley, associate director of shopper marketing and strategic partnerships, Mondelez International; Matthew Parry, global marketing manager, Procter & Gamble; Michael Depanfilis, vice president of shopper marketing, Hershey Co.; and Kim McGough, senior group manager of integrated shopper marketing, Campbell Soup Co.Chambers says the committee's work thus far has revealed that the core formula of shopper marketing ROI is similar for everyone, but what is different is how it is applied through standards, technologies, roles and processes. "These are the areas in which a company can make the strongest impact in accelerating shopper marketing ROI capability," she says. "Ultimately, there is no silver bullet for solving the shopper marketing ROI challenges, but our committee has leveraged its expert members to develop a common industry approach to ROI as a starting point."The panel will discuss how to establish metrics and objectives and measure results; the advancements in shopper marketing; and best practices to make broad marketing investment decisions. Tilley says that while all challenges and solutions involve data, the application of the data is crucial. "Unique combinations of data are key," he says. "It's the marriage of multiple data sources that give us the richest lens. Move beyond just demographics, consumer insights and basket analysis. Take comScore plus [Kantar Retail's] ShopperScape plus online panel data to yield real insights about shopper mission and behavior."Parry acknowledges that data comes from more sources and is more immediate than a decade ago. The wealth of case studies over that time strengthens his team's accuracy in predicting the effects of key variables as well. He says those two factors are not as seismic as another, however. "Probably the biggest change has been the growth of e-commerce and e-retail," he says. "This has provided 100% accurate, real-time data on the effect of 'digital shopper marketing' on buying behavior. We have learned a huge amount about the channel and we are reapplying parts of this to the offline environment as well."Egan says that Coca-Cola has created a common ROI/post-program analysis digital tool that is used across all retail customers. Coca-Cola is also building a searchable database for its customer teams to search programs that have been executed across the country for lessons and best practices to better understand actual impact vs. initial expectations.Chambers says her time with the committee has convinced her that the main challenge is the dearth of timely data. As a result, ROI focus is often limited to the program level. As data becomes available at a reasonable cost, she says, ROI will become more detailed to include the effectiveness of each component of a program, thereby enabling marketers to make smarter investment decisions and optimize programs to drive sales.

How Do You 'Measure' Up?

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