Kroger Precision Marketing Puts AI Insights in Client Inboxes
Kroger Precision Marketing is proactively offering a weekly AI-driven summary of brand performance to help clients stay nimble as consumer trends evolve. Next year, it will expand that support with consolidated dashboards and self-service data orders, giving brands an easier way to extract the retail data they need.
Users of Kroger analytics self-serve solution 84.51° Stratum now have access to automated analysis delivered directly to their inboxes every Monday. Dubbed "Agent Monday," the customized digest was created to offer concise, actionable insights, highlighting key performance trends and shifts in customer behavior.
"We didn’t have a direct request for anything like Agent Monday, but it was absolutely designed to meet the needs and workflow of current clients," Barbara Connors, vice president, strategy and activation, Kroger Precision Marketing Powered by 84.51°, told the Path to Purchase Institute. "As always, our clients had input as we got into product development."
Agent Monday delivers contextualized shopper and performance insights using the same first-party Kroger data that feeds 84.51° Stratum. Advanced analytical agents assess performance based on sales and household performance indicators, distribution, price and promotion in total and across key household segmentations and geographies, while putting all of this in context against competitors and current events, explained Connors.
"The result is personalized, actionable intelligence and recommendations that empowers brands to start their week with momentum and confidence," she said.
As far as lag time, Agent Monday analyzes the prior week's performance (Sunday through Saturday) and delivers the resulting insights to client inboxes on Monday morning, achieving a lag time of under two days, Connors explained. Although it prioritizes the most recent data, the report also contextualizes performance relative to the previous 13 weeks and the corresponding periods from the year prior.
Agent Monday's roll out was part of a wave of new updates from KPM designed to empower CPG retail teams, marketers and agencies to act with greater speed, precision and clarity.
Consolidated Dashboards
Among the updates coming early next year is consolidated dashboards, a reimagined reporting experience designed to simplify how brands answer key performance and customer questions. Consolidated dashboard reporting in 84.51° Stratum unlocks same-day accessibility to custom product attributes (like pack size or flavor) and custom household segmentations (like lapsed or loyal households), Connors explains.
"While both are capabilities in 84.51° Stratum today, as we introduce consolidated dashboards, we will greatly reduce latency," she said. "In fact, in beta we are seeing custom attributes available to users within 15 minutes, while custom segmentations are posting in less than an hour."
Currently, 84.51° Stratum and consolidated dashboard reporting does not permit users to incorporate their own proprietary data into output visualizations. However, users can upload their own product or store attribution into 84.51° Stratum from which outputs, Connors said.
"Consolidated Dashboard data visualization is one the of the enhancements we are most excited about," she said. "We conducted hours of user research to determine which visuals clients want and need the most, and embedded those directly into the dashboards as ready-to-use visuals that can be instantly reused for presentations and retailer conversations."
Self-Service Data Orders
Next year, KPM will also roll out self-service data orders — a self-service capability enabling brands to extract retail data precisely tailored to their business needs. Using a simple interface, brands can quickly connect data outputs into dashboards, enrich data lakes with their own additional context, and support advanced modeling.
The capability will apply a usage-based pricing model, giving users financial control and flexibility over their data extraction needs, Connors said. Users pay by the amount of dimensions (e.g., time period, products) and measures (e.g., dollars, units) selected.
