MARKET WATCH
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Schnuck Markets’ Digital Coupon Program Advances
St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets has garnered more than 13,000 participant registrations for its digital coupon program launched in April. With the help of the Inmar Promotion Network team, the program provides shoppers easy access to a broad variety of load-to-profile coupons called Schnupons.
Along with maintaining the infrastructure for the new coupon portal, Inmar helps Schnucks source offers for their shoppers from leading and emerging brands via the open Inmar Media Network. Future development will see the Schnupons experience becoming more personalized for shoppers over time, with deals improving as their use of the program increases.
SPINS and IRI Offer Consumer Insights for Natural Retail Channel
SPINS, a provider of retail consumer insights, analytics, and consulting for the natural, organic, and specialty products industries, and longtime partner IRI, have launched a shared Shopper Intelligence solution for retailers of natural products.
The first-ever consumer research tool for the Natural Channel is driven by SPINS’ natural product attribution and IRI’s vast household panel, Consumer Network, consisting of 100,000 consumer panelists, fused with loyalty shopper data. The combined effort integrates survey responses with of-the-moment buying behavior, layered with SPINS’ market segmentation. The result provides a comprehensive and expanded view of consumer shopping habits and bridges the gap between trusted conventional channel tools and the burgeoning opportunity of the natural channel.
Sprouts Farmers Market, a SPINS partner since 2011, will be the first to benefit from the new development. Kim Coffin, vice president of non-perishables at Sprouts, said, “Sprouts will leverage these sophisticated tools that combine the strengths of both conventional and natural channels. We believe this new solution will better inform our category management decisions and help us deliver with precision what Sprouts customers want.”
Andrew Appel, Chief Executive Officer of IRI, said, “We can now offer that must-have comprehensive and expanded view of consumer shopping habits and bridge the gap between trusted conventional channel tools and the burgeoning opportunity of the natural channel.”
IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers and media companies to grow their businesses.
Food Industry Group Releases Tools to Address On-Shelf Availability
A joint industry group has developed two new tools to help manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers analyze and improve On Shelf Availability.
OSA is a key issue for the consumer products industry, as out-of-stocks remains at an 8 percent average rate, according to joint research by The Trading Partner Alliance (TPA), an industry affairs leadership group formed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI).
The tools were developed to help companies reduce out-of-stock levels. The best practices guide addresses root causes - and potential solutions - of challenges across five retail functional domains: Store Execution, Ordering and Execution, Forecasting, Manufacturing, and Category Management and Merchandising. It also identifies process owners to deal with these product availability issues throughout the supply chain.
“These tools are critical to helping industry reach the goal of 98 percent On Shelf Availability,” said Daniel Triot, Senior Director of the TPA. “All trading partners must be firmly engaged and implementing best practices most applicable to each trading partner relationship or category and measuring the impact. Our project team is seeking companies willing to implement these practices and build use cases to help get us there.”
Personalization, Social Media Drive Sales of Beauty Brands: Study
Technological advancements that allow personalized beauty solutions are driving the U.S. beauty market, says a new study. High double- to triple-digit growth is seen among those brands that managed to capitalize on personalized approaches in 2015, according to Kline’s Cosmetics & Toiletries USA report. Driven by these high growth brands and particular product categories, sales of cosmetics and toiletries increase by 3.8% in 2015.
The report found that personalization starts at the product level when brands like Skin Inc., Lancôme, or Mix-o-logie offer their custom beauty regimens or scents, and continues through personalized products suggestions offered by beauty apps or targeted marketing messages through various social media platforms.
Both large and niche brands use the power of social media to connect with target consumers. Large brands like Neutrogena, Clinique, or Estée Lauder have become key social influencers as they turned to beauty social media celebrities to appeal to millennials. Smaller brands, such as Tarte, Too Faced, E.L.F. Cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and IT Cosmetics, among others, often choose to make relationships by appealing to their target audience through the girl-next-door type of social stars.
“Smaller brands have a distinct advantage as they are very nimble and can listen more closely and adapt to consumers' demands quicker,” says Naira Aslanian, research project manager for he line Group. “The fact that smaller brands, particularly in the makeup products class, grow the strongest confirms the power of social media leveling the playing field among large players with hefty advertising budgets, and small, niche brands that do not have the larger marketing budgets. It also demonstrates the power these companies have in terms of sales.”
Mobile devices play a crucial role in personalizing a consumer's beauty routine. Sephora launches its online Pocket Contour class, a mobile-only experience that helps beauty newbies gain knowledge of how to properly contour. Apps like Beautiful Me or Plum Perfect can digitally identify the shopper's skin tone and suggest the ideal makeup match from the user's social media photos. Moreover, “selfie approved” products like Covergirl's Outlast Stay Luminous foundation, along with various bold lipsticks, are introduced due to the high impact of social media on consumers.
Resonating with the selfie generation desiring bold lips and driven by innovative products, lipsticks and lip glosses is the fastest-growing product category, recording over 8% growth in 2015. The key drivers are multi-functional/hybrid products like liquid lipsticks, which provide skin care benefits, as well as bold, long-lasting lip color.
GS1 US Publishes Product Images Application Guideline
GS1 US has released a new guideline that will provide retail grocery trading partners with a resource for standardizing image capture, naming and sharing.
The guideline, titled Project Images Application Guideline for the Retail Grocery Industry, was developed by the GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative Product Information and Images Workgroup. It consists retailers, manufacturers, distributors and solution providers working to address product information and image sharing challenges by applying GS1 Standards.
The goal was to reduce inefficiencies and provide consumers and trading partners with product image consistency. GS1 US brought industry stakeholders and experts together to develop recommendations for how to apply existing GS1 Standards to retail grocery digital product images for e-commerce, in-store promotions, advertising and supply chain purposes.
The guideline is organized into three sections: general guidelines, a style guide and instructions for publishing images in the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), and a standardized network of continuously updated product information. Additionally, the style guide recommends images for multiple applications, including on-shelf display, e-commerce, catalogs, marketing, packaging, barcodes, nutritional panels and more. I provides stakeholders are provided with definitions, business process standards and real world examples of proper usage and improper usage.
"The Product Image Application Guideline will help streamline the image sharing process and provide industry with the ability to link marketing and sales efforts to GS1 Standards, improving the digital customer experience with clear and consistent imagery,” said Angela Fernandez, vice president of retail grocery and foodservice, GS1 US.
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