IN SHOPPER INSIGHTS

As seen in

This diverse group of more than 200 professionals who make up this year’s annual list represents dozens of consumer product manufacturers and retailers. Despite varying methodologies and a wide range of job titles, each one is driven to learn more about what motivates shoppers in order to deliver better solutions more efficiently.

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AAHOLD USAn Sharon Eiswert,

Director, Marketing and Merchandising Insights Eiswert is responsible for influencing the direction of Ahold USA marketing and merchandising strategies through strategic consumer insights projects.

n Ed Porter, Vice President, Consumer and Business Insights Porter, who has 33 years of experience in the food industry in consumer re-search, customer relationship marketing, marketing and customer-centric retailing, understands consumers and retailing and applies consumer insights and analytics to drive business results.

n Ed Sheedy, Director, Category Management Insights Sheedy leads a team that focuses on providing the business with insights and assessments related to specific product portfolios and categories across the com-pany and specific to individual divisions, store groupings and individual stores. The team is accountable for delivering a supe-rior understanding of Ahold’s customers and their behavior in a way that explains business results, identifies the nature and size of sales and profit opportunities, and improves decisions.

ALCONn Mark McKeon, Associate

Director, Category and Shopper Insights McKeon leads the shopper insights group for the Total U.S. Alcon Vision Care OTC division.

ANHEUSER-BUSCHn Tom Prestridge, Director,

Trade Marketing Insights See profile on page 6.

n Merridith vonHartitzsch, Manager, Shopper Insights VonHartitzsch man-ages shopper insights for Anheuser-Busch’s on-premise trade marketing team through custom research, providing selling stories and organizing the company’s pilot innovations event.

BBACARDI USA INC.n Kurt Hillmann, Director,

Shopper InsightsHillmann’s shopper insights team is tasked with leading shopper research to uncover purchase drivers for the creation of actionable opportunities with Bacardi’s commercial partners.

BAYERn Chris Feenan, Executive Director,

Sales Strategy and Customer Centricity, Merck Consumer Care

n Deb Hamtil, Senior Manager, Category and Shopper Solutions, Bayer HealthCareHamtil and her team seek to develop innovative, insight-driven category strate-gies across the entire Bayer portfolio. The group leverages insights to drive creative shopper solutions across health and well-ness categories.

n Susan Hayes, Director of Shopper Marketing and Insights, Merck Consumer Care Hayes established and now leads the shopper marketing and insights team at Merck. Her department of five senior managers creates shopper insights-based marketing programs across all brands at top retail customers such as CVS, Walmart, Wal-greens, Target and Kroger.

n Chris Jepson, Category Strategy Manager, Merck Consumer Care

n Rich Kloenne, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights, Bayer HealthCareKloenne, who leads a shopper research team across all OTC categories, also heads Bayer’s shopper industry leadership initia-tives.

nKathleen McHugh, Senior Customer Insights Manager, Merck Consumer Care

BEAM SUNTORY n Brian Berlin, Vice President,

Consumer and Shopper Analytics

BEST BUY CO. INC.n Laurie Krause, Director, Enterprise

Research, Consumer Insights UnitKrause leads the enterprise research group responsible for all research done to support the U.S. Best Buy organization.

n Linda Todd, Senior Director, Voice of the Customer Research Lead and Digital Insights Strategy

BICn Regina Hobbs, Shopper Insights

Manager

BIG HEART PET BRANDS n Anne Carlson, Vice President,

Market IntelligenceCarlson leads the shopper insights, mar-ket analytics, strategic projects and com-petitive intelligence functions.

n Laura Chandler Rink, Director, Category Management and Insights

n Jonathan Weiner, Senior Vice President, Marketing Strategy, Insights and Activation

BOEHRINGER INGELHEIMn Dawn Lombard, Customer Insights,

Consumer Healthcare

BP AMERICA INC.n Diana Gabbard, Consumer and

Shopper Insights, Fuels Value Chain

BROWN-FORMAN CORP.n Cynthia Williams,

Shopper Insights Group Manager Williams and her group serve as the voice of the shopper by identifying and understanding shopper behavior and needs. They partner with Brown-Forman’s national retail and brands divisions to meet customer priorities and fill gaps in knowledge.

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Although Bill Bean has only had “shopper insights” in his title for the last 13 years, he feels like he’s plied the trade for all 30 of his years in the business at nine com-panies. “One could argue that I have always been in-volved in shopper insights, but initially we didn’t really call it that,” he says. “Because I started working in test marketing, panel data and syndicated scanner data, I have always had a base of quantitative, database-ori-ented research about behavior in stores by shoppers.”

Bean spent the first eight years of his career at mar-ket research firms IRi and Nielsen before moving to Kraft Foods and Rayovac. PepsiCo made him direc-tor of shopper research after offering him either that post or director of category management. “I asked my boss, ‘Which job would help you the most?’ and he said shopper insights,” Bean recalls. “I took that job and have worked in shopper insights for the last 13 years.”

SABMiller was his next stop, from 2006-2008, fol-lowed by a five-year stint with Colgate-Palmolive. Earlier this year he joined Mattel, where he guides a team responsible for establishing research protocols and strategy regarding how the company understands shoppers’ purchasing decisions in its toy category as well as categories such as entertainment, education and baby. Bean says the team works closely with the category management, customer marketing and sales teams.

He recently answered the following questions for Shopper Marketing:

How do shopper insights fit into the Mattel organization?BEAN: My position is a new one meant to demonstrate the im-portance of and elevate shopper insights in Mattel’s global busi-ness. I am building a team that can meet the strategic and tactical information needs of a global marketing and sales organization that wants its best efforts on the ground fueled by rich shopper insights and improved retail information.

It is also a response to a realization that the future of both shop-pers and toys is changing rapidly with technology and cultural and demographic shifts all over the world. Shopper insights is now a specific insights discipline at Mattel on equal footing organiza-tionally with consumer insights and marketing and sales analytics.

What are the most significant innovations in the shopper insights discipline over the past five years?BEAN: I think there are two types of innovation in shopper. One is about tools and technology, and the other about frameworks and concepts. Most of the world is obsessed with the former, and there are wonderful advances there. I love that we can know, capture and measure shopper attention in the act of shopping. Devices that allow us to track in real time the various biomarkers of atten-tion, attendance and non-rational aspects of shopping decisions are huge advances, as are the analytic techniques that accompany them.

Less sexy, perhaps, but just as innovative are the frameworks by which the entire industry has come to think. It is a little older than

five years, but a good example of what I’m talking about is the very idea of shopper missions. That phrase was not in our vocabulary really until Unilever started talking about it. But now “mission” is a fundamental concept of most shopper and retail organizations. The idea of “moments of truth” is another older example that gal-vanized and solidified much of what is known as shopper market-ing today. More recent but also innovative is the very idea of “path to purchase.”

What are some of the key skills required to excel in shopper insights?BEAN: Curiosity is the number one trait we look for in any in-sights professional regardless of their discipline. Flexibility is also required because the rhythms of the selling world are generally different from the marketing world. Time frames are compressed; the stakes seem higher because often urgency takes precedence over thoughtfulness. Cleverness and mental quickness are often more valuable than deliberation and total intellectual power. It of-ten isn’t enough to “connect the dots,” you must connect the dots quickly based on a combination of experience, intuition and guts.

And leadership. Often insights work shows us things that no one in the organization is prepared to believe. Perhaps data shows that your shoppers behave differently than every piece of organization folklore believes. When that happens, as valuable as the informa-tion may appear, as based on data as it might be, an organization may not listen. It takes leadership, persuasiveness, determination and a lot of selling to convince people to follow that new thought.

Photo (and cover photo) by Eric Politzer

“ Shopper insights is now a specific insights discipline at Mattel on equal footing organizationally with consumer insights and marketing and sales analytics.”

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MATTEL INC.Bill Bean, Vice President, Shopper Insights and Competitive Intelligence

BURT’S BEESn Caroline Klompmaker,

Associate Director, Global Insights Klompmaker is responsible for managing the overall direction for Burt’s Bees brand and shopper insights, managing re-search priorities and leveraging resources to achieve goals of the business unit and strategic customers.

BUTTERBALLn Ivan Arrington, Senior

Manager, Insights Arrington manages pri-mary and syndicated data research for Butterball across retail and food ser-vice channels.

CCAMPBELL SOUP/PEPPERIDGE FARMn Alexander Garnick, Manager,

Shopper Insights, Beverage and Breakthrough InnovationGarnick and his team strive to provide crisp and actionable shopper insights to drive category and franchise growth for V8 beverages and breakthrough innovation product platforms.

n Craig Geiger, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights and Category Solutions Geiger works with Camp-bell’s global Walmart team in Bentonville, Arkansas, and cross-func-tionally with consumer research at Camp-bell’s world headquarters to understand shopper and consumer behavior along the path to purchase. He works in con-junction with shopper marketing to apply insights to help drive program targeting and effectiveness.

n Wendy Lo, Senior Manager, Shopper and Category Strategy Lo’s team is responsible for translating the path to purchase through the stra-tegic leverage of shopper and category insights for the Pepperidge Farm brands to drive category sales.

nPhilip McGee, Director, Beverage Insights and Portfolio Analytics McGee oversees consumer, shopper and customer insights for the beverage division at Campbell Soup Co., where his team markets the V8 line of fruit and veg-etable juices. In addition, he is responsible for portfolio analytics across all of Camp-bell’s U.S. retail divisions.

n Nick Mendoza, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights

CHATTEM INC. n Bob Cohen, Director,

Consumer/Market Insightsn Doug Langdon, Director,

Consumer/Market Insightsn Marissa Sison, Director,

Consumer/Market Insights

CHIQUITA BRAND INTERNATIONAL INC.n Dan Wasser, Senior Director of Sales

Operations See profile on page 15.

CHURCH & DWIGHTnJon Troy, Marketing

Lead, Shopper Insights and Analytics Troy leads shopper insights and analytics for a deeper understanding of con-sumer shopping behavior at the point-of-purchase to drive key strategic and tactical category efforts for the marketing organization.

THE CLOROX CO.n Danny Brown,

Associate Shopper Insights Director, Strategic Customers Brown is responsible for defining, implement-ing and driving a leadership vision for Clorox shopper insights initiatives with its strategic customers. He and his team collaborate with category management and shopper marketing to develop best-in-class shopper insights learnings and practices for leveraging with customers.

n Brian Hoffstedder, Associate Director of Insights

n Vikram Sarma, Director, Global Insights

THE COCA-COLA CO.n Pavi Gupta, Group Director, Shopper

Insights and Still Beverages Insightsn Christopher Russell,

Group Director, Shopper Insights

n D. Daren Sorenson, Director, Customer and Shopper Insights Sorenson leads a team of insights professionals that is responsible for under-standing shoppers across convenience retail, drug, dollar and specialty retail channels and translating this knowledge into winning business strategies for Coca-Cola and its customers.

n Steve Weir, Director, Knowledge and Insights Weir leads marketing re-search and analytics for the Walmart team, using syndicated and proprietary resources to sell more Coca-Cola products.

COLGATE-PALMOLIVEn Allison Scott, Director, Shopper

Insights and Analytics

CONAGRA FOODS INC.n Mike Bodnar, Director,

Shopper Insights and Analyticsn Katie Lilley, Shopper

Insights Manager Lilley’s efforts are largely devoted to creating broad insight learnings on topics like trends in retail and deal shoppers.

n Tim Miller, Senior Director, Shopper Insights Miller is responsible for setting the strategic pri-orities and leading the shopper insights organization. His team is dedicated to the understanding of what inspires and motivates their retailers’ shoppers in order to influence activation strategies. They work closely with sales and marketing to ensure that the shop-per’s behaviors, attitudes and needs are at the forefront of program development.

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n Liz Mohr, Director of Shopper Insights Mohr and her team strive to discover learnings on topics like SNAP (Supple-mental Nutrition Assis-tance Program) shoppers, digital shop-ping, meal occasions, seasons and new items by focusing on bringing consumer shopping needs, behaviors and attitudes to life and developing actionable retailer recommendations.

n Bob Nolan, Senior Vice President, Insights and Analytics See profile on page12.

COTY U.S. n Jessica Kalinger, Director, Category

Management and Shopper Insightsn Lisa Panchal, Senior Manager,

Category Management and Shopper Insights

CVS/PHARMACYn Matthew Dacey, Senior Director,

Retail Strategy and AnalyticsDacey’s current role includes identifying ways to provide customers with relevant and valuable information and offers.

n Carrie Flynn, Director, Customer Analytics

n Steven Fransblow, Director, Consumer Engagement Analytics

n Brendan Langan, Director, Customer Insights Langan oversees a team of more than 20 researchers and consultants respon-sible for providing contextualized insights to support strategic initiatives and the growth of key merchandise categories and the retailer’s enterprise brand. He serves as a strategic thought partner for key leaders within marketing, merchandis-ing and operations, acting as a primary advocate for customer-centricity in the organization.

n Michael Parduhn, Senior Director, ExtraCare Analytics

n Rosemary Weldon, Senior Director, Retail Planning and Analytics

DDEAN FOODS CO. n Susan Stege, Senior Director,

Category and Shopper InsightsWith three direct reports in the field sup-porting both large- and small-format customers, Stege is the category and shopper insights lead at Dean Foods’ headquarters in Dallas.

DELL INC.n Lori Pennington,

Senior Shopper Marketing Manager Pennington is account-able for all marketing mix and ROI that is developed based on the understanding of shopper attitudes and behaviors associated with product acquisition, purchase triggers, touchpoints, where to buy (online or of-fline) and designed to build brand equity and drive sales with retailers while the consumer is in shopping mode.

DEL MONTE FOODS INC.n Joelle Lindner, Director,

Category Management & Insights

DIAMOND FOODS INC.n Joseph Najat, Senior Manager,

Category and Shopper InsightsNajat and his team use retail scanning data, consumer panel data, shopper card insights and custom research with intent to create impactful category and shop-per insights that drive business decision-making and retail success.

DICK’S SPORTING GOODSn Ed Plummer, Vice President,

CRM and Customer Insights

DUNKIN’ BRANDSn Rebecca Zogbi, Vice President, Global

Consumer and Business Insights

EE&J GALLO WINERYn Christopher Bacon, Director,

Consumer Insights and Strategy

ELMER’S PRODUCTS INC.n Andrew Kingery, Director, Shopper

and Category Development

FFLEET LABORATORIES INC.n Robert Weitzenhofer,

National Account Category Development Manager Weitzenhofer has discov-ered targeted insights, in partnership with primary research part-ners, to develop activities along the path to purchase that change consumer be-havior and establish new buying habits. Results for retail partners have delivered in excess of 36% sales increases this year.

FOOD LIONn Jason Thomas, Manager

of Shopper Insights, Delhaize America One of two founding members of shopper insights at the grocery chain, Thomas was brought onboard to architect the first iteration of Delhaize’s Shopper Insights Portal (SiP). Today, he oversees shopper and basket-level al-gorithm development for both SiP and ad-hoc analytics, and provides actionable insights to a variety of business partners, both internal and external.

FREUDENBERG HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTSn Alec Lenenfeld,

Director, Shopper Insights and Category Management Lenenfeld leads a team responsible for preparing analysis and leveraging insights to im-prove the company’s retailer relations and collaboration. Freudenberg uses shopper insights and category strategy to develop ways to reinvent the shopper experience and provide greater value for its custom-ers and a competitive advantage for its retail partners.

GGENERAL MILLS INC.n Linda Kline, Senior Director,

Shopper Insights

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Tom Prestridge likes to use the phrase “bring to life” when he talks about shopper marketing. Anheuser-Busch’s di-rector of trade marketing insights heads a 10-person team that analyzes sales and marketing data and recom-mends activations to better connect the 162-year-old company’s brands with retailers and consumers.

Bringing the brand to life is all but in his job descrip-tion. “People buy beer for sharing,” he says. “The person shopping for it may not be the person using it. Helping them relate back to the occasion and bringing it to life in the stores is important. It’ll drive a better purchasing decision, it’ll drive a right fit, and it can help close the sale there instead of losing it.”

Prestridge’s finance degree comes in handy in a dis-cipline so concerned with ROI. His 18 years as strategic business manager with Quaker Oats and five years in retail marketing with Alberto Culver helped to prepare him for the day in 2012 when Anheuser-Busch called, wanting him to revitalize its shopper insights effort.

Prestridge, who developed shopper insights at Cul-ver, accepted the challenge as A-B’s director of shopper insights. He moved into his present role in 2013. “The chance to learn a new category and experience a new culture has been great,” he says.

Having started one shopper insights department and jump-started another, Prestridge says he’s guided by the shopper, regardless of the category. “[Our work] has been focused on who the user is and how to improve [his/her] relationship with the retailer,” he says. “With whatever product, it’s about how it’s used and how it’s going to meet [his/her] needs. Sometimes companies get caught up in the branding and forget how to really connect with the shopper.”

To that end, Prestridge is particularly proud of A-B’s First in Basket initiative, a group of solutions based on the premise that shoppers often either buy beer last on a shopping trip or simply put “beer” on their shopping list, rather than a specific brand. Launched in 2014, First in Basket puts A-B signage and displays in secondary locations throughout a store, customizing the messages based on location. Recipes and meal plans might be placed near the meat department, for example, and suggestions for beverages that go with cheeses are placed near the deli. “It brings beer to life in another part of the store they’re not used to seeing it,” he says.

Prestridge recently took some time to answer the following ques-tions for Shopper Marketing:

How do shopper insights differ from consumer insights?PRESTRIDGE: Shopper insights are learning about people’s pur-chase decisions, attitudes and behaviors. These lead to design acti-vations that fit specific demographic, social and regional preferenc-es. The difference is people in the purchase mode versus the people in the product-usage mode. Oftentimes, shoppers are buying for others, which creates a clear difference.

Are the two disciplines complementary? If so, how?PRESTRIDGE: Absolutely. In the beer category, consumption timing

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Photo by Whitney Curtis

is often very close to purchase. The decision criteria may vary, but the occasion and social engagement fit very well.

How does Anheuser-Busch use primary research to develop shopper insights?PRESTRIDGE: Numerous methods. Online surveys, mobile, virtual reality, eye-tracking, in-store ethnography, etcetera. Each method is custom-fit to meet the needs of the respective client group. Once the research comes in-house, we study it, contrast it to prior learn-ing, and publish it to fit the target.

What emerging technology-enabled tools and techniques are you leveraging to develop shopper insights at Anheuser-Busch?PRESTRIDGE: Virtual reality is being used for research, and to fin-ish specific projects with user-friendly flow through video. Mobile phone research helps us target specific demographic groups with lower cost per respondent and faster delivery.

Are any recent trends significantly impacting your team’s work in insights?PRESTRIDGE: Millennials make shorter-term decisions around our product, so they don’t plan their shopping trips a week or two in ad-vance – more like a day or two. They’re going to buy smaller quanti-ties in more frequent trips. This affects the size of packaging we’re entering into the marketplace that are targeted toward them.

“ It’s about how [the product] is used and how it’s going to meet [the shoppers’] needs. Sometimes companies get caught up in the branding and forget how to really connect with the shopper.”

ANHEUSER-BUSCHTom Prestridge, Director of Trade Marketing Insights

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GEORGIA-PACIFIC CONSUMER PRODUCTSn Sherry Honeyman,

Senior Manager, Shopper Insights Honeyman leads the de-velopment and activation of shopper insights across Georgia-Pacific categories with retailer partners.

n Monica Lopez, Vice President, Consumer, Shopper, Market Insights and Advanced Analytics Lopez leads corporate con-sumer and shopper strate-gy to translate insights into value-creation opportunities for consumers, retailers and Georgia-Pacific.

n John Pfalzgraf, Director, Shopper Insights Pfalzgraf leads the devel-opment and activation of shopper insights for Geor-gia-Pacific’s North America consumer business.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE n Jana DeLancey, Vice President,

Global Consumer and Market Insightsn Valentine Ellis, Senior Research

Manager, Shopper Insightsn Christopher Farley, Director,

U.S. Insightsn Christina Marinucci,

Shopper Insights ManagerMarinucci is part of GSK’s global insights team focusing on North American in-sights for consumer healthcare. She is responsible for developing consumer and shopper-centric strategies on oral care and lip health in order to position GSK as a best-in-class partner for their key retailers.

HHANESBRANDS INC.n Diane Philyaw, Director,

Retail Analytics

HASBRO INC.n Matt Putnam, Hasbro,

Senior Director, Retail and Shopper Insight As part of the retail activa-tion group, Putnam’s team works toward keeping Hasbro ahead of strategic marketplace developments by synthesizing consumer, economic, industry and retailer trends into actionable insights that lead to class-leading retail activation. In parallel, the team researches in-store and online shopper behavior to ensure that Hasbro products are easy to find, explore and buy at any of the manufacturer’s retailer partners.

HEINEKEN USAn Shawn Fitzgerald, Head

of Shopper Intelligence Fitzgerald is responsible for establishing an insights-led culture and building world-class shopper in-sight capabilities across the organization. As a result of building a deeper under-standing of beer shoppers, Heineken has driven more effective brand and channel strategies, developed more engaging and efficient shopper marketing programs, and enabled customer collaboration through thought leadership.

HENKELn Mack Hoopes, Senior

Manager, Shopper Insights and Category Management Hoopes is responsible for uncovering relevant shop-per insights and developing and imple-menting them into action with retailers for Henkel’s beauty care products.

HERSHEY CO.n Rafael Alcarez, VP

of Global Advanced Analytics, HR and Insight-Driven Supply Chain Analytics Alcarez leads the global company’s ROI, ROO and ROR account-ability efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the marketing and sales spending budgets – media (tradi-tional and emergent) and trade. He also leads the global pricing and retail forecast applications and is an internal analytical consultant across research, category man-agement, marketing, finance and sales divisions.

n Susan LaPointe, Senior Director, Shopper Insights LaPointe leads the retailer-based and center of excel-lence shopper insights, developing best-in-class insights to drive category sales. Her group represents the shopper and her needs internally and externally to drive success in the market-place.

n Michael Weinstock, Vice President, Global Knowledge Weinstock leads Hershey’s consumer insights teams that work consultatively with marketing and sales teams globally to develop brand strategy, brand equity, product innovation, as well as developing insights to better understand the confec-tion shopper and the consumer.

HEWLETT PACKARD CO.n Tyler England, Vice

President, Customer and Market Insights, HP Printing and Personal Systems England oversees all cus-tomer and market insight activities for HP’s printing and computing business. His team has a well-established shopper insights capability within each global region.

n Sheila McKay, Customer and Channel Insight Manager

n Laura Smith, Shopper Marketing Insight Manager

HORMEL FOODS CORP.n Meg Baumann,

Shopper Insights Analyst Baumann develops insight-based strategies to drive the business goals for category management and con-sumer product sales team members. She integrates information from diverse sources to address business questions and develop recommendations regarding shoppers’ decision-making process and behavior.

JTHE J.M. SMUCKER CO.n Jill Boyce, Vice President,

Consumer and Market Insightsn Ben Driss, Director,

Category Development Driss and his teams are responsible for leading category management, shopper insights and ad-vanced analytics functions. The teams leverage category- and shopper-based insights and analytics to deliver action-able insights for category growth.

JOHNSON & JOHNSONn Suzanne Hock, Customer Marketing

Managern Sandi Hutama,

Category Insights and Analytics Manager, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group Hutama’s role is to help J&J’s retailer partners execute winning category strategies by leveraging the shopper drawing power of the manufac-turer’s iconic brands.

n Kevin Kwiatkowski, Associate Director, Shopper Insights

n Donna Padovano, Director, OTC Shopper and Category

n Debbie Wearn, Manager, Consumer Insights, Neutrogena

JOHNSONVILLE SAUSAGEn Betsy Bartlett, Consumer Research

Managern Joe Bourland, Director,

Strategic Insights and AnalyticsBourland leads company-wide insights and analytics for category, shopper and consumer.

KKAO n Diane Isler, Senior

Manager, Insights and Category Management Isler leads the shopper insights and category management functions for Kao’s U.S. sales team across the company’s brand portfolio of Jergens, John Frieda, Biore, Curel and Ban. The insights team strives to leverage insights and analysis to uncover opportunities and develop actionable recommendations to elevate Kao’s relationships with retailers to a more strategic level.

KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAINn Adam Chojnacki,

Senior Manager, Shopper Insights

KIMBERLY-CLARKn Jim Libuda, Senior

Shopper Insights Manager Libuda manages all cus-tom shopper research for both CVS and Babies “R” Us. He is also the loyalty expert for Kim-berly-Clark and oversees all CVS/ExtraCare loyalty analytics. He works cross-function-ally to integrate insights with category management and shopper marketing into compelling, actionable stories.

n Bala Mallela, Senior Director, Category and Shopper Insights Mallela leads more than 90 team members spread across headquarters and key customer teams. He is a global con-sumer leader with more than 20 years of marketing, consumer and shopper in-sights, and category management experi-ence at leading marketing-driven global consumer packaged goods companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and J&J.

KOHL’S CORP.n Joseph Bagby, Vice President,

Strategy Development and Insights

KRAFT FOODS GROUP INC.n Eileen Bruckert, Director of Category

Leadership and Shopper Insightsn Virginia Mason, Associate Manager,

Shopper Insightsn Art Sebastian, Vice President,

Category Leadership and Shopper Insights

n Mark Stephens, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights

THE KROGER CO.n Jeff Talbot, Corporate Vice President,

Customer Loyalty Marketing, Relationships and Insights

LLEGO SYSTEMS INC.n Karen DiZio Lee, Shopper Insights

ManagerLee drives the shopper insights agenda for Lego in the Americas market. She leads the gathering and interpretation of shopper data and insights from primary and secondary sources while also acting as the shopper insights contact for all top customer accounts.

LG ELECTRONICSn Doug Loretucci, Director,

Consumer Insights

L’OREAL USAn Rosanne Olken, Director,

Shopper InsightOlken joined the company in January 2014 and is responsible for overseeing all shopper-based research across the orga-nization to ensure that the shopper lens informs business decisions, platforms and strategy.

LOWE’Sn John Whitaker, Vice

President of Market and Consumer Insights Whitaker is responsible for providing strategic insights to the enterprise support-ing customer experience, marketing/advertising, marketplace trends, mer-chandising, new business development, operations, price/promotion, real estate and strategy.

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Mickey Mericle spent the first decade of her career work-ing in civil war zones, delivering humanitarian needs for displaced and refugee populations. Reflecting on that time, she says she loved the immediacy of the results and that her work was based on observing people’s needs. “Take those factors forward into what I do today,” she says, “and it’s about seeing the results of my work. There’s no quicker place than retail in terms of observing and anticipating people’s needs and providing solutions for those needs. The fundamentals of both of those different worlds are very similar.”

After her time overseas, Mericle went to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where she fo-cused on empirical decision-making. A management con-sulting stint concentrating on retail practice awakened a passion for retail, and she joined Target in 2004.

She spent most of her nearly six years at Target in the retailer’s guest relationship management division. “I got a lot of exposure to the power of customer analytics and looking at data to inform what consumers are thinking and why they’re making decisions,” she says.

Walmart then recruited Mericle to join its strategy team in 2009. In 2011, she joined a new team led by EVP of glob-al customer insights and analytics Cindy Davis.

Mericle, who’s been working specifically with Sam’s Club since July 2014, agreed to answer the following ques-tions for Shopper Marketing:

How can retailers and manufacturers ensure that customer insights are mutually beneficial?MERICLE: The most successful partnerships are those in which we work on a common organizing principal. When we can speak with one voice in terms of how we look at the customer, it allows manufacturers to run with speed and yet layer on top of ours, so we don’t have to trip over each other. We work on a lot of total box questions such as “What drives somebody to Walmart or Sam’s?” Our supplier partners are going to be very knowledgeable – far deeper than we can ever get on their categories and their motiva-tions. But if we have a common lens and use the same language and framework, that’s a power of exponential acceleration.

What’s the greatest challenge confronting Walmart’s customer insights and analytics work today?MERICLE: The speed at which we have to make decisions. Typi-cally, our function will want to learn every aspect about the cus-tomer, take time and use very traditional methods. That’s often in contrast to the speed at which the business needs to make a decision. We’ve had to get really good at delivering insights at the speed of retail, but the evolution has led us to some very cool plac-es in terms of new technologies and new ways of looking at things. We’ve also become very good at identifying those real-time deci-sions that can reduce decision risk, make the decision smarter, but are providing directional input versus precision input.

How does Walmart evaluate emerging technology-enabled tools for insights and analytics work?MERICLE: It’s always a balance. We want to understand the new tech-

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nologies, but when we’re moving as fast as we are and are as big as we are, we can’t afford to constantly switch out vendors and method-ologies or we’ll lose longitudinal or tracking history. We want to make bets, but not risky bets. We have a balance of new and cutting-edge versus scale and speed. A small part of our budget and focus is on new and emerging vendors, and we allow ourselves to fail a bit. For that 20%, we focus on experimenting, new ways of calculating things, new technologies and new vendors. And then we can bring them into the 80% if they prove to be the breakthrough we often think they will be.

What aspects of the shopper insights discipline does Walmart leverage most effectively?MERICLE: We’re great at capturing the functional part of shopping decisions – the observable, rational pieces of retail choice or the decision process – and understanding the “what” and “when” of those decisions. We can look at trips and then start to understand what drove that trip to Walmart or another retailer.

What areas of the discipline will you focus on most going forward?MERICLE: Ninety-five percent of any shopping decision, wheth-er at the shelf or even what retailer they visit, is unconscious. So when we want to understand what motivates a trip, the 5% is in many ways those functional attributes – and what a shopper can tell us. As insights professionals, we’re very good at asking people why they did something, but we need to get better at understand-ing the unconscious part of their decisions.

“ We’ve had to get really good at delivering insights at the speed of retail, but the evolution has led us to some very cool places in terms of new technologies and new ways of looking at things.”

Photo by James Keltner

WALMART STORES INC.Mickey Mericle, Vice President of Customer Insights and Analytics, Sam’s Club

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NESTLÉ USAn Darren Kweitel, Director,

Shopper Insights Kweitel and his team partner with the brand, customer and category teams to deliver actionable insights that result in category growth for Nestlé’s retail partners.

NESTLÉ WATERSn Drew Cornwall, Senior

Manager, Category and Shopper Solutions Cornwall is responsible for developing and apply-ing actionable shopper insights across the club, mass, pharmacy, dollar, office and emerging channels of trade.

n Nicole O’Connor, Group Manager, Category and Shopper Solutions

NEWELL RUBBERMAIDn Jeff Hofmann, Global Vice President,

Customer Collaborationn Jonathan Miller,

Director, Category Strategy and Multi- Channel Category Management

NORDSTROM INC.n Lynda Firey-Oldroyd, Vice President,

Consumer Insights

NOVARTIS CONSUMER HEALTHn Phil Asprelli, Director,

Shopper Marketing and Insights, Drug Channel Asprelli has more than 20 years of shopper market-ing, insights and sales management experience. He joined Novartis in 2005 and is currently leading a shopper insights team that is focused on strategic business development in the drug channel.

MMACY’Sn Tim Teran, Senior Vice President,

Consumer Insights and StrategyTeran and the rest of the management team are responsible for developing in-tegrated consumer perspectives on the business and identifying growth opportu-nities rooted in serving customers better that can be translated into practical strate-gies, programs and tactics for achieving growth.

MARS CHOCOLATE U.S.n Carol Van Den Hende, CMI Category/

Segment Insights Center of Excellence

MARS PETCAREn Ellen Gooden, Senior Manager of

Shopper Insightsn Ryan Grace, Consumer and Market

Insights Managern Paulette Kish, Strategic Insights

Officern Leigh O’Donnell, Manager of

Shopper Insights

MATTEL INC.n Bill Bean, Vice President, Shopper

Insights and Competitive Intelligence See profile on page 3.

n Rebecca da Costa, Director, Global Consumer Insights

n Meredith Jang, Director, Shopper Insights and AnalyticsJang’s team leads the design, implemen-tation and analysis of custom quantitative and qualitative research programs intend-ed to deliver powerful insights that drive strategic direction and tactical actions for Mattel and its retailer partners.

MCCORMICK & CO. n Lisa Carpenter, Category

Management/Shopper Insights

MEIJER INC.n Parker Hurlburt,

Director of Consumer Insights Hurlburt began his market research career in South-ern California at 16 as a telephone interviewer. Over the past 30 years he has worked for both IRi and AC Nielsen; on the supplier side with MSI and Research International; and the client side with ConAgra and Meijer.

n Michael Ross, Vice President, Customer Marketing and Emerging Technology Ross leads customer mar-keting, loyalty, marketing analytics, payment solutions, marketing, digital/mobile marketing strategies and emerging technology for the Grand Rap-ids, Michigan-based supercenter chain.

MILLERCOORSn Kathleen Blum, Senior Marketing

Manager, Shopper/Channel InsightsBlum built MillerCoors’ shopper and channel insights capability by creating a foundation of learning about the shopper, channels, key retailers and marketing pro-grams that inform channel strategies and enhance key retail partnerships. She man-ages the shopper/channel insights team across a variety of custom qualitative and quantitative research that is synthesized into actionable insights leveraged by mar-keting, sales and retail partners.

n Scott Sabin, Marketing Insights Manager, Shopper/Channel

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL n Fran Derin, Associate Director,

Shopper Insights and Category Management

n Amelia Strobel, Global Strategic Insights and Innovation Leader

NNESTLÉ NUTRITIONn Deborah Campbell, Head of

Consumer and Marketplace Insightsn Jessica Irwin, Senior Manager,

Consumer and Marketplace Insights

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n Cara Kahaly, Director, Shopper Marketing and Insights, Food/Alternate Channel Kahaly is a Unilever alum and now leads a high-energy team to unfold insights and drive shopper connections for the food/alter-nate channel at Novartis. She has more than 15 years of experience driving inte-grated marketing, shopper marketing and insights across grocery, mass and drug channels.

n Beth Lowing-Froncek, Associate Director, Shopper Insights and Solutions With more than 10 years of marketing and sales experience across several industries, Lowing-Froncek currently leads the devel-opment and implementation of shopper insights and strategic category platforms and solutions to drive category growth and profitability in partnership with key customers.

n Deb Monahan, Director, Global Shopper Insights and Capabilities Monahan has more than 20 years of consumer and shopper research experi-ence and has held various roles within these disciplines at Novartis since 2004. She is currently leading the shopper insights team in the U.S. and is presently developing a new shopper marketing approach to build the overall capability globally for Novartis.

n Greg Parker, Director, Shopper Marketing and Insights, Mass/Club/ Dollar Channels Parker, who has more than 20 years of experience in the CPG industry, leads the shopper marketing and insights discipline across multiple channels. His focus is on driving category growth and maximizing brand equity.

n Michael Reinhardt, Vice President, Customer Strategy Reinhardt leads the U.S. shopper marketing and insights discipline and the global shopper marketing and insights practice for Novartis OTC brands as part of his overall trade marketing responsibili-ties. He has 27 years of sales and market-ing experience in the CPG industry.

OOCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES INC.n Larissa Irrera, Director,

Global Insights The Ocean Spray Cranber-ries global insights team integrates consumer, shopper, customer, busi-ness and market insights to inform sales and marketing within North America and global partners.

PPEPSICOn Afshin Ahangar, Senior Manager,

Shopper and Channel Insightsn Chetan Bhanot, Director,

Shopper Insightsn Andrea Brolin, Senior

Manager, Shopper Insights, Quaker Foods and Snacks Brolin leads the team re-sponsible for all U.S.-based shopper insights work across all channels for Quaker breakfast and snacking brands.

n Angie Chang, Shopper Insights Senior Analyst

n Jeff Jones, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights, Beverages Jones is responsible for developing understand-ing of shopper behaviors and motivations in PepsiCo’s small-format retail customers such as dollar stores, drugstores, convenience and gas. Those insights are then used to commercialize marketing and merchandising programs designed to drive engagement and con-version among packaged beverage shop-pers in small format.

n Micah Mack, Manager, Shopper Insights, Frito-Lay

n Geoff Meade, Senior Manager, Shopper and Channel Insights, Large Format

n Karen Merheb, Director, Shopper Insights, Frito-Lay

n Christina Moore, Director, Shopper Insights, Frito-Lay Moore is responsible for leading the development and execution of shopper insights research and business strategy for emerging and growth customers, includ-ing e-commerce.

n Kim Nameth, Senior Manager, Consumer Insights, PepsiCo Nameth’s role is op-erations/research project manager for PepsiCo’s SMART Learning Center. She is responsible for managing the daily operations of the facility, all aspects of research conducted at the lab, and managing special projects.

n Shelley Pisarra, Senior Director, Shopper Insights and Strategy, Frito-Lay Pisarra leads shopper learn-ing agenda and strategy development to drive busi-ness through optimal connections with shoppers.

n Stan Turek, Vice President, Customer Innovation and ActivationTurek leads a team that focuses on customer-specific research and analytics for nine of PepsiCo’s strategic customers across four channels.

n Maureen Vance, Director, Customer Strategy and Shopper Insights

n Brian Walsh, Senior Director, Shopper Insights, NAB Walsh leads PepsiCo’s bev-erages shopper insights team for large format. He is responsible for the design and commer-cialization of all shopper-related strategic initiatives.

n Roy Whalen, Director, Global Business Intelligence

A large initiative underway at ConAgra Foods perhaps best describes a new way of thinking, especially where Bob Nolan is concerned. As senior vice president, insights and analyt-ics, a position he’s held since June, Nolan is responsible for all consumer-focused work to go along with the customer-focused side he’s handled since joining the company in 2012.

The initiative, which centers on ConAgra’s Banquet frozen brand, is focused on the value shopper. “We can now pull in the shopper insights team we have focused on Walmart and actually work from end to end,” he says. “We’re not just doing something that’s brand-focused, headquarters-only in theory. We’re actually working closely now with the team that handles Walmart to make sure it really takes into account the Walmart shopper. That lens is part of the process much earlier than it was previously for us.”

Nolan, who worked full-time for Albertsons and then Kroger in high school and college, knew he wanted to stay in the food business. He took a job with Quaker Oats upon graduating and started down a traditional sales path.

Yet, with an aptitude and interest in numbers, reporting and computers – before many people even had computers – he helped develop category management within the PepsiCo divi-sion. “Quaker Oats was one of the first companies in that space, and I decided I really liked this side of the business,” he says.

He went on to spend the next 23 years at PepsiCo, mov-ing from various category management positions into retail and customer insights, capping off his tenure there as vice president of international insights and sales capability. The opportunities he saw at ConAgra to help bring together mul-tiple functional areas across insights and analytics into one area was what lured him over.

“When I got here, I was still focused primarily on shopper in-sights, category management and customer-focused analytics,” he says. “But with the additional changes in June, I picked up brand insights, innovation and brand analytics.”

Nolan strives daily to see that all the company’s decisions are grounded in analytics and insights versus just gut feel or tradi-tional ways of thinking. “Everything we do needs to be vetted and make sense from a shopper’s or consumer’s eyes,” he says. “My goal is to ensure my team is part of all the key decisions we make.”

Nolan recently sat down with Shopper Marketing to answer the following questions:

Does ConAgra view the insights and analytics functions differently from what you experienced at PepsiCo?NOLAN: Yes, because everything is on one team now. We had been playing a little bit of catch-up, but this last round of changes has set us up uniquely with all the insights being together from end to end, so everything from the shelf in the store to the brand in a consumer’s pantry. Most places I know of, and certainly in my previous life at PepsiCo, those were separate functional areas in different parts of the company.

What recent work by the ConAgra shopper insights team stands out?NOLAN: We’re doing a huge piece around occasions, pulling in

the consumer folks to understand all the different occasions that shoppers and consumers are trying to solve for – everything from snacks and meals to special occasions such as birthdays and family celebrations. We want to understand not only what drives people to those but also the solutions our customers need to be offering to them. We had good success with our “Win With Dinner,” so we decided to take a step back and look at it more holistically across every occasion, not just dinner.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your work?NOLAN: All of the new cross-functional opportunities and educa-tion everyone on the team is getting in areas they’ve never been exposed to before is very rewarding. People can be more dynamic with their future job focus areas now, whereas in the past that would have been more difficult.

What is the most challenging?NOLAN: As we try to develop insights around private brands, a big challenge is to understand the value we can bring to our customers and how we can help them be more strategic and drive higher cus-tomer satisfaction.

What’s next for the shopper insights discipline?NOLAN: I think we’re going to see a continued evolution where the shopper and the consumer are really one, and the way we think about and market to them directly is going to continue to evolve and change with digital communications, shopper marketing and other factors.

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Photo by Brian Morrison

“ Everything we do needs to be vetted and make sense from a shopper’s or consumer’s eyes. My goal is to ensure my team is part of all the key decisions we make.”

CONAGRA FOODS INC.Bob Nolan, Senior Vice President, Insights and Analytics

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PERNOD RICARD USA n Scot Henderson,

Director of Customer Solutions Henderson has led the company’s growth, thought leadership and strategic planning across on/off-premise chain customers for the adult beverage portfolio. Prior to joining Pernod Ricard, he held senior positions at PepsiCo and Dean Foods where he pioneered indus-try-leading analytics and led customer sales teams.

PFIZER CONSUMER HEALTHCAREn Zack Apkarian, Pfizer, Senior Director,

Global Analytics and Business InsightsApkarian utilizes advanced analytic meth-odologies and techniques to identify driv-ers of marketplace dynamics and business performance across the PCH portfolio of brands.

n William Jaichner, Associate Director, Shopper and Category Insights

n Chuck Meyer-Hanover, Director, Shopper and Category Insights Hanover is responsible for insights development, tools and capabilities, and category development for food and club channels.

PHARMAVITEn Mariana Rojas, Manager,

Customer Marketingn Nawshi Williams, Manager,

Customer Marketing

PROCTER & GAMBLEn Lori Aulfinger, Director,

North American Retail and Shopper Insights Aulfinger’s responsibilities include enabling P&G’s re-tailer partners with strong retail, shopper and market data and in-sights that help drive joint value, as well as influencing their internal brands and cat-egories to better deliver against emerging shopper, retail and market needs. She is also a key leader on P&G’s omnichannel steering team.

n Steve Buchanan, Associate Director, Brand Consumer and Market Knowledge Buchanan provides brand building, business optimi-zation and consumer/shopper insights ca-pabilities across P&G’s health and groom-ing portfolio on brands such as Gillette, Braun, Venus, Crest, Oral-B, Scope, Vicks, Metamucil, Pepto Bismol and others.

n Christine Geary, Associate Director, Brand Consumer and Market Knowledge Geary is responsible for identifying and activating insights in the shopper and retailer space, both scaled and retailer/channel-specific selling solutions.

PUBLIX SUPER MARKETSn Karen Murino, Director of Market

Research

RRALEY’S SUPERMARKETSn Tom Hutchison,

Director of Marketing, Customer Experience, CRM and Analytics Hutchison leads Raley’s personalized marketing and analytics as well as its customer expe-rience efforts and is working to develop a best-in-industry structure that provides data insights, strategies, true one-to-one marketing, and a world-class experience to build measurable value for Raley’s and its customers.

RECKITT BENCKISER n Yelena Idelchik,

Shopper Insights Manager, Healthcare Idelchik’s focus is on gen-erating critical shopper insights with a concentra-tion on upper respiratory and vitamins categories within the adult and pediatric segments. She leads efforts for in-store insights activation.

RED BULL NORTH AMERICA INC.n Andy Morris, Manager

of Consumer Insights In his role, Morris oversees all primary/secondary con-sumer/shopper research for Red Bull’s marketing, media house and sales divisions.

REYNOLDS CONSUMER BRANDSn Nancy Bedwell, Vice President,

Category ManagementBedwell is responsible for setting strategic direction for Reynolds Consumer Brands category management and shopper insights. This includes the development of internal policies and procedures to ensure that all customer-facing personnel understand the role and strategy across all of Reynolds’ national brands as well as private-label brands.

n Brian Ellis, Senior Category Development Manager

RITE AIDn Rob George, Director

of Market Research George’s current role has him analyzing both current and potential customers to determine the best loca-tions for the retailer’s outlets. He and his teams then use customer behavioral data to determine the best use of Rite Aid’s space for the customer living around the location.

SSAFEWAY INC.n Pauline Berry,

Director, Consumer and Shopper Insights Berry works toward providing new understanding about the Safeway shopper that inspires action, illuminates choices and builds the business.

n Deb Fifles, Vice President, Consumer and Shopper Insights Fifles and her team are responsible for the devel-opment, analysis and so-cialization of custom research and insight for the enterprise. Their scope of work informs and drives tactical and strategic issues and includes competitive shopper and target understanding, identification of emerging shopper needs and trends, and integration of consumer/shopper understanding into short-term and long-term planning.

n Kathy Hayes, Director, Consumer and Shopper Insights Hayes helps drive con-sumer understanding re-sulting in stronger business performance.

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICSn Kyle Rhodes, Manager,

Shopper Insights and Analytics

THE SCHWAN FOOD CO.n Rick Altman, Director,

Consumer Insightsn Diane Harper, Vice President,

Consumer Insights and Marketing Integration

SC JOHNSON n David Milka,

Shopper Insights Lead Milka and the shopper insights team assist SC Johnson’s business part-ners in intelligently deliver-ing targeted shopper-based solutions, given today’s shoppers’ ability to interpret marketing research that focuses on both in-store and near-store shopper behaviors and experiences.

SEARS HOLDINGS CORP.n Philip K. Philip, Senior

Director, Strategy and Operations, Kenmore; Insights and Analytics, Kenmore, Craftsman, Diehard

STARBUCKS COFFEE CO.n Pam Greer, Vice President, Global

Insights and Consumer Research

SUNSTAR AMERICAS INC.n Dawn Day, Senior

Manager, Market Insights, Technology and New Product Development Day does most of the pri-mary research for the U.S., Canada and Latin America markets, in-cluding both qualitative and quantitative studies, with consumers and dental pro-fessionals as well as syndicated analyses.

TTARGET CORP.n Mark von Oven, Director

of Merchandising, Business Intelligence and Analytics Von Oven’s responsibilities include analytics, report-ing, prototyping and data quality for Tar-get’s merchandising organization. Prior to joining Target, he spent 14 years at Procter & Gamble in business intelligence and analytics.

TYSON FOODS n Jennifer Bentz, Vice President,

Consumer Insights and Strategyn Edith Drew, Manager,

Shopper Insightsn Katie Survance,

Senior Manager, Shopper Insights Survance leads Hillshire Brands’ shopper and cat-egory insights team whose responsibility it is to provide the voice of their shoppers both internally and exter-nally. She leads primary shopper research and leverages a wide range of secondary data sources to integrate into the manu-facturer’s category leadership platforms to inform retail partners.

UUBISOFT n Amy Andrews, Associate

Director, Shopper Marketing and Insights Andrews leads Ubisoft’s shopper marketing and insights team across all U.S. retailers, including GameStop, Walmart, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Target and other key accounts. Ubisoft is a producer, pub-lisher and distributor of interactive enter-tainment products worldwide.

UNILEVERn Uzma Rauf, Team Leader,

U.S. Shopper Insights

U.S. CELLULARn Eric Jagher, Vice President, Strategy,

Insights and Analytics

VVF CORP. n Kent Bassett, Vice

President, Consumer and Shopper Insights Bassett leads global shop-per insights practice for brick and mortar and e-commerce. In this capacity, his team works with VF Corp.’s 30-plus brands to identify strategies for driving greater traf-fic, conversion and revenue as well as help prepare the company for the future of shopping and retail, such as mobile, payment systems, omnichannel fulfill-ment, store formats, role of the store, etc.

WWALGREEN CO.n Mike Callero, Director,

Consumer Insightsn Andy Copilevitz, Senior Director,

Insightsn Romina D’Andrea, Director, Insightsn Adam Holyk, Group Vice President,

Customer Loyalty and Insights

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Dan Wasser, who describes his world as one of “ones and zeros,” found his place when he fol-lowed a cousin to a young and growing com-pany in the early 1980s. The company was IRi, and Wasser, armed with a degree in marketing and economics, started in an entry-level posi-tion but had risen to vice president of client service by the time he left 15 years later.

His next steps were into the Internet world of research, where he and a few others “tried to make our millions,” he says. “We did – on paper for about an hour-and-a-half – but then the Internet bubble burst a few times.”

During that time, Wasser reconnected with a former co-worker from IRi who had moved over to Dole Food and then Fresh Express, now a division of Chiquita, and urged him to consider doing the same. After consulting for Fresh Express for just under a year, he was hired as vice president of category manage-ment.

That was in early 2002 and he’s been with the company ever since, except for a two-year hiatus in which he did some consulting while Chiquita was going through changes in lead-ership. “What led me here is that my world is and always will be information and insights,” he says, adding that when he returned to Chiquita last year he was the company’s direc-tor of category management and consumer and shopper insights. In July, he assumed his current role of senior director of sales operations.

As the leader of the insights group, Wasser heads up the team that works with “anything and everything that has an impact on our industry of food. The company looks to my team and I as the information hub. Anything related to the consumer, the shopper or the marketing environment – that’s what we get paid to do.”

Wasser recently answered the following questions for Shopper Marketing:

How does Chiquita define shopper insights?WASSER: We define shopper insights as what we know about shoppers, their behavior, their channel migration, what entices them to buy, and how offline and online work together. We use data to drive actions and insights to our retail partners, the end goal being to entice the shopper to convert to a buyer.

How does the organization utilize shopper insights?WASSER: We have an internal mantra, which is “What (the data), so what (summarize it) and now what (what do I do with it)?” The end game is determining how we can use data to create a pro-gram that’s going to get shoppers into stores to buy. We also take it beyond that because retailers don’t sell brands, but categories. Finally, we try to “AQVL” things into a value proposition: Articulate the value of an event or insight; quantify it; get validation from the retail partner; and then we leverage it and learn from it.

15

Photo by Brian Morrison

“ If we continue to do the status quo, then that’s exactly how we’ll be perceived. We want our retailers to recognize that we’re putting forth the effort to drive their business.”

CHIQUITA BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC.Dan Wasser, Senior Director of Sales Operations

What steps is your insights group taking to stay ahead of the innovation curve?WASSER: We have funds to invest in top qualitative research, eth-nographic research, shop-a-longs, quantitative research, surveys, focus groups and secondary data. We’re data-agnostic, and we do a lot of talking with consumers and shoppers as well as with our re-tail partners and our European counterparts. But it still boils down to the fact that we’re willing to invest in the research to try to get ahead of the curve.

What’s the biggest challenge facing the shopper insights discipline?WASSER: I think a challenge in itself is being continually relevant and creative across the board. We need to continue to be creative, innovative and relevant to the shopper and the retailer. If we con-tinue to do the status quo, then that’s exactly how we’ll be per-ceived. We want our retailers to recognize that we’re putting forth the effort to drive their business. I want our work to be viewed as a valued asset.

What’s the greatest opportunity Chiquita can gain from insights-based work?WASSER: Our greatest opportunity is to be able to continue to dif-ferentiate ourselves and be an organization where other compa-nies come to us and want to create partnerships.

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WALMART STORES INC.n Maggie Arguelles,

Director, General Merchandise Pricing Arguelles is responsible for developing, testing and implementing shopper-focused price strategies for Walmart.

n Anita Craig, Partner, Global Customer Insights and Analytics Team Craig’s role is to help her team bring the customer and retail landscape to life for the Walmart organization.

n Cindy Davis, Executive Vice President, Global Customer Insights and Analytics Davis is the architect of the global customer insights and analytics capability at Walmart that enables and inspires customer-centric decision-making to drive transformational growth and build customer advocacy. Her team acts as the consumer headlights for the company’s enterprise strategy, guiding Walmart and Sam’s Club business strategies with cross-channel customer and member insights, and deploying customer intelligence at scale to inform decision-making and enable more rel-evant customer connections.

n Mickey Mericle, Vice President, Customer Insights and Analytics, Sam’s Club See profile on page 9.

n Heiko Schafer, Senior Director, Global Customer Insights and Analytics

n Linda Vytlacil, Vice President, Global Customer Insights and Analytics As a member of the Walmart Global Customer Insights and Analytics organization, Vyt-lacil leads the strategy and enablement team responsible for building customer-insights capabilities across international markets, accelerating best practices glob-ally and introducing analytics innovation from emerging methodologies and big data technology.

n Martha Walsh, Director, Global Customer Insights and Analytics

WHIRLPOOL CORP.n Colette Matthews, Marketing

Director, Insights and Marketplace Strategy

WHITEWAVEn Aubre Dallape,

Category Strategy and Insights Manager Dallape creates and com-mercializes category-level strategies, utilizing learn-ings about the shopper to make recom-mendations that are actionable in-store.

WILLIAM WRIGLEY JR. CO. n Jami Guthrie, Vice President,

Consumer Insights and Business Analytics

WORLD KITCHENn Rita Finley, Director, Category and

Shopper InsightsFinley’s team leads the company’s North American insights to understand consum-er and shoppers’ needs and behaviors to grow categories.

n Emily Vasbinder, Senior Manager, Shopper Insights

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