Contributing Blogger – Celine Butler, RedRay International Partners
In an afternoon session looking at brand connection and chaired by Emmanuel Huet of The Boston Consulting Group, the first presentation was an interactive session with Robert Passikoff and Amy Shea of Brandkeys where she looked at what really drives shopper loyalty?
Emotion is a key driver (70% .v. 30% rational) from a productivity perspective and whilst it is important to evaluate where the brand is, it needs to be measured against the ideal which includes both emotional and rational drivers. It is the consumer who determines the ideal so “ask the consumer.” From this, the strategy of where to take the brand, and the tactics of how to take it there, can then be implemented. It is imperative to have a consumer centric view of the category in which the brand competes and it needs to be evaluated against the consumer ideal. However, this presents a challenge, as emotion plays a strong role but not always easy to measure. The speakers used a model to determine what drives the category. This is achieved by fusing emotional and rational attributes to arrive at four key drivers of the category. One of the most important issues here is to note is that drivers differ depending on category, and within the category, expectations of drivers can differ. The most important take-out from the presentation was to know your key drivers, and expectations of the drivers within your category (apparently 99 out of 100 marketers do not) to enable you to drive your brand.
The next session was maximising shopper insights with Dirk van Kemseke the Global Marketplace Insights Manager with Levi Strauss EMEA. Dirk told us that the levi brand was being threatened due to recession and an explosion of both premium and low-end brands. Customers are now buying for a purpose, buying less frequently, touching fewer products and looking for reasons not to buy. Coupled with this, consumers on average visit a Levi story 3-4 times yearly and buy two pairs of jeans.
Faced with this challenge, Levi needed to revamp its identity and add insight to the brand. Levi needed to change its drivers and communicate them to the consumer – “it is easy to miss something you are not looking for.” If consumers do not think of your brand before going shopping, they will not visit your store. Using observational in-store research to determine customer expectations, Levi developed the Levi Curve; different body shapes and styles to fit the consumer. This identity of body shape is now Levi’s pull and the main objective was to communicate this. Across markets Levi used their store teams to interact or communicate with the customer using a measuring tactic to determine customer’s body shape. In doing so, sales doubled compared with customers who were not measured. Levi also identified other positive measures that influenced sales e.g. store windows, digital advertising, brand location – all these insights influence Levi’s sales and productivity measures.
After the short break we rejoined the sessions to hear a great presentation by Natalie Berg the Global Research Director of Planet Retail in the UK, who reviewed the trends that will achieve growth in 2011 based on their annual Global Retail Outlook report. This perfectly summed up the last 2 days of conference.
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If you’re interested in reading more about the Planet Retail Global Retail Outlook report they have provided RW Connect readers with the opportunity to download an exclusive highlight report, available here
That was INSIGHTS 2011, all that was left was for ESOMAR Director General, Finn Raben to wrap up and announce the winners of the The Best Presentation Award as Corrine Sandler and Lana Novikova of Fresh Intelligence for their presentation “Research 3.0” and the Insights 2011 nominee for the ESOMAR Excellence Award, Stephanie Grootenhuis of Kraft Foods and Bernhard Trieber of 4D Shopper for their paper “Incite to Action.” Congratulations to all of you.
