P2PI Member Spotlight

Member Spotlight

A snapshot of industry leaders from the P2PI member community

JESSICA ELLICKSON

Shopper Marketing Senior Director Fairlife

Biggest challenge right now: Measuring and optimizing our shopper marketing program performance. This includes determining the optimal shopper marketing spend by retailer, the most effective shopper marketing tactics (which elements drive higher return and what percentage should be online versus in-store), and what is the optimal pulsing for running shopper marketing programming with trade.

With many retailers moving to clean store policies and setting up retailer media networks, the majority of investment is now online, which is allowing us to capture data more quickly and cost effectively. This enables shopper marketing data to be more easily integrated in marketing mix modeling and allows us to understand what is working and not working across shopper marketing campaigns. Yet, with measurement being a newer space for shopper marketing — and shopper marketing still has a decent percentage of activation in-store — I’ve struggled to find how we measure everything in a seamless manner.

Solution for others facing the same challenge: We are currently conducting a pilot with Foresight ROI as we embark on our measurement journey.

A memorable aha moment in your career: When I worked in Latin America, as part of the planning process I identified the big bets for the upcoming year by sizing the opportunity across consumption occasions. The data showed us that the leisure-at-home occasion was a large volume opportunity, yet our market share significantly under-indexed compared to other occasions where we had strong holds (e.g., meals at home). Therefore, one of our shopper marketing big bets was developing programming for the leisure-athome occasion.

I conducted research, such as eye tracking, neuromarketing and virtual store tests, to determine the optimal snacking adjacencies and messaging, while developing unique solutions for the top three retailers in Latin America. Our customers were excited to partner with us on the unidentified opportunity and granted us incremental space to activate our shopper marketing programming, which resulted in 5%-10% sales lifts.

Favorite hobby: Paddle boarding and biking around the lakes with my daughter.

ELIZABETH “LIZ” FOGERTY

EVP, Strategic Planning and Analytics Advantage Marketing Partners

Responsibility: Overseeing a team of right- and leftbrain thinkers who are responsible for synthesizing data and market research to find real consumer-to-buyer truths, creating the strategic foundation for commerce marketing activation that motivates purchase, delivers revenue and builds equity.

Biggest challenge right now: Staying ahead of the pace of change and untangling the vast amounts of data that are currently available to marketers — and determining which of those points are the most important to inform optimal decision-making.

Solution for others facing the same challenge: Get moving, get organized and don’t be afraid to test and learn, take risks and move fast.

Best advice you received in your career: Never stop learning. Knowledge is now at everyone’s fingertips. It’s easier than ever to be a student of the business. Learning new things provides a feeling of accomplishment, which in turn boosts confidence in our own capabilities.

A memorable aha moment in your career: Not one moment, but the culmination of many years: when you recognize that at the heart of all business are its people and the relationships you cultivate. When we are able to respect that each member brings something different to the collective, trust is built. When there is respect and trust, there is nothing you can’t accomplish together.

Favorite hobby: Volunteering.

What you are watching on TV right now: “Yellowstone.” Binged all four seasons. IQ

Institute Events

A Preview of Future Forward

Introducing our brand-new, in-person conference experience, May 16-19 in Chicago

The Path to Purchase Institute’s new in-person event, Future Forward, will take place May 16-19, 2022, at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk in Chicago.

Future Forward will focus on demystifying the new consumer in a world forever changed, and will look at how, where and why consumers shop, as well as the implications this has on brands and businesses — with tangible takeaways to enact change.

This immersive event experience will serve as an incubator for innovation, gathering together a think tank of industry executives, leaders and visionaries in omnicommerce marketing.

Designed to re-inspire, reinvigorate and reconnect the industry, Future Forward will feature a session lineup of fresh voices and perspectives as well as unique networking opportunities — including an interactive discussionfocused roundtable, o -site personal enrichment activities and a celebration for our Hall of Fame inductees and inaugural 40 Under 40 Awards winners.

Here’s a small sampling of the inspiring and insightful speakers on the agenda:

What’s In Store for the 2020s: 5 Macro Trends that will Shape the Consumers, Culture and Retail In the Next Decade

Speaker: Lucie Greene, Founder, Light Years

Greene will give a future forecast that explores key macro trends that will shape the way consumers think, connect, shop and appraise brands in the years to come.

The Next Era of Commerce

Speakers: Emily Sa an-Demers, Editor, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence; Ryan Mullins, Chief Executive O cer, Aglet; Matt Cleary, Director of U.S. Retail, Global Business Solutions, TikTok

Cleary and Mullins will join Sa an-Demers for a discussion on the emerging trends that will de ne the next era of commerce, including livestreamed retail, social commerce and the metaverse.

Gen Z: Society’s Change Agents and the Accelerators of “Next”

Speaker: Alison Embrey Medina, Strategic Program Manager, Consumer Industries, EY

The majority of today’s businesses are about to be blindsided. While companies remain focused on the youth of America based on what they think they know about Millennials, they are missing the massive sociocultural shift underway that will impact their strategy and growth plans for years to come.

4 Consumer Psychology Myths That Undermine Retail Strategies

Speaker: Dr. Chris Gray, Founder, The Buycologist

Building success in the future starts with a clear and honest assessment of the insights that fuel our strategies and tactics today. The surest way to be certain these e orts are relevant, engaging and e ectively motivating purchase behavior is through continuously updating what we know about shoppers and their decision-making processes. In this thought-provoking presentation, Gray will challenge you to think di erently about consumer behavior and shopper insights.

Igniting Human Connection via Experience

Speakers: Samar Younes, Founder and Executive Creative Director (Samaritual) and Executive Creative Director (Show elds), Samaritual and Show elds; Toby Barnes, Experience Design Leader; Heather Dale, Nike

We are moving into a phase of retail where “inspiring human connection” is key to connecting with future consumers. As the need for human connection gains momentum in this digitally focused era, how are brands and retailers reshaping their physical and digital experiences to meet the new consumer’s needs? YourStudio Founder Tom Philipson will be exploring this trend with a panel of retail and brand innovators who will share their strategies for igniting human connection with next-gen experiences across the path to purchase. IQ

ATTEND FUTURE FORWARD

For more information, including the complete agenda, and to register, scan this code.

Author’s Corner

‘How We Eat’

A Q&A with consumer behavior expert and retail guru Paco Underhill

BY MICHAEL APPLEBAUM

Paco Underhill

As a world-renowned expert on consumer behavior, Paco Underhill has spent the better part of three decades studying how people shop for food. Path to Purchase IQ recently sat down with the bestselling author, and strategic advisor to global market research rm Envirosell, to talk about his latest book, “How We Eat: The Brave New World of Food and Drink.” Dramatic changes to the grocery store, tapping into local food trends and the human side of arti cial intelligence are among the wideranging topics in the spirited exchanges below. grocery stores on six continents. So I’ve had a pretty good view on the evolution of both how you sell food and how you buy food and beverages.

The basic idea behind the book is that the food chain is changing and we better pay attention to those changes. Producers desperately need to gure out how to get local. When you think about fashion in the 20th century, the industry was driven by trends that were taking place in London, Paris, New York. Today, fashion is dictated from the street. And the same thing is going on with food and beverages. I was in the East Village [in New York] last week and there was a restaurant selling Korean corn dogs.

P2PIQ: And you make the point in the book that you can’t say, “Well, that’s just New York or that’s just a big city,” because of the increasing interplay between rural and urban areas in America.

Underhill: It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about food or fashion. There are dresses that will y o the shelf and out the door in Dallas that nobody touches in Philadelphia. The premise is the same — it’s the need of the merchant and manufacturer to understand the di erence between what is global and what is local. There are some grocery stores where having a halal meat section is cool. And there are other stores where nobody even knows what halal meat is.

P2PIQ: Today’s consumer is more educated and savvier about food. Do you think the food and beverage industry has done enough to capitalize on the ever-growing demand for higher quality ingredients?

Underhill: I think there’s a lot more attention that needs to be paid to it. Marion Nestle, the retired chairman of the nutrition department at NYU, makes a point that I think is very true. And that is, if consumers demand that a cereal has a certain percentage of sugar in it, when are retailers going to put it in the cereal aisle? If a company is selling cranberry juice that’s really cranberry juice cocktail, and the cranberries are less than 10% of the content, when is that change going to be mandated on the label? There’s a nascent revolution happening right now, and yes, the Nestles and General Mills of the world damn well better pay attention.

P2PIQ: Those are huge companies and big ships to turn around. Have they been too slow to change?

Underhill: The distance between management and consumer in any of the large global consumer

P2PIQ: What inspired you to explore the revolution currently taking place within the U.S. food system?

Underhill: I have worked with grocery stores, restaurants and food brands for more than 30 years. One of my rst clients was Burger King. I studied its rst salad bar o ering in the early 1980s. I’ve worked on

Businesses seem to have forgotten that human intelligence is still a really critical part of their processing skills. Collecting data in 2022 is really easy, but the key is figuring out what the hell you do with it!

goods companies has to be shortened. There’s that old joke that if you walk into a corporate office building and you find the desk farthest away from the front door, that is generally where the person in charge sits. If you walk into a retail store or retail bank today, the same thing is true. And one of the perspectives that I, as a market researcher have just constantly been counting on, is you need to get closer to the front door. You need to get closer to the customer and it isn’t necessarily done with artificial intelligence (AI).

People have to understand that AI has both an artificial and human side to it. I don’t care whether you’re General Mills or the CIA — there are certain things that you get from satellite imagery and certain things that you can only get from understanding what people are saying and doing. Businesses seem to have forgotten that human intelligence is still a really critical part of their processing skills. Collecting data in 2022 is really easy, but the key is figuring out what the hell you do with it!

P2PIQ: In the book, you talk a lot about how retailers can get more value out of physical spaces. For example, you predict the parking lot will be transformed into something far more experiential like a community event or farmer’s market. What changes can they make now, inside the store?

Underhill: People are desperately trying to multitask. The grocery store is losing customers to the drug store and convenience store — and even to vending machines in other parts of the world. Grocery retailers need to be more respectful of people’s time and do a better job of crossmerchandising. I should be able to buy blueberries, yogurt and cereal in the same place! Grocery in other parts of the world has done a much better job of being consumer friendly. And it’s time for us to catch up. The grocery store was invented in the 1930s and it hasn’t changed much since then. The premise that milk is the section of the store farthest away from the front door doesn’t work anymore. It is time for a revolution in design and management of the store.

P2PIQ: Let’s talk about the impact of COVID-19. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to gure out which changes to shopping behaviors are temporary and which are permanent. In general, do you think we tend to overestimate or underestimate the impact of the pandemic on how people shop for food?

Underhill: There’s no question that COVID-19 has had a profound impact. It has been an accelerant for change in several major ways. The rst is access to information. The second is gender issues. Particularly in grocery, one of the things that has been very interesting is that the percentage of men doing the grocery shopping has gone up. That’s mainly because the number of women across North America that are the dominant bread earners was up with each passing month. Women are trying to do their jobs, look after their children, look after their homes. The acquisition of goods is in transition.

P2PIQ: That ties back to your parking lot example, doesn’t it?

Underhill: Yes. Historically, we are talking about a world that was owned by men, designed by men and managed by men. And yet women were our most important shoppers. It doesn’t make any sense. There’s got to be more to o er than just handicapped parking. The question is how do you make the space far more dynamic, let’s say, to accommodate changes in shopping patterns throughout the day? That’s just one example. Retailers need to become more creative and nd better uses for their physical spaces across the entirety of the store. IQ

Meet the Author Coffee Hour: April 20, 2 p.m. EDT

Paco Underhill is one of the Featured Authors in our 2022 Book Club, which is currently reading “How We Eat: The Brave New World of Food and Drink.” Sign up (it’s free!) to be part of our Book Club and you’ll get access to our exclusive Meet the Author virtual coffee hour event — April 20 at 2 p.m. EDT — where you’ll get to listen in while we pick his brain and then take part during an interactive Q&A. Visit PathtoPurchaseIQ.com/bookclub to join us and get on the list.