EyeSee Insights for 2021

Why relying on consumer research during fast-changing times is the wisest move

How to approach conducting research in turbulent times

What to optimize during the global crisis and beyond

Where to go from here: The future of market research

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Special thanks to our clients

Liubov Ruchinskaya Brand Insights at Colgate-Palmolive

Gina E. Boyd Shopper Insights & Category Management at Mondelez

Karen Kraft Consumer Insights at Johnsonville

Prabhkar Sundaram Global Consumer Insights at Energizer

Shruti Saini Former Marketing Strategy & Insights at Anheuser-Buch

Michelle Grushko Marketing Insights & Analytics at Twitter

Hi reader, We will remember 2020 for the rest of our lives. Our daily routines changed in March; now, everyone can’t wait for the year to end. The bad news is, the situation won’t be solved by June 2021 and perhaps not even in 2021. On the other hand, we know that extreme macro problems (pandemics, social turmoil, and alike) are catalysts for innovation and perhaps more importantly - the adoption of innovation. Working remotely, the rise of e-commerce, a corporate focus on wellbeing… all these existed for some time and are not new, but the ongoing pandemic has accelerated the trends.

There are many ways to deal with the current situation, but I found that the most productive one is embracing a “quest” narrative; prompting you to meet the unchanging circumstances head-on, accept them and incorporate these developments into your identity and journe

Intro

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This is our philosophy and approach – and, objectively speaking, EyeSee did amazingly amidst significant global turmoil. We secured a capital round in March (on the worst stock exchange day in history!) which enforced our mission, freeing us from acute worries about money.

Further, we won major recognitions lifting us head above previous years: (1) we became the Market research supplier of the year at Quirk’s Marketing and Insights excellence awards, (2) at the same event, we also won the Advertising project of the year award, (3) and received an honorary title of the Most sustainable growth by Deloitte Fast50. A 50% increase in sales followed this success. On top of this, we managed to organize highly relevant webinar conversations with guest top experts across industries.

It is safe to say that these accomplishments humbled our team.

However, the year brought about several fundamental challenges; like many others, we left our offices and switched to a remote working mode.

At the beginning of April, we faced massive uncertainty about upcoming projects, with client conversations becoming more and more complex.

For me personally, as the head of the company, the most trying challenge right now is keeping the employees’ spirits up. No surprise there - suddenly, your entire family routine is interrupted; you are anxious about getting infected but even more so, worried about your family; you can’t socialize normally; enjoy any of your hobbies as before.

Crucially, the boundary between family and work environments has been erased, add on top of that financial uncertainty – no wonder we all feel underwater sometimes. Therefore, it was important first to assure our team of their job stability; whatever happened, no one will get fired due to the pandemic. We made sure to increase internal communication for transparency and support sake.

During these times, it is even more crucial to understand who we are and how we work together (both as an organization and as individuals), in order to unleash the potential of all our team members.

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Intro

2021 will be, by all means, an interesting year. While we have many ambitions and exciting plans, we do need to embrace the reality; the pandemic will not be solved, the political and social issues won’t be gone tomorrow. As we are still processing the ongoing changes and adjusting, I wanted to share this publication with you as a tool to seize new opportunities and face the upcoming challenges.

The first two chapters aim to provide several perspectives on why conducting reach in turbulent times makes sense and how to approach it. Our team and prominent clients (experts from Twitter, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft Heinz, Energizer, and others) maintain that these times are particularly important to continue research to stay on top of emerging trends, and exit the crisis prepared. The third chapter includes interesting case studies that show particular examples of which research can create a lot of added value during these times. The last chapter offers advice and possible strategies to deal with 2021.

I hope this booklet helps you understand and make the most of it!

Stay safe and thriving, Olivier Tilleuil (EyeSee founder)

Intro

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8 years of breaking new ground in market research EyeSee started off 8 years ago by pioneering a proprietary webcam-based eye tracking and facial coding platform.

Since then, we have developed new methods, expanded our impressive client list to different industries, and refined how we test - all to provide fast, cost-effective, and globally scalable behavioral research. So, what is the way to get actionable and predictive insights?

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Intro

we believe that the formula is: A combination of behavioral and conventional methods

State-of-the-art visualizations for in-context testing

Accessible research that responds to shifting business requirements: fast, costeffective and global

deep dive

Mexico City, Mexico coming in 2021

Already conducted tests Not yet conducted tests

New York, USA client office

London, UK client office

Paris, France client office

Antwerp, Belgium HQ

Singapore coming in 2021

Belgrade, Serbia central functions

The principle of using new tech to solve old market research problems worked well and resulted in our team doubling in size every year to meet growing demand from clients such as Twitter, Microsoft, ColgatePalmolive, Bayer, Disney, and many more. Our research approach was recognized by Quirk’s and Deloitte; our teams are expanding worldwide, with new team members in Amsterdam and the US Midwest, and an ongoing expansion to Mexico and Singapore in 2021.

Here are 3 things that breaking new ground (in market research) for the past 8 years has taught us:

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Intro

EyeSee’s repertoire of innovative research solutions offers true value in terms of quality, speed and cost. It is not just their solutions, but also their commited team of researchers are what makes the relationship enjoyable.

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Prabhakar Sundaram

Senior manager, Global Consumer Insights at Energizer Holdings

Intro

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Rule 1: Redefine what market research can do for brands Working in MR entails a set of skills for assessing the pulse of trends and understanding consumers that brands should serve. To tap into the full picture, we base our solutions on a combination of eye-tracking, facial coding, Reaction Time Measurement (RTM), and virtual shopping.

Recently, a study done for Twitter that examined (non)traditional gender roles in sports ads received Best advertising research project recognition at Quirk’s awards. It contributed to the conversation around gender with eye-opening findings and spurred EyeSee to further develop our contexttesting Twitter solution and perfect it for future client studies.

It also prompted us to look into other communication streams such as crisis messaging – specifically BLM and COVID-related. Accumulated insights for 6 different industries are at the forefront of (mobile) market research, altogether redefining what research CAN do for brands.

Rule 2: Disrupt, rebuild and grow with tech The pandemic has put the world in a tailspin, as uncertainty loomed over both consumer habits and business decisions. The fast pace of the changing world made one thing clear – in-person testing is no longer a (safe) go-to; a place to look for the best and most innovative research solutions is both behavioral and online.

Tech-enabled research makes it easier to navigate category opportunities through trends as they emerge and stay on top through up-to-date optimization. For instance, brands can now opt to test their marketing materials in realistic virtual replicas of stores, websites, and just about any environment within a couple of weeks. The in-context approach takes into account all platform-specific triggers for consumers and makes for a better indicator of success, whether you are looking into purchase decisions, findability, brand equity, or any other KPI.

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Intro

Rule 3: Look into the future to better serve the present 2021 will be about disruption, innovation, and boldness. The entire year, everyone will be out of their comfort zone. To best serve our clients and their needs, we need to be a few steps ahead of them and proactively anticipate how our future solutions fit their business questions.

So, what do we think will be big next year?

In-context solutions that map out the online Path to Purchase or multichannel brand interactions.

If you aren’t doing this already, this might be the year to step up your social media game and discover a set of best practices for all the channels relevant to your business. Based on your stimuli and content, a study like this can provide you with guidance that reflects each platform’sfeatures, allowing you to leverage them by fine-tuning your content and messaging.In the NPD arena, there are so many exciting ways you can test and screen your concepts! Creating entirely behavioral and fully contextual exercises, delivers performance info on reliable KPIs such as interest, penetration, and value share. Aside from on-shelf concept screening in different stages of development, you can also do behavior tracking on live websites enables youto place product concepts and asses them on a real website such as Amazon and see how much interest they garner.

Finally, all these principles and solutions can be of immense use in all other areas of consumer research. Recreating new contexts in which people interact with your product in any retail environment you can think of – ensures reliable and accurate insights that will help you lead decision-making in 2021.

Intro

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Intro

Why relying on consumer research during fast-changing times is the wisest move How to approach conducting research in turbulent times What to optimize during the global crisis and beyond Where to go from here: The future of market research

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Conducting research in the time of crisis Uncharted crisis brought about by the global pandemic in 2020 made it so that not even the most seasoned marketers among us could predict with accuracy how consumers would be affected. This made everyone wonder whether it is wise to do research during a compromised sentiment. However, the question is not IF but HOW to do it - behavioral research grants brands a chance to remain competitive in turbulent times. Read the tracker study results from the beginning of the crisis, and two scenarios for conducting research in crisis.

predictions from March/April 2020

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key takeaways Uncertainty may last up to 18 months, so postponing research could bring more potential losses for brands

Analyzing various scenarios based on different consumer sentiments is the optimal strategy

An extra option and precaution is to measure and then monitor the findings over time

Find out more in our webinar at eyesee-research.com

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Olivier Tilleuil Founder of EyeSee

Projections about the health crisis predict a ‘back to the new normal’ situation followed by a recession, so it is highly likely that the impact on consumer sentiment will stabilize in roughly 6 to 18 months. Stopping research for months on end does not seem like a particularly good option, especially in such a changing landscape.

Therefore, the key question is not IF but HOW to obtain reliable insights in a time of crisis. In addition to adjusting your current approach, there are new types of research that could prove useful in the upcoming period.

Should you pause research and marketing activities?

Let’s imagine a hypothetical case, a 500mio brand that planned on revamping its package design to look more sustainable. The new design was expected to launch in 12 months and, by doing so, increase its sales by 7.5%.

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In the current situation, brand VPs and decision-makers face two 2 options: 1

keep up with the planned research and the 12-month launch timeline

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postpone the entire schedule for 6 months

If they go for postponing all their activities for 6 months, the company can face potential losses of up to 18.75 million by forgoing the sales of the product and the additional 7.5% revenue boost expected after 12 months. Effectively, postponing such investments for after the crisis only makes the crisis longer.

The current concern is consumer sentiment Consumer sentiment can indeed influence decisions and options, but different people are bound to react differently in the crisis. According to our study, 17% of consumers are optimistic, around 24% are pessimistic, and about 60% are uncertain about the impact of Covid-19 on the economy and their personal financial outlook. These numbers will undoubtedly change over time as the situation develops (and perhaps are already outdated, after a week). It’s a no-brainer that the sentiment is different now than it was 6 months ago, but the million-dollar question is what it will be like in 6 to 18 months when the crisis wears off. We could probably distinguish a different sentiment in 3 points in time: now, before and after the crisis.

Consumer confidence dropped after 9/11 and stayed the same for 4 years. After the 2008 crisis, it took 7 years to get back on the same level.

Confidence amidst the crisis was closer to the confidence in the period afterward than to what it was before.

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Source: traidingeconomics.com | University of Michigan

Whatever happens in the coming months, we can already suppose that the sentiment will be worse than 6 months ago for at least 2 years – and probably closer to 7.

To summarize, the sentiment will probably stay low in the next 18 months. Making predictions about complex systems is always difficult or impossible, but this scenario is a safer bet than a magical rebound in 6 months. This is the first real crisis that millennials and the generation X are experiencing – a fight against an invisible enemy that can come back at any time, and in which we have little personal control over.

The right way to analyze data during the crisis We believe there are 2 fundamental guiding principles to help you navigate decision-making during these complicated times.

Conduct various scenario analyses: based on three different 1 sentiments, 2

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Accept the use of ‘working assumptions’ during the turbulence, and modify them over time.

Hopefully, we will start a fruitful discussion in the market research community and come up with many more solutions aside from these.

Solution 1: Scenario analysis and splits As we mentioned before, we have 3 segments of current sentiment: (a) very worried, (b) concerned, and (c) little or not worried. The splitscenario approach would entail analyzing each group separately and making conclusions for each group. You do this by overrecruiting for your studies and adding a sentiment-based split, which is something we offer all our clients for free during the crisis.

Most probably, a part of the sample will go back to normal again, and a part of people will stay anxious for a while – so we will end up with a “new normal” consumer sentiment somewhere between groups B and C in the next 12-18 months. Nevertheless, group A can provide us with interesting information as well (not necessary for decision-making), as they are representing an outlier attitude. If findings from all three groups align in the end – then your decision is easy.

Here’s a concrete example of 3 new package designs: 1, 2, 3:

Group A very worried

Group B worried

Group C mostly not worried

Conclusion

Scenario 1

Winning design 1

Winning design 1

Winning design 1

Launch design 1

Scenario 2

Winning design 2

Winning design 1

Winning design 1

Launch design 1 but monitor

Scenario 3

Winning design 1

Winning design 2

Winning design 3

Rethink all designs

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In scenario 1, the winning design in all 3 groups is Design 1, so whatever happens, design 1 is a good choice.

In scenario 2, the winning design is 1 for group B and C, but Design 2 for group A. If we presume groups B or C are our future consumers, Design 1 is still a good choice. Here, it might be interesting to check the insights from group A and see whether the data sparks some new ideas or space for improvement.

In scenario 3, there are 3 different winners. This suggests you should rethink the design or strategy as neither solution is able to keep up performance in a changing environment – and the only sure thing about the future is a plentitude of change. Our solutions need to be robust enough to survive in such circumstances.

Solution 2: Monitor results over time Another (and complementary) approach would be to conduct the study now and use the results as a working hypothesis. Then, confirm the results again in 3-6 months.

The reality is that this crisis will not be solved in the next 2-3 months.

Companies can hold up for 3-6 months, but putting off fresh insights from research entails opportunity costs as well. It could result in a delayed revenue and profit in 1-2 years – which is not good either.

What can we do to confirm our view? Try to understand the impact and precision of current studies by comparing it with previous studies.

This is exactly what we did! In March 2020, the EyeSee team replicated a social media advertising study to explore whether we would get the same results we did 12 months earlier – or rather how stable behavioral indicators actually are and ultimately if the data provided nowadays is valid.

The cross-industry study included 18 ads in total – 3 ads per industry on 900 respondents. We used eye-tracking, facial coding, and survey to test the dynamic ads in a social media environment and take a more in-depth look into KPIs such as visibility, attention, emotional reach, ad recall, likeability, and others.

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Here’s what we found out: 1

The results are the same for most KPIs. For ads, we can expect higher ad recall, so we need to modify this. For other types of testing, we expect the same conclusions.

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All trends and ranks stay the same after 10 months - meaning we can rely on the results as we continue to test ads during a time of changed consumer sentiment.

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Facebook users scored higher on ad recall during the crisis – ads become equally (and highly) visible, regardless of the industry. Additionally, the retention rates of the advertised brands are significantly higher.

The best decision you can make at the moment is with the info you have available now. However, the situations and insights can change very quickly – it makes sense to monitor them over time. Use the concept of ‘working assumptions’ and track your conclusions over time to see if the new info fits with the bigger picture. If necessary, later, you can modify your decision based on newly available info.

Conclusion In times like these, consumer research should be a real tool in the hands of decision-makers – something they rely on to stay atop the waves and not only a fine-tuning device when everything is running smoothly.

Getting timely feedback from your customers by using remote testing, with either of these two approaches in mind, can help you prepare for jumping headfirst into work when we manage to surmount the difficult challenges ahead of us.

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Is it wise to invest in consumer research amidst a global crisis?

Whether you should be conducting market research during these turbulent times is a complex question with many opposing opinions – we already discussed the ways you can ensure reliable research results right now.

In this blog, we elaborate on several perspectives on trend development and forecasting in the coming months, and one of the fundamental roles of insights – understanding what is happening in the consumer environment. How does a crisis influence trends? If companies are delaying research, how long should they delay studies for? What is the impact of postponing research?

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key takeaways 1

Global events and crises are a catalyst for the accelerated evolution of the existing consumer trends 2

Market research measures these changing trends as they happen to help develop new products consumers are in need of 3

Different trends have different shapes, trajectories, and curves making them hard to predict, therefore monitoring is important

Find out more at eyesee-research.com

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Olivier Tilleuil Founder of EyeSee

Crises accelerate trends One of the roles of research is to understand how the world is evolving – so that insights can advise senior leaders and the c-suite about actions that need to be taken. Insights departments should always be on the lookout for emerging trends. And what we are seeing now, is not all that new. After (and during) the COVID-19 crisis, the world will not be entirely different – instead, the evolution we were already on the brink of is just speeding up. For example, e-commerce is definitely not new, but its penetration has tripled or quadrupled in only 6 weeks. The same goes for remote education and work, or some product attributes – for example, a focus on health and wellbeing was already a trend; now, it will be even more relevant. What would have been the reality in 6 to 12 years, is currently taking place in 6 weeks only. We see many existing trends experiencing a decade-leap forward.

Constrained by their environment and circumstances, people are forced to or feel the need to try out new options. In a way, a product or experience may be new for the individual, but on the other hand, it was already there for the early adopters. Due to these circumstances, the trend adoption rate among consumers is becoming much steeper.

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Crisis

6 years

6 years

On the left trends over time, on the right a crisis-induced trend speedup

Conflicting forces make trends more unpredictable We will witness many things happen in the upcoming months, just like we did in the last few weeks, only, hopefully, a little bit slower. Trends are not random events, though. They are steered by external forces (e.g., the obesity issue created a healthcare trend) that differ in strength, speed, and length – and this, along with conflicting pressures, make it difficult to predict trends: • • • •

A surge in buying healthy products (health-conscious consumers who want to prevent getting sick) vs. purchasing the cheapest products due to a difficult financial situation A decrease in using public commute (spurred by the fear of disease) vs. no money to afford a car, an increased need for public transport Length of forces: When will the economy reopen? How much time will it take to not feel anxious anymore while shopping? ...

Before the crisis, these forces evolved more slowly and gradually, which made predictions easier than now – in a world dominated by sudden changes in trends.

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This is where insights come into play – to monitor the trend directions and understand the forces driving them. Brands need to start thinking carefully about each new trend and try to uncover their unseen consequences for both their customers and their business in this extreme duality.

How much do actions lag after insights?

A big part of the role of insights is understanding consumer needs – research needs to measure trends as they happen, and so to speak – put ‘the black dots’ on the graph. Let’s take a look at what we mean by that. Below you can find a simplified example of a consumer trend over time. You measure the trend direction (insights: the black dot) and then develop the product that your consumer needs. This product is launched 6 months to 2 years later (the red dot). By the time it is on the market, the client has already evolved a little bit, but as the gap is not too big, so the consumers are still happy with the product. If the were to be too big, then the consumers would have an incentive for a brand change. During a crisis, when trends form and change much faster than usual, it is even more critical to both measure and launch new products that fit the needs of the consumer.

With a steeper trend growth, it is essential to try harder to understand the current trends as the client’s needs are also developing faster. This means that the delta between the client’s requirement and the product offering is becoming even more significant – thus, the chance of switching brands grows higher if these needs are not fulfilled. Highly volatile environments have much steeper trend curves – when that is taking place, it is imperative to monitor them with more research, rather than stepping back until things settle.

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Consumer need

Consumer need Insights

Insights New product

New product

Black dots indicate research input, the curve what is ‘real’

Not all trend curves are the same Another interesting topic is the shape of the trends. Especially now, with abrupt changes, we might see many more variations of specific trends. This is another reason why it is so hard to predict trend outcomes in fast-changing environments – as we said, sometimes, opposing forces are at play. For example, the healthy food trend – we spoke about the two types of effect the crisis has on it – but which one will prevail depends on how these socio-economic groups will change and come out on the other side of the crisis. The same is valid for online education. Right there’s a surge in online educational platforms because people have more time on their hands (no job, less socializing (e.g., team sports, going out…). However, once the economy is picking up again, you might see a significant drop in the interest, as people will need to work more than before to compensate for the period of income loss, or people will prefer enjoying the activities they couldn’t partake in during the crisis. On the other hand, it is easier to do something for the second time than the first time – so this crisis might have just removed the last obstacles to online education in the future – and online learning might follow a curve as displayed in scenario 3.

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Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Scenario 3

Scenario 4

What does this mean for research?

The scenarios we discussed today are simplified, but they are helping make clear that conducting research in these fast-changing times is more important than ever. It is quite challenging to predict trend outcomes (i.e., how significant is the addressable market for a specific new product) even in regular times – let alone during a period of rapid change. Research should serve brands to feel the pulse of the consumer along every step of the way.

This crisis can bring about a lot of different effects – so this is not an easy question to answer. However, there was much talk about agile testing in the insights industry in the last few years, but honestly, we have not seen many examples of real agile testing. This crisis requires faster testing and more of it for a lower budget. Despite this, internal clients will ask for the highest possible predictivity as they gauge consumer needs in order to be able to hit the sweet spot. We don’t advocate substituting quant with qual for validation testing, nor we say drop behavioral research and only conduct explicit research – the truth is somewhere in the middle, where high-quality insights meet fast research.

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During a crisis, when trends form and change much faster than usual, it is even more critical to both measure and launch new products that fit the needs of the consumer.

“

Olivier Tilleuil Founder of EyeSee

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tracker study

Keeping up with the changing consumer behavior As the COVID-19 crisis profoundly impacted the entire world and most aspects of daily life, many challenges, unprecedented situations, and uncertainties quickly became our new realities. Consumer behaviors and trends emerged and changed in unpredictable ways – and to understand them meant to measure them as they were happening. In order to help brands make the right business decisions, EyeSee conducted a large-scale study that tracked how shopper and media consumption changed throughout the crisis.

Study design: Total sample: 1684 Conducted in: US, France, Germany Methods: Survey + RTM Wave 1: March 13th - 15th Wave 2: March 27th - 29th Wave 3: April 15th - 21st Wave 4: May 21st - 22nd 36

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Looking back on the past year, it is clear is that in light of new circumstances, new opportunities are emerging – but to leverage them, brands and marketers must understand the implicit, unconscious decisions that are changing and navigating consumer behavior and sentiment.

What the experts expected at the beginning of the pandemic

What actually happened during the pandemic

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With social distancing restrictions encouraged in many places around the world, people will turn to online shopping more than ever before

The already accelerated switch to e-commerce reached new highs as almost half of the respondents (48%) opted to shop online at the very start of the crisis - especially among those over the age of 50

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Due to the crisis, shoppers will keep in mind scarcity and only buy essentials they really need

Online shoppers browsed Product Listing Pages 20s longer - seeing 36% more products than before

Retailers will face huge losses as stockpiling might lead to supply shortages and empty shelves

Replacing Private Label SKUs by increasing the # of A-brand facings increases the average dollar spend by 2%

Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders will increase the time spent on social media meaning online video ads will definitely have a bigger reach and perform better than usual

No significant differences were noted for most ad KPIs, except for ad recall that jumped from 25.6% to 35%, both individually and on the industry level

People will only buy products they already trust and are familiar with and won’t explore new options amid a global crisis

Shoppers are adopting new habits safety and health seem to be a new determining factor when it came to considering and buying new products

With shaken consumer sentiment and changing shopping behaviors, brands won’t be sure their market research findings are reliable and actionable

After multiple replication studies, EyeSee determined that online behavioral research findings stay stable even during turbulent times

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Intro Why relying on consumer research during fast-changing times is the wisest move

How to approach conducting research in turbulent times What to optimize during the global crisis and beyond Where to go from here: The future of market research

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The best antidote for biases in market research? Testing in context!

Even though it’s been gaining traction in recent years, what makes online context testing so imperative in turbulent times is the fast pace of consumer behavior shifts and the inability to conduct in-person studies.

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key takeaways 1

Fast-changing times require accessible solutions with quick turnaround time - remote online behavior testing is 2x faster and 2x more cost effective 2

The right combination of behavioral online measures along with survey increases the predictive power by 40% 3

Virtual shopping shares a 0.8 correlation with real purchase behavior which is 2-4x better than surveys

Find out more at eyesee-research.com

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Even though it’s been gaining traction in recent years, what makes online context testing so imperative in turbulent times is the fast pace of consumer behavior shifts and inability to conduct in-person studies.

Imagine a stress-ridden shopper, browsing through the adjusted pandemic-time isles: there is no way any survey question alone would be able to untangle the matrix of their (predominantly subconscious) purchase decisions and potential reactions. Data supports this with survey answers being reliable only 6 out of 10 times (a little more than role of a dice!). On the other hand, using the right combination of behavioral measures along with survey and exposing respondents to a simulated environment comes way closer – 8 out of 10.

Whether you are looking to determine performance of a pack, ad, or an online video, rule of the thumb is: the more realistic the testing environment, the more reliable the results to inform your optimization decisions. Lifelike testing environments make your respondents feel less like they are part of a trial, and more like they are on a regular shopping trip – and will deliver a more accurate prediction of consumer behavior.

Predictability

VR / central location tech Virtual shopping

Focus groups

Survey Scalability (time & cost)

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Context environments represent one key area of innovation in market research, so it is sometimes hard to determine which is the best valuefor-money option. Depending on your study goals, fancy fully immersive VR might be a straightforward investment overkill, even working against reliability of findings. Costly devices are generally used to the detriment of agility, delivery time and most importantly sample size, making validity of insights a grey zone. Therefore, knowing your options and the right tech to use is key.

So, where to start? Possibilities for context testing could be divided in 2 main groups: 1

Virtual stores – recreations of any physical retail space in 2D, 2.5D or 3D with variety of integration and exploration possibilities for respondents.

2 Digital environments – replications of websites and social

media, or injection of testing content into the existing online platforms.

Virtual stores – browsing, walk-through and 360 product view Depending on the research question, the three testing levels of virtual stores – 2D, 2.5D and 3D environment – can provide highly reliable results.

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2D

2.5D

3D

virtual store

virtual store

virtual store

What does it look like?

interactive shelf + view, zoom and add product

fully interactive shelves + navigation through the store

a full 3D experience, free navigation + optional 360-degree product view

What is it used for?

Packaging Planograms Concept testing

POS displays Bigger planograms

5 or more tests in the same retail environment

How long does it take?

1-3 days

3-5 days

2 weeks

How much does it cost?

Starting at $1K

$3-5k

Starting at $8k

Virtual shopping is most effective when combined with other methods.

It is a versatile tool that complements many study types beyond shopper – it is also suitable for testing purchase uplift of a new flyer, a TVC, or long-form content such as branded videos.

Digital environments – replicated social feeds and websites with full interaction options If you test your digital by making the respondents watch the complete ad in full-screen mode, you are disregarding the nature of the medium. We test ads in the most natural, dynamic, and competitive scrollable setting to ensure valuable and actionable insights. There are 2 basic options for testing websites or social platforms: creating a replica or mockup or injecting content into a live online platform.

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Ad in a mockup feed

Ad inserted in respondent’s feed

Generic personal post

Friend’s post

News

News

Advertisement

Advertisement

AD

explored longer

2s faster scrolling AD

higher visibility Friend’s post

Generic personal post

same insights

Website mockup

Ad injection

PRO: Quick, scalable and highly adjustable

PRO: Testing in the actual respondents’ feed

CON: Not 100% the same as the respondents’ feed

CON: Potential technical and firewall limitations

PRO: Due to full control the research options are limitless

CON: Hard to recruit and expensive respondents

Conclusion Traditional online surveys alone cannot provide a full picture of the (shifting) shopping preferences, decisions, and emotional responses, as most of them are formed subconsciously, far from our ability to articulate and verbalize. Therefore, a combination of online behavioral measurements helps us reliably catch and understand the nuance of change while it is happening. Virtually any environment could be replicated making this approach to testing especially useful in the time when new trends and touchpoints, such as curbside pickup, are emerging.

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Client perspectives:

A selection of robust client strategies from EyeSee’s webinars in 2020 Staying connected to the clients and their needs was one of our most essential priorities in the past year - we were eager to get their view of the situation and which strategies they employ to plan for the future. In this section, we compiled the best outtakes and tips from webinars that put the client’s voices in the spotlight - and behind the mic. Here’s what we learned from top experts in companies such as Twitter, Colgate-Palmolive, Mondelez International, and others about what knowledge and strategies to take with us in 2021.

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Liubov Ruchinskaya

Brand Insights, Western Europe at Colgate-Palmolive

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I think we are living in a time of uncertainty, and many things are not clear, but this is exactly what creates a good environment for change and great innovation.

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What questions and insights became important during the crisis, and how can agencies help?

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Liubov Ruchinskaya Brand Insights, Western Europe at Colgate-Palmolive

The whole crisis and the post-crisis period might take years, which means we can’t stop our innovation work for a year or so. Learning about the changing consumers’ behavior and needs daily, to address the short-term innovation, activation and communication, aiming to support people in this difficult time is important.

Secondly, it’s no longer about asking consumers what they want, it’s all about innovating and creating incremental categories and products; being entrepreneurial, constant experimentation, being humble, and a break from the past will help you evaluate what consumers want and create revolutionary ideas.

And finally, have a clear vision where your company can make an impact and care about people. Choose the battle to win. Stay purposeful to be successful. When it comes to companies and agencies that can help us to be successful today, we need new skills and techniques, which means speedy solutions, instant connections with people to get answers to open questions in hours, not days. We need to catch people in the moment of truth when they shop online, use products or watch TV, immersing ourselves in the context of the problem and ask System 1 questions.

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Gina E. Boyd

Sr. Manager, Shopper Insights & Category Management, Biscuit at Mondelez

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Listen and observe. Do not make assumptions about your consumers & shoppers based on what you’ve known in the past.

Monitor shopper trends by keeping a pulse on regular shopper metrics and behavior changes that may be a result of 2nd wave, governmental laws, new paths to purchase, etc.

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What do you believe is the best approach for marketing and insights leaders to ensure they stay on top during and after the COVID crisis?

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Gina E. Boyd Sr. Manager, Shopper Insights & Category Management, Biscuit at Mondelez

As shoppers continue to shop and spend more in stores during Covid-19 due to shifting from out of home eating occasions, it is imperative that manufacturers: Listen and observe. Do not make assumptions about your consumers & shoppers based on what you’ve known in the past.

Maintain trust - in this time of uncertainty, we have heard from shoppers that they are willing to pay more for brands they trust to be safe for their families. While shoppers may be willing to pay more for brands they trust, innovating in the appropriate attributes can help justify their higher price tags. Not all shoppers feel name brands are worth the price but unique attributes they elevate for name brands over private label include variety, quality, taste, ingredients, and elevated packaging. Tailor brand messaging to call-out the unique benefits of name brands (nostalgia, quality, innovation, unique causes). And finally, deliver on product availability and shipments as they risk losing shoppers to competitive brands or losing the sale completely.

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Karen Kraft

Senior Consumer Insights Manager at Johnsonville

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The recession that is going to follow COVID will be different from what we went through in the 2000s.

There will be a hangover from COVID; people are still going to be concerned for their health and safety.

Some of the traditional recession behaviors are going to be moderated by those concerns, and we need to think about that when we think about consumer behavior.

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How will the crisis impact innovation and what strategy, advice or tips would you offer other companies when it comes to understanding consumers in the near future?

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Karen Kraft Senior Consumer Insights Manager at Johnsonville

I think there is still space for innovation for all brands, especially existing brands. During times of crisis and recession, people want familiar and comfortable products and flavors that they can turn to both for comfort and reassurance that they are not going to be wasting their money. But, at the same time, when you can’t afford to go out and do all the things you want to do with entertainment or travel, and that is likely going to last just because of the recession, let alone the fact people may still be afraid of getting sick. The ability to try new things at home is a potential source of that entertainment, and, if it is grounded in the familiar - the more, the better. For example, Johnsonville developed sausage strips - sausage in the form of bacon, that you use and cook like bacon. It is a great example of something that is a little bit adventurous, but very familiar for consumers. I think that new twist on the familiar is making it successful.

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Prabhakar Sundaram Senior manager, Global Consumer Insights at Energizer

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To me, online behavioral research creates efficiencies in executing research, especially on a global scale. Any time you combine implicit and explicit techniques the learnings are just rich, you have to try it and if you haven’t - add it to your toolkit.

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What are your priority questions for virtual shopping studies and how important is research technology in this moment?

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Prabhakar Sundaram Senior manager, Global Consumer Insights at Energizer

I think it’s very dynamic - consumer behavior is always changing and we’re trying to understand what makes more sense for us. Right now, with the drastic shift that is happening to online delivery methods and consumers are experiencing the convenience of that, I’m positive that the noticeable portion of consumer behavior that has shifted towards the online purchasing model is going to remain the same. Online purchasing is not new, but it is interesting now that in the category that we operate in the customers are maybe buying it in brick and mortar, and now they’re purchasing it online and that is new behavior for them.

With his behavior likely to remain the same, and that now places a heavy emphasis to better understand the online path to purchase model, and how and where we can influence consumers.

Again, right now, we don’t have the option to do in-person research, so identifying those technologically advanced research solutions and being able to do online behavioral research and behavioral research virtually is the key. It creates efficiencies in the process and delivers insights at a speed at which is needed, and the speed in which we are operating today.

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Shruti Saini

Former Senior Director, Marketing Strategy & Insights at Anheuser-Busch

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We are all natural consumer marketers, so put on that detective hat, now more so than ever, be alert, don’t be afraid to go back and revisit how you typically approach learning and think through it in more of a disruptive manner as we’re all heading into a largely virtual environment.

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In a situation where inperson research is off the table, could you explain how you leverage Virtual shopping for gaining instore insights?

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Shruti Saini Former Senior Director, Marketing Strategy & Insights at Anheuser-Busch

Part of the reason why virtual shopping was always attractive to me and the reason why I nudged my team to consider it as an approach is because of the feedback loop, it’s faster, and that faster component does not compromise the output. If anything, the output, which is largely implicit in nature (understanding someone’s implicit reactions through facial coding and eye-tracking) is invaluable. That level of implicit understanding is even more heightened right now because of our environment.

The journey to the shelf has radically shifted, certainly because of what’s happening, but I think that there was always a movement to online, and the virtual shelf is something people are seeing more so than the physical one. So to do an exercise that models more of the true virtual reality that someone is experiencing and to understand the contextual cues and codes of what a virtual experience is like and to do testing that’s native to that is tantamount. We’re noticing a lot of value in understanding insights around attention breakthroughs, some of the typical battery of metrics that we look for; understanding those in a virtual context is supremely helpful as we think through our strategy and our learning plans.

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Michelle Grushko

Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics at Twitter

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Our research has found that cultural relevance is incredibly important to a consumer’s purchase decision, and correlates with performance on brand effect metrics. We found that it’s important to consumers that brands are involved in culture (such as events and trends) and also social issues. A brand’s cultural involvement accounts for a quarter of a consumer’s purchase decision.

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Twitter relies on contextual research for uncovering insights that help brands make the most of communication on the platform. Can you tell us why testing in a realistic context matters and why is it important to use both implicit and explicit measurement?

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Michelle Grushko Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics at Twitter

The architecture of Twitter is built for discovery. People come to Twitter in a discovery mindset, which makes them more likely to discover and remember brands. Thus, testing in a timeline simulation allows for us to recreate a user’s natural experience on the platform. This also allows us to continually prove the differences of the user mindset on our platform versus others.

There are definitely benefits to both implicit and explicit measurement.

Explicit measurement such as brand effect surveys help get at stated preferences. However, we also want to use research methods that get at people’s implicit thoughts, because as we know from academic literature in psychology, there might be biases that we want to avoid. I would say that we have a pretty close working relationship with EyeSee where we can combine both implicit and explicit measurement into a comprehensive research study such as this project [(Non)traditional gender roles in sports ads].

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Intro Why relying on consumer research during fast-changing times is the wisest move How to approach conducting research in turbulent times

What to optimize during the global crisis and beyond Where to go from here: The future of market research

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Learn how different messaging impacts your brand image This year, there were plenty of opportunities for brands to take a stand on different social issues. The big question remains – how do you do it right? With many brands missing the mark on socially conscious advertising, EyeSee researchers wanted to turn to behavioral data and see what it has to uncover about crisis messaging and how it affects brand equity. Read on for a deep dive in the results of one of the most extensive mobile behavioral studies, conducted on 1800 respondents in an Instagram environment.

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key takeaways 1

Adressing BLM or the COVID-19 crisis improves brand perception, especially for industries where long-term relationships and loyalty-building business models are key 2

Great content has the power to trigger a reaction in just 2.8 seconds, regardless of the infeed positioning 3

Drive ad retention with personal relevance - discuss relevant topics and show you care for your consumers

Find out more in our webinar at eyesee-research.com

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Great content trumps other disadvantages Many marketing professionals think that positioning is key for getting noticed – but in fact, your Brand & Content are the most important – think about creative ways to use your brand assets and ensure that your content is relatable. However, you are not at the mercy of positioning – great content has the power to trigger a reaction in a very short amount of time – only around 2.8 seconds. It’s not always crucial that respondents spent a lot of time on your post – you can communicate well if you take care of the creative elements.

36 posts

6 industries

Oral Care Beverage Beauty Pharma Financial Media

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6 post categories

BLM COVID 19 Tactical offer Emotional/ image Supporting post Seasonal post

The key factor in ad retention is personal relevance. Brands can do this either by talking about relevant topics and showing they care for their consumers, or through different offers and posts that directly concern the consumer in terms of the product or service displayed. Posts that do neither of those perform poorly and are glanced through and not remembered.

Female protagonists, celebrities and CTAs grab attention the most There are quite a bit of unexpected creative elements that consistently show up in well-performing ads. For example, showing the protagonists in a full body shot is more attention-grabbing and engaging – it increases post visibility in all industries except for beauty, where closeups of the face are more attractive and relevant. If there’s a famous person, it will increase the viewer’s retention for +7pts compared to shots of ordinary people or posts without any characters. But, there’s a caveat: celebrities can sometimes poorly affect post clarity, likability, brand purchase, and even Instagram fit. This happens because the viewers focus on their faces rather than on the post purpose.

Full body shots increase post visibility by 5-10pts

This works for all industries except beauty - close-ups of the face are more relevant

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Ads featuring Female protagonists drive more positive emotions and are evaluated as more attractive and transparent, and this stands for Covid-19, Endorsement, and Seasonal ads in particular. We all know that a CTA is a must for grabbing attention! But we did not know just how much: including a ‘Call to action’ or an offer drives a higher focus and a better chance to keep viewers’ attention for longer than 5s.

Honest messaging evokes positive emotions, thumbs down for generic images Facial coding uncovers what is the emotional impact of each tested post. Things connected with positive emotions are sincere, honest and warm messaging, witty copy and images, footage of animals, depictions of sport and activities. Most notably – talking about relevant topics and communicating that the brand stands against discrimination and racism and contributes to the cause in a specific way. Showing a variety of ethnic backgrounds and cultural diversity. We also saw that brand purchase is driven more strongly if the respondents and the protagonists of the ad are of the same ethnic background.

On the other hand, what causes negative emotions is unclear messaging, especially that is unrelated to the image. Generic images, very long image descriptions and text-heavy posts with a lot of hashtags, evoke similar negative feels. On the more practical side, when an offer is unavailable (unattainable), and giveaways with extremely big prizes – e.g. expensive travels or gifts – respondents find harder to believe they will win, makes these posts less relevant to them. For example, during the pandemic, ads or giveaways for discounts or accessible rewards drive more engagement than lavish presents.

Clarity leads likability and brand purchases When it comes to Clarity, we see that some posts, like tactical offers or seasonal posts are very upfront, and people ‘get’ what they are about right away. Same thing with COVID-related posts – people are united in this struggle with a common threat. If the story is more complex, such as in some BLM posts, people were unsure about the message.

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They could result in lower post clarity, likability, brand purchase and even Instagram fit

It is difficult for some respondents to connect the post with a campaign, or a real-life impact – they are perceived as signaling. As soon BLM posts clarify what the brand is doing to help, these posts skyrocket in likability as well. Brand usage is also interesting – BLM posts shows great results here, that can affect shopping as well, which again proves that this topic is something that will determine where some buyers spend their dollars. Another category that stands out here are seasonal posts, since they are designed to respond to an acute, seasonal consumer need – such as sunscreen in the summer, so they have a bigger effect on brand usage.

Key takeaway: Don’t be afraid to take a stand, but connect it to your brand Responding to the BLM or COVID-19 crisis will improve brand perception, especially for industries where long-term relationships and loyalty-building business models are key, such as Financial, services and strong FMCG brands. The biggest takeaway here is that BLM and COVID-19 posts can be more impactful than Emotional posts and Support/CSR posts – so think about meaningful ways to address the crises in a less generic way, more humble, more human, and more relatable to your audience.

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Leverage new planogram opportunities The pandemic has resulted in shortages of ingredients and raw materials, limited plant capacity, supply chain disruptions and changing shopper behaviors. As such, manufacturers and retailers are facing growing pressures – and opportunities – to manage their shelves by rationalizing SKUs, adjusting assortments, and resetting planograms.

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key takeaways 1

Changing planograms when consumers needs are shifting can have a huge impact

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Increasing number of facings for private label brands at the expense of A brands, results in 5% decrease in dollar spend

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The average dollar spend increases by 2% when some Private Label SKUs are replaced with more A-brand facings

Find out more in our webinar at eyesee-research.com

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Once it has been determined which items in the branded or Private Label line will be eliminated (either temporarily or permanently), the decision must be made as to how to fill the space that will now be made available on the shelf. Essentially, there are three options:

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Display the same # of facings for the top tier brands with fewer items in the line (so fewer SKUs)

2

Replace the lost top tier SKUs with more facings of Private Label.

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Replace the lost Private Label SKUs with more facings of top

tier facings.

Which new planogram path is most beneficial?

Baseline

Same # of Top Tier facings, fewer SKUs

Top Tier brands

Increase the # of Top Tier facings

Increase the # of Private Label facings

Private Label products

Note: We use the terms A-brand and Top Tier brands interchangeably in this text.

In order to determine the optimal shelf re-set, EyeSee conducted an extensive behavioral shopping study to identify the outcome of adopting the different approaches. The study tested planograms in the coffee, cereal, chocolate, and yogurt categories to uncover insights for our client’s pressing issues.

We interviewed 1,200 respondents who were split into 4 cells, and monadically shopped from one of four shelf sets: Baseline/Control; Top Tier brands with same # of facings but fewer SKUs/items; Increased # of Top Tier facings (replacing Private Label SKUs); or increased # of Private Label facings (replacing Top Tier SKUs). Each respondent behaviorally shopped 4 categories: coffee, cereal, chocolate, and yogurt.

Should retailers increase the number of A-brands or private label facings?

Importantly, even if the # of facings of top tier brands are maintained, when the # of items are reduced, the # of products bought declines by 2%, and the dollar spend declines by 5% compared to the control shelf.

This suggests that replacing those lost SKUs with something else would be a better option.

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spending (compared to the control shelf). This occurs as the total units bought remains about the same, suggesting that the lower price accounts for the change we see.

While Retailers may have reasons to place more of their own products on shelf given the opportunity, these findings suggest that doing so will result in significantly lower register rings compared to turning over more shelf space to top tier brands instead.

We do see that replacing Private Label SKUs by increasing the # of A-brand facings, average dollar spend increases by 2% (compared to the control shelf). This occurs as the total units bought remains about the same, suggesting that the higher price accounts for the change we see.

Average $ spend per 100 shoppers

$1000

$950

+2% $900

$909 $887

$850

-5%

-5%

$845

$845

$800 Baseline

Same # of Top Tier facings, fewer SKUs

Increase the # of Top Tier facings

Increase the # of Private Label facings

What does this mean for brands and retailers?

The shelf is a zero-sum game in terms of space, but not in terms of efficiency – depending on the objectives, some solutions are clear winners for all parties involved – shoppers, manufacturers, and retailers.

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Behavioral research on planogram optimization brings us a step closer to those goals – by helping us understand the way a busy shelf is seen and shopped – with much higher reliability and predictability than if your consumers were to simply tell you what they want on the shelf, or how they think they’d react to a new set up they might encounter at some point in the future.

As we have seen here, when placed in a shopping context and confronted with alternative scenarios, behaviors will often shift, sometimes in unexpected ways. But knowing this before implementation will allow for smart planning and more profitable outcomes.

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In-feed testing: Consumers value conversations on culture Women’s participation in sports competitions has been on a steady rise throughout history, albeit lined with many hurdles to overcome. Inspired by the historic high in female participation at the now postponed Tokyo Olympic games, where 48.8% of participants would be women, Twitter decided to take a deep dive into the way advertising portrayal of gender roles in sports influences brand perception and their consumers.

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key takeaways 1

¼ of the consumer’s purchase decision is based on a brand’s cultural and societal involvement 2

Social media ads featuring sportswomen out-perform male-centered content on many KPIs

3

Sports campaigns with nontraditional roles yield better purchase behavior results regardless of the gender

Find out more in our webinar at eyesee-research.com

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Michelle Grushko Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics, at Twitter

Mila Milosavljević Senior Insights Manager, Digital, at EyeSee

Michelle Grushko (Data Scientist, Marketing Insights & Analytics, Twitter) and Mila Milosavljevic (Senior Insights Manager, UX and Digital team) presented the pioneering study in a session at Quirk’s Virtual event.

The conversations on redefining gender roles are becoming a fastevolving trend on Twitter – people are starting to explore the meaning of femininity and masculinity more and more and challenge traditional gender roles.

Even though female athletes deliver outstanding athletic performances, there’s still a gender disparity – not only in earnings – but in the way they are presented in the media. Despite their athletic achievements, sportswomen are rarely praised just for that: the media tends to focus on their physical appearance, femininity (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, etc.

Twitter’s research has found that cultural relevance is incredibly important to a consumer’s purchase decision, and correlates with performance on brand effect metrics. We found that it’s important to consumers that brands are involved in culture (such as events and trends) and social issues. Consumers are increasingly talking about gender recognition in campaigns, with a 93% increase in volume over the

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last few years. A brand’s cultural involvement accounts for a quarter of a consumer’s purchase decision. This research specifically might help brands connect with what’s happening around the growing conversation of gender equality and gender roles, especially in sports. n = 2400 test cells (n = 1800) Exposure to timeline 1

Exposure to timeline 2

control cells (n = 600)

cell 1

cell 2

cell 3

cell 4

cell 5

cell 6

cell 7

cell 8

cell 1

cell 2

cell 3

cell 4

cell 5

cell 6

cell 7

cell 8

Female athletes in traditional roles

Female athletes in non-traditional roles

Male athletes in traditional roles

Male athletes in non-traditional roles

The study included a total of 2400 respondents, out of which 1800 were exposed to with embedded tested advertisements. The study entailed a combination of implicit and explicit methods, measuring ad visibility and emotional engagement with two behavioral methods – eye-tracking and facial coding. Furthermore, virtual shopping provided insight into whether the advertised brand will be bought in a highly competitive environment, and which tested ads stimulate the purchase. Lastly, respondents completed a survey that also included a Reaction Time measurement test – adding another layer of implicit insight into the respondent’s biases.

Ads with female athletes are the front-runners The ads in the study made up four different categories. Two focused on female athletes, and two on male athletes, each represented in traditional and non-traditional roles. Ads that showed traditional roles included common stereotypes around gender – women shown as

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elegant, maternal, graceful, and men as strong, masculine, powerful, etc. Whereas, ads that highlighted non-traditional portrayal emphasized women’s stamina and engagement in sports that are typically considered masculine, and men as paternal, caring, emotional.

Ads that featured female athletes outperformed campaigns that portrayed male athletes as the main protagonist on many KPIs. All tested ads had absolute visibility, which may be due to the positioning of the ads as they were on the top of the feed. However, the tested ads also featured famous athletes, elements of humor, passion for sport, and some were also emotionally charged – all of which contributed to the high engagement. Moreover, all tested ads pushed purchase behavior in a positive direction. There was an increase in no. of shoppers, no. of bought items and consequently, the amount of money spent – compared to control cells that weren’t exposed to test creatives.

Low credibility of ads wih male athletes Ads featuring females in sports activities contradict stereotypes by default – women athletes are seen as strong, skillful, and persistent, even when the emphasis is on their gracefulness and elegance. These ads are also seen as more empowering and memorable, compared to those with male athletes. Regardless of the protagonists’ gender, however, ads with non-traditional roles yielded better purchase behavior results.

Another finding is that ads with male athletes had a higher effect on the shopping behavior of female viewers, while ads with sportswomen had a more significant impact on the shopping of the male audience. This isn’t anything new though, as our previous research also showed that purchase intent grows when the viewer and the protagonist are of the opposite gender.

Ads with male athletes in both traditional and non-traditional roles fall flat when it came to credibility and a sense of empowerment, which indicates that men are still looking for more relatable role models to feel empowered.

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Stay ahead of the game with your sports ads A study done by Twitter showed that 65% of people expect ads to be creative and culturally relevant for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Here are EyeSee’s tips for advertisers planning their campaigns for the coming year or any other sports event: •

Media is highly saturated with typical gender roles – bring an element of surprise and novelty by introducing non-traditional creatives to your brand

•

While emphasizing gender equality in ads is relevant, it shouldn’t be done for the sake of it alone – watchers will see through dishonest campaigns

•

Make sure that equality naturally fits the plot, creating a context that is believable and in line with the advertised product and target group

•

Be brave to explore the whole continuum of possible non-traditional roles (for both women and men)

•

Avoid going into extremes, as these kinds of scenarios are less relatable to viewers

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Intro Why relying on consumer research during fast-changing times is the wisest move How to approach conducting research in turbulent times What to optimize during the global crisis and beyond

Where to go from here: The future of market research

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Post-COVID CPG shopping: The new “normals” are not so obvious One day in March (hard to say which day exactly), everything changed – suddenly and quite dramatically as the realities of COVID-19 became evident. In addition to many usual behaviors coming to a halt, new ones emerged; old ones re-emerged and some nascent ones saw their adoption accelerated.

Now the question is, which of these will stick once society fully re-opens and a vaccine becomes widespread?

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key takeaways Trends such as stocking up were on the rise but after the initial shock, many consumers experienced ‘behavioral fatigue’ and reverted to their old shopping habits

While many shoppers stuck to their trusted, proven options, some brands were pushing innovation at breakneck speed

There was a striking split between shoppers wanting to feel better at the moment and the ones wanting to feel healthier for the future

Find out more in our webinar at eyesee-research.com

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Jonathan Asher Executive Vice President at EyeSee

Which of the new behaviors will remain, which will recede, and which will continue to evolve? In the world of CPG, some of the shifts to consider include whether online shopping is finally embraced, if smaller brands or innovations will be able to break through the stranglehold of established top tier brands, and if traditional, processed comfort foods are really back, to name just a few. Many predictions have been made of late about these behaviors, based on the early shifts. Most are quite confident about one or more of these changes being permanent.

I would caution that for just about every indication of a behavior moving one way, there is an equally compelling argument to be made for it going in the opposite direction. To be prepared for the new realities to come, marketers will need to neither be hobbled by fear and uncertainty and do nothing, nor be overly bold and invest too heavily and too soon in the one path that seems certain at the moment. It is best to consider several reasonable possibilities, plan for the most likely and stay connected with shoppers to gauge how their attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors continue to transform over time.

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Here are just a few of the conflicting “certain” new behaviors some expect to take hold for CPG products:

1. Shopping behavior When it comes to the way we shop, there are no silver bullet solutions for predicting behavior – there are complex changes taking place in both online and in-store shopping. Brand owners must keep sight of both in order to perform well in these very different realms. Here’s how consumers are split between the two: Online

Physical

During the crisis, some consumers opted to shop online because physical stores were closed or because they wanted to avoid contact with other shoppers, store staff or surfaces they feared might be contaminated. Some predictions suggest that now that shoppers have made the leap, it’s unlikely that they will revert to their old ways entirely.

While some shoppers who had prior experience and comfort shopping online for such items as apparel or electronics might now do so for grocery products to some extent or fully, others who dipped their toe in these waters during the crisis are less likely to take the plunge for various reasons.

“Early lessons from China suggest that three to six percentage points of online market share will be “sticky,” driven by older generations newly comfortable with digital channels and by new consumer segments,” partners at consulting firm McKinsey wrote in a research paper.

Nestle’s e-commerce sales globally shot up 30% in the first three months of the year, while Procter & Gamble reported a 35% growth in online sales over the same period.

The coronavirus crisis is likely to be a “breakthrough event” for online sales of food and beverages, as people who previously would not have bought groceries online discover how convenient it is, said Mark Schneider, Nestle’s CEO. Walmart and Target’s e-commerce sales have skyrocketed, while similarly to Nestle, Kroger and Mars have reported jumps in e-commerce sales of as much as 92% and 100%, respectively. Poul Weihrauch, who heads the Mars pet care division, said in an interview that “We’ve trained a new muscle as companies, and we’ve found out that we can deal with it.”

Some who were new to online shopping experienced considerable difficulties – be it technological, out-ofstock, higher prices, or extremely long delivery times – which will likely drive them back to brick and mortar stores, discouraged from trying e-commerce again anytime soon.

As people generally tire of their worlds’ existing online 24/7 – for work, school, socialization, entertainment, and shopping – they will seek in-person, offline engagements wherever they can find them. Shopping for groceries is an easy and accessible way to do so.

After an initial rise in behaviors such as stocking up for an extended time in isolation due to uncertainty in a novel situation, now COVID-19 has permeated all aspects of our life and the crisis is looking like a long one. Thus, we see examples of behavioral fatigue, and people going back to their old routine of in-person shopping, only now prescribing to the ‘new normal’ precautions. This suggests that people are very quick to go back to their old habits, with only a slight moderation in behavior.

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2. Brand choices In crises with such a far-reaching scope, neither big or small brands can sit back and relax. There are signs of a return to well-known brands, as well as a strong desire for spicing up our mundane consumer choices in the face of looming uncertainty.

Top tier/established

Lower tier/innovations

Right now, shoppers want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. With that, they tend to reach for what is familiar or most readily available.

This helps fuel the buying of leading brands which are both familiar and most prevalent on the shelf.

Having become bored with the routines they had to endure during the worst days of the crisis, feeling more comfortable lingering a bit in stores (no one ever wants to take too long doing their grocery shopping), shoppers will be eager to find new types of products and variations of old standbys. Some products that were popular during the crisis might remind us of negative feelings connected to being quarantined and will be avoided.

For now, companies such as Nestlé, Unilever and Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola are confident that consumers will balance price against value, choosing the established brands that they are familiar with and experimenting less.

The coronavirus recession is forecast to be the worst in several decades, meaning businesses and consumers will be cash-strapped for the foreseeable future. As such, they will forego luxuries and shop for lower-priced necessities for the foreseeable future.

“People will go back to big, trusted brands,” said Hanneke Faber, President, Foods & Refreshment at Unilever. “They simply can’t afford to spend money on products they’re not sure of.”

However, some product innovations have become big in the market at breakneck speed – for example, Chobani’s venture into the oat milk domain, which is currently the second in sales and holds a fifth of the US oat milk market.

3. Product choices Now, more than ever, the average consumer is torn between the impulsive doing-what-feels-right products, and an aspiration to create better habits and a better life. As much as 35% percent of Americans have tried new healthy foods during the outbreak, followed by 29% of them who have tried new snack and junk food brands, as reported by Statista. This tension between shopping to make ourselves feel better in the moment and healthier for the future is shaping how we spend our money and is crucial for brands to learn about.

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Comfort food

BFY Food

People are rewarding themselves for the sacrifices they are making, paying less attention to calorie counting or unwilling to forego taste.

Prior trends of shoppers buying less processed, healthier versions of meal staples are likely to return as routines become more like they were pre-Covid and consumers opt for relatively healthy food options.

Many are taking comfort in eating foods they recall from their childhoods – “simpler/safer” times - or the ones that are simply their go-to snack when they need to relieve stress.

In addition, the crisis has shed a light on the benefits of healthy eating – and good health in general – as a way to be less vulnerable to the effects of the virus.

When it comes to occasions for comfort, aside from snacks – breakfast seems bigger than ever, with Kellogg and General Mills products flying off the shelves.

General Mills has seen across-the-board increases in its various product lines in the last four weeks, from Yoplait yogurt to Cheerios cereal to Progresso Soup and even baking products like Gold Medal flour and Bisquick as consumers confined to their homes fill the endless hours by trying new recipes or even baking bread.

“We’ve seen all of our categories go up, including dry packaged dinner mixes like Hamburger Helper,” said Jon Nudi, President, North America Retail at General Mills. “There were a lot of people who thought its best days were way behind it. But, mixed with hamburger or tuna, it’s a simple and delicious meal.”

“We’re pretty confident that anything in the space of health and wellbeing is going to enjoy sustained strength,” Unilever CEO Alan Jope told analysts last month.

Unilever has seen higher sales of products such as Lipton Immune Support, as well as drinks that contain zinc and vitamin C, said Faber. The company is moving quickly to roll these out around the world, and health will remain a priority for product innovation, she added.

In a nod to this trend, Nestlé USA last week launched a new range of health-conscious ready meals. Faber, the Unilever executive, described the trend as “cocooning.”

“We will serve what will likely become a forever altered health, hygiene and cleaning focus,” said Procter & Gamble’s CFO Jon Moeller, noting that US consumers are washing their clothes more frequently, adding up to more laundry loads per month.

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To sum up...

The truth is that we are living in unprecedented times with no clear road map of what is to come or how best to navigate the journey. The best strategy is to continue to understand how consumers are thinking, feeling and behaving – even as it all continues to evolve – and develop product offerings that fill unmet needs, or are better suited to their desires in this moment.

Importantly, know that research conducted at this time can be trusted to provide meaningful insights – we have validated that study results obtained recently aligned with those obtained a year ago or more.

The key is to use fully vetted methods that will include a sufficiently large sample to be projectable and allow for statistical testing and sub-group analysis. The best methods include a combination of measures, implicitly assessing behavioral responses to stimuli – such as new package designs – and including sufficient explicit measures to help explain the findings. This way, the results can be relied on to predict in-market performance and uncover potential areas of improvement to make pre-launch, thereby increasing the likelihood for success.

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Part 4 101

Online behavioral research - the best strategy and innovation domain Young research experts from EyeSee share their take on the behavioral principles and remote solutions of immense use in all areas of consumer research. Recreating new contexts in which people interact with your product in any retail environment you can think of – ensures reliable and accurate insights that will help you lead decision-making in 2021.

Read on for their predictions of what is big next year, and why online behavioral research is the right path forward.

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Part 4 103 deep dive

What are your predictions for really useful solutions for next year?

Jane Nedinkovski Business Development Director

Worked at Gfk and Phillip Morris International and has completed both a BA in Psychology and an MBA

In-context solutions that map out the online Path to Purchase or multichannel brand interactions. If you aren’t doing this already, this might be the year to step up your social media game and discover a set of best practices for all the channels relevant to your business. Based on your stimuli and content, a study like this can provide you with guidance that reflects each platform’s features, allowing you to leverage them by finetuning your content and messaging.

In the NPD arena, there are so many exciting ways you can test and screen your concepts! Creating entirely behavioral and fully contextual exercises for innovation testing delivers performance info on reliable KPIs such as interest, penetration, and value share. Aside from onshelf concept screening in different development stages, you can also do behavior tracking on live websites, enabling you to place product concepts and asses them on a real website such as Amazon and see how much interest they garner.

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What does 2021 hold in store for EyeSee when it comes to tech?

Vladimir Matić Machine Learning engineer

Ph.D. from KU Leuven, specializes in Machine Learning, Computer vision, Data mining and signal processing

Tech is a key component of what EyeSee provides as it ensures we combine increased accessibility, security, and quality of insights.

In 2021, we will continue to improve our algorithms for Facial Coding/ Facial expression Recognition as well as for enhanced Eye Tracking with a help of one of the most powerful new super-computers located in Flanders/Belgium. EyeSee has just started to use a new supercomputer in Flanders/Belgium that is one of the most powerful in the EU. In simple words, what took us a week before, now takes us only a day on a supercomputer – all this will result in better, more accurate, and faster insights for our clients.

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Why is innovation important if you are a research vendor - not just for the clients, but also internally?

Irena Pavlović Insights manager

Master’s degree in Experimental psychology and has just received an award for the best Master’s thesis

It is not only important, innovation is a must. I would say they’re important for all industries, not just us market researchers. The reason why Design Thinking and innovation are important to research vendors is that it helps us keep an open mind to be sensitive to the clients’ needs so we can do our job best as possible. We want to be able to understand precisely what it is that our clients need and offer them solutions or products that could meet those needs easily and quickly.

With the DT framework, we are able to discover, test and perfect our solutions and offer both one-that-fits-all and customized solutions.

We are hungry, curious, and not afraid of hearing things that may sound counterintuitive. We don’t settle for existing solutions or insights that haven’t been turned upside down.

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How vital are digital channels in an overall marketing strategy – is it reflected in budget allocation?

Andrea Ćeran Digital Communications Research Data Analyst

BA in Psychology, experience as a tutoring and research assistant in Academia, in a startup and biomedical clinical research

I believe we are now witnessing a major turning point when it comes to shopping in general, and companies are under immense pressure to keep up with all these changes and adapt to new, digital retail and advertising channels as quickly and as effectively as possible – some of them yet pretty much untapped (think TikTok or WeChat in China).

Right now it’s a real race between competitors – there’s all this online potential, and companies need to act fast in order to seize this opportunity, so they are looking for a winning, data-backed strategy.

The transition to advertising through social media has created all these new questions that companies need answers to, and they need them fast. I have a feeling that they have become a bit more cautious – they don’t want to waste their resources or damage their brand image, so they would rather invest in testing than pay the price of launching an unsuccessful campaign that backfires on them, or even simply goes unnoticed – so in order to win online, you first need to test and learn what works!

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Industry recognition over the past 2 years

Technology Fast 50

2019

Global MR project Award (with

)

2020

Advertising research project Award (with

2017 - 2020

2020

Market research supplier Award (revenue under $10 mil)

)

Fastest-growing Tech company 4 years in a row

2020

Most Sustainable Growth Award

2019

12 Top Non-Conscious Research Companies

Editors Sandra Stojanović Marketing Director

Sanja Ćopić Content Strategist

Filip Marinković Senior Graphic Designer & Brand Manager

Ana Marković Junior Graphic and UX Designer

Design

Dina Popović Junior Copywriter

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