Turning shopper insights into company-wide memes

Turning shopper insights into company-wide memes Dannon disrupts shopper research by engaging with a tribe of shoppers

ESOMAR Congress 2015 Best Paper Award

Introduction: Increasing the return on consumer insights

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Danone is the parent company of The Dannon Company, Stonyfield Yogurt and Happy Family. The company has taken strategic steps to achieve a global presence and to focus on four areas of business with high potential built on health and vitality: dairy products, bottled water, baby nutrition and medical nutrition. As one of the projects within the ‘Danone 2020’ initiative, the North-America-based dairy brands have united their forces to change

the face of Market Research (MR) within their organization. ‘Danone 2020’ is a business transformation program designed for a sustainable, collaborative and community-engaging future. After completing an immersive

Consumer Consulting Board on shopper insights, the consumer insight team at Dannon felt the study did not reach its full potential in terms of impact, reach and longevity. Not because the study was not well conducted or generated too little information, but because it generated information and possibility beyond what was anticipated.

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This ‘first world problem’ centered on a series of ‘missed opportunities’: many observations were relevant for a larger audience than just the shopper teams at Dannon and the insights would benefit from further elaboration and co-creation

by Dannon executives. Dannon

is not the only company to realize that market research findings need, should or can have a more widespread impact. More than ever, demonstrating the impact of research is the name of the game in our industry. A recent InSites Consulting Market Research Impact study (2014) states that only 45% of insight professionals and marketers believe that research succeeds in changing the attitudes and decisions of marketers. While it is the number 1 characteristic of ideal research, we are far off achieving it (Schillewaert et al, 2014). Impact does not follow spending, though, so it is not about doing more or increasing budgets. Impact is realized by allocating the investment to the rightful activities (BCG study, 2009) or doing things differently.

Creating a ‘tribe’ of healthy-minded people

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To reframe its understanding of the Health & Wellness space, Danone

initiated the ‘Healthy Minded People’ community (Figure 1). The initial objectives were to:

1.

Understand the shopping behavior

and context of consumers who aspire a lifestyle of Health & Wellness

2.

Figure 1. The Healthy Minded People community - screenshot

Feed the development of retail concepts, innovations and creative brand activation programs to enhance the shopping experience

3.

Inspire shopper teams and retail partners with consumer insights

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Uncovering shopper insights (pre, during and post the in-store experience) was a crucial objective for Dannon. Typical shopper research methodologies like shop-alongs, eye-tracking and virtual store simulations take a narrow view on the experience of the shopper; one person,

By following the shopper journey (from shopping list and in-store experience until groceries are stocked) and by activating shoppers (e.g. capturing a trip to

the farmers’ market), a

unique picture was established of the target group’s needs.

one shelf, one moment in time. A Consumer

Consulting Board or online community including mobile ethnography, shopper safaris and ideation was considered by Dannon to be the ideal method to bring consumers and insights to life. To capture the holistic shopper journey, follow consumers during different shopping trips and tap into the consulting power of shoppers, Dannon

activated 96 shoppers across seven retailers in the US for four weeks (Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Sample of shoppers

Our insight generation approach was built in three

consecutive phases. Target consumers engage in an asynchronous individual observation phase combined with a peer-to-peer discussion around the consumer journey.

Figure 3. Insight Activation phases

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Observation We immersed on an individual level by

connecting with consumers via an individual blog. This online ethnography approach has the advantage of diminishing the Hawthorne effect and allows more time to capture

processes from a natural consumer perspective e.g. mobile technology allowed to capture observations on the go and avoided having to rely on recall and consumer memory. An example of an observation task: consumers

are invited to share pictures of their shopping journey in different phases; making the list, entering the store, filling the basket, checking out and transportation. Next, they divide their purchases into what is healthy and what is unhealthy, to understand what drives their perception of health.

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Crowd interpretation Not only professional market researchers interpret the data, we

also engage a group of consumers in the analysis of the observations. This in order to obtain a richer, more accurate interpretation of data that leads to insights.

Our research has shown that

crowd interpretation leads to 20% to 40% of additional, unique insights.

Duration: four days.

Discussion Participants go from an individual blog phase to an interactive peer-to-peer discussion environment in the last phase. This discussion phase is intended for probing or “auto-driving”. Interviewing and discussion questions are experiential, task-based and gamified. Observations

reveal the implicit, unconscious needs and wants and, combined with the right probing, a full picture of the Health & Wellness consumers’ needs could be sketched.

This process generated a wealth and mass of data and a classic 150+ page PowerPoint report. To bring across the key messages as well as generate a lasting impact

applied a number of collaborative presentation and workshop techniques. These techniques have in common that

1.

were co-presented by the client team

among the original team, we

Dannon executives had to internalize the data by interacting, experiencing and actually working it (Figures 4 and 5).

TED-style presentation chunks

2.

Observation museum stations in which executives had to “walk through” the findings

3.

Consumer stories dashboard. All visual observations were rigorously tagged and included a Consumer Story Dashboard. This asset made the massive amount of pictures (almost 1,500) easily accessible by filtering on e.g. retailer, moment in the journey or insight

4.

Figure 4. Snapshots of techniques to internalize the data

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Competitive ideation and co-creation among small teams of executives

Figure 5. Screenshot of the Consumer Story Dashboard

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This approach of capturing immersive data and generating solid insights was different on 3 levels from traditional shopper research.

1.

A holistic outlook on the lives and challenges of the Health & Wellness consumer was generated, instead of the singular perspective provided by traditional methods.

2.

Instead of studying consumers as passive participants in the process, they were truly in the lead. Through

activation/ deprivation tasks and a longitudinal commitment, we generated a more layered view on their needs.

understanding consumer behavior in the Health & Wellness space. The Consumer Story Dashboard and workshop exercises allowed them to easily explore more observations than could ever be included in a traditional research report.

After this comprehensive project delivery and 3,465

conversations, 1,399 pictures and consumer stories, 14 insight platforms and 78 co-created product and communication ideas, there was a feeling of ‘unused potential’ if the insight process would stop here. Not only should all these findings be diffused to other employees from different departments and locations,

the ideas also needed further collaboration to continue enriching them.

As outlined at the start of this paper, our next

3.

challenge was all about generating

impact

The Dannon team was not merely ‘informed’ of

with our market research - this time research

the outcome, they

that had already been completed, but required a more widespread audience and more in-depth work.

were also active participants in the process of

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Going from ‘insights’ to ‘memes’

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For people to take action on a consumer insight, they first need to learn what the insight is about.

Many times in MR (as is the case here as well), only a limited group of people is involved in the knowledge exchange, e.g. by participating in the debrief workshop or managing the research study themselves. This limited group can then shape an insight platform by adding their own thoughts,

When such an insight

observations and/or ideas. If

Wellness’ community resulted in several findings we felt could/ should result in such memes. For example, the #yolittleones meme. Parents face a challenge of constantly not giving in when their young children join them during grocery shopping.

When kids show good behavior in the store, parents often want to give them a treat. These young kids are often attracted by the colorful packaging of unhealthy snacks. We uncovered insights that provide opportunities for yogurt to become a favorite among kids and to be liked as a healthy option by parents.

we involve a wider group of employees, organizations as a whole will better understand the consumer and will be able to make consumer-relevant decisions. Furthermore, the theory of open innovation teaches us that ‘the one golden idea’ can come from anywhere in the organization, not only from marketing or innovation (Whelan, 2011). To increase the impact and maximize the chance of a golden idea to realize, all

employees across the organization should learn what the key consumer frictions are in order to share related observations and ideas and build on them. For example, by experiencing how consumers have their yogurt, employees can see what could be up for improvement. www.insites-consulting.com

is replicated by employees and broadened with their own observations and ideas, shared with various people across the organization and triggers action, the insight becomes a ‘meme’ (Dawkins, 1989). Our ‘Health &

To turn an insight into a meme, insight professionals need to move away from the traditional research model and establish

a change at three levels to achieve the ‘Memefication of #MRX’.

1

From reporting to internalizing #experience 92% of insight professionals believe their research generates insight worth sharing with colleagues, yet only 65% extensively share them with their organization. Furthermore, only one in five researchers organizes interactive workshops to discuss results (Schillewaert et al, 2014). Only too often does MR

take a passive and individualistic approach

Secondly, ‘seeding’ enables insights managers to spread insights via key ambassadors in a relevant way through the organization. ‘Activating’ triggers stakeholders not only to discover but also to interact with and work on insights. Finally, ‘collaborating’ connects stakeholders to work together and turn insights into actions and new future projects.

and executives are supposed to identify their own actions when undergoing research reports.

However, to trigger meaningful actions of executives, insight

professionals need to bring insights to life through interaction with the data - they need to work the data. Therefore, we identified four building blocks required for marketing insights within organizations: harvesting, seeding, activating and collaborating (Figure 6). Through ‘harvesting’, we assemble and mold insights from internal stakeholders which are already collected.

Figure 6. Four building blocks of marketing insights within an organization

2

From teams to organization-wide #reach In traditional MR, consumer stories and insights are often discovered and owned by the MR department. However, in order to trigger meaningful action all the time, the

insight

them more motivated as an employee in general. The extension of the MR reach calls for a layered approach, involving

the whole organization with consumer insights.

needs to be co-owned by all employees (Figure 7). First of all, we wish to extend the MR reach from executives to management in order to enable higher management to take long-term decisions with a consumer context in mind. Secondly, we involve the front-line employees, who are in almost daily contact with consumers, to shape their consumer feeling and ultimately improve their performance.

Finally, we involve all other employees who have a rather indirect relationship with the consumer, which creates a better understanding of the consumer context of the business, by making

Figure 7. Extend the internal reach of MR

3

From projects to habit creation #structural For most employees, working with consumer insights is not a routine. If you wish to trigger meaningful actions and enable employees to turn an insight into a meme, it is of great importance that

consumer inspirations become part of the executives’ daily jobs. We miss opportunities by thinking projectbased.

If we can shift

consumer inspiration into becoming a routine, we will be more successful in triggering meaningful actions and increase the business impact of consumer insights.

The Dannon Insight Activation Studio So how can we concretely engage employees from different departments with consumer insights and allowing them to interact with research data in a playful way?

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We strongly believe that consumer insights have not reached their full potential in terms of ROI. Based on interviews with clients, the MR Impact Study and our experience in collaborating with global brands over the years, we

identified a recipe for success to create a positive business impact with consumer insights. To enable the insight professional of tomorrow to do this efficiently yet effectively, we developed

a mobile collaboration platform, called the ‘Insight Activation Studio’.

Figure 8. the Insight Activation Studio

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This is a scalable solution for insight managers so they can establish the ‘memefication’ of research in their organizations and create engaging experiences, structurally and across the organization. How does it work?

The Studio connects and empowers internal stakeholders to share inspiring observations and take action together. This digital application (Figure 8) (based on a responsive web design) consists of several ‘Inspiration Walls’: projects or insight platforms that uncover a consumer friction, emotion or unmet need. Each Wall is populated with tiles or findings from the community, all believed to contribute to the meme. The Danone team would identify the most meaningful and memorable observations to include as an Observation “Tile” in the Danone Studio. Dannon employees are prompted to add their own ‘Inspiration Tiles’ to these Walls through observations and ideas by posting photos, videos and stories. They interact and shape the Inspiration Tiles of their colleagues through comments and likes (Figure 9).

The studio helps the insight professional to

efficiently combine the four building blocks of marketing insights (Figure 6). By challenging employees to share their inspirations, we harvest their consumer knowledge. By

opening an Inspiration Wall, we seed new consumer insights with the relevant team(s). By activating employees to share observations and ideas on the go, we prompt them to interact with insights. Finally, by sharing enabling commenting and feedback, we enable them to collaborate

and work together to shape outcomes.

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Figure 9. Impressions of the Insight Activation Studio

What does it bring? Just like any technology, the

Insight Activation Studio brings automational, informational and transformational value for the insight professional (Day, 1994).

Automational - Faster sharing of insights There is a reduction of manual efforts in spreading and seeding insights with more, relevant stakeholders, leading to more and faster

decision making at the same or a lower level of costs.

Informational - Better and higher ROI of consumer insights The Studio enables internal stakeholders to spot,

share and shape inspirations on the go. The

more inspirations are posted on an Inspiration Wall and the more feedback an inspiration will receive, the richer the insight will get. Furthermore, all these interactions also create a

deeper understanding of the insight. In turn, the company has access to richer, more relevant, authentic ideas which are closer to the reality of the business world, encouraging employees to take action to make better decisions.

Transformational - Not possible before A consumer-activated culture. By connecting the whole organization with the consumer, the Studio influences employees’ day-to-day behavior, helps collect ideas from the whole organization and transforms

organization into an innovation- and consumer-centric culture.

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the

In the first stage of the Danone Studio, six Inspiration Walls were set up featuring a total of 42 Tiles, engaging the company in a collaboration wave of four weeks.

#YOMOMENTS

#YOLITTLEONES

#YODOODLE #YOKITCHEN

What makes yogurt the ideal healthy snack? Share your snacking moments on this #YOMOMENTS Inspiration Wall and discover the dimensions of a healthy snack.

What can we do to make yogurt more attractive as a snack for kids, from the small ones to the older ones? Share your experiences and see the thoughts of our consumers.

Do you have an observation

or an idea that does not fit

any of the walls? Do not just keep it on a post-it, share it here.

What is so great about using yogurt in smoothies, parfaits, desserts or cooking? Share a few tips from your kitchen and find out about the

culinary experiments of our consumers.

#YONOVATION #YOSHOP

Are you ready for some yogurt innovation? Share your ideas with us and see how your ideas stack up against others.

Do you have ideas on how to make

more enjoyable? Share your own ideas or examples of creative execution from places you really like.

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shopping for yogurt

Impact is the name of the game

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Danone launched this initiative on an immense scale. All employees of the Dannon HQ and the plants of Dannon, Stonyfield Yogurt and Happy Family were invited to join.

The launch was supported by a

video explaining how this new way of collaboration would contribute to the ‘Danone 2020’ business transformation program (Figure 10). Postcards were sent to the plants as an additional touchpoint in the launch.

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Figure 10. Launch video

On the next slides we describe the impact of the Studio being live for four weeks. We do so both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Intriguing Participant feedback about the Studio was that it is fun and

intriguing at the same time. From a visual and design perspective, users perceived it to be very appealing and very different from what they were used to see (if ever) in terms of market research output. Nonmarketing executives got to experience that research is not all “boring graphs” and “long reports”.

“The Studio is visually appealing. As life is quite busy, we unfortunately don't take the time to socialize and share this type of information in person or online.”

The content on the Studio shed a different light on consumer reality and it was eye-opening and surprising for people to learn about different applications of yoghurt.

"It was really interesting to see all the recipes people use yogurt for.

For example, the pasta recipe really caught my attention and I was

surprised people would use yogurt in pasta. It was also to me to see people using yogurt in savory recipes as I thought consumers only consumed yogurt as a sweet treat."

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People centricity

Participants outside of the marketing department became more people-

centric through sharing their own personal stories. A great illustration of this is Nancy’s idea and contribution to the #YOLITTLEONES wall with a picture of her daughter (see below).

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Reach and Engagement Out of the 250 executives based in the Dannon White Plains offices, we reached 83 or 1

in 3 over the

course of four weeks.

38% of these users were repeat users who clearly showed a build-up in behavior. The heightened engagement of repeat users is illustrated by the fact that their visiting behavior is more

intense: the time spent is

43% higher, the number of pages viewed goes up by 54% (from 2.4 pages to 3.7 pages per visit). In addition, 15% of the repeat users also accessed the Studio using their mobile device (vs only 1% of the first-time users). This is indicative for the fact that repeat users are trying to embed the studio into their daily habits.

Increase Consumer Empathy Executives using the Studio do so because they wish to

bridge the consumer gap. Our analysis shows that executives who have a lower feeling with the consumer or low consumer contact use the Studio much more than their counterparts, respectively with a factor 1.3 and 3.3.

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Conclusions The worst enemy of a good study is that it becomes ‘ad hoc’

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Increase the Return On Insight

1

Internalize

We need to extend the shelf life of research by making it a

longitudinal and habitual asset. Researchers should more actively market their product which is ‘research’.

2

3 Measure

What does not get measured, does not get managed, therefore it is important to show a clear increase in ROI.

Reverse

We should all reverse the delivery process of market research from ‘one long report for a small audience’ to ‘small

snippets’ of information ‘for a large audience’.

References Boston Consulting Group Study, 2009, The consumer’s voice - can your company hear it?

Retrieved from www on Feb. 10, 2015, http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf Dawkins, R., 1989, The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 192, ISBN 0-19286092-5, Day, G., 1994, The capabilities of market driven organizations. Journal of Marketing, 58, 4 (October), pp. 37-52.

De Ruyck, T., Schillewaert, N., and Knoops, S., 2012, Engage, Inspire Act! ESOMAR Congress paper Schillewaert, N., Pallini, K. 2014, What do clients think about MR impact. Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, http://www.greenbookblog.org/2014/11/20/what-do-clients-think-aboutmr-impact/ Whelan, E., Parise, S., Valk, de J. and Aalbers, R., 2011, Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation. Harvard Business Review Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, https://hbr.org/product/creating-employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/ SMR399-PDF-ENG Willems, A. and De Ruyck T., 2015, How To Market, Research? MIE conference presentation, Feb. 5th 2015.

Tom De Ruyck,

Niels Schillewaert,

Thomas Troch,

Managing Partner at InSites Consulting

Managing Partner & Co-founder at InSites Consulting

Research Director at InSites Consulting

+32 9 269 14 07

+1 646 386 9853

+1 646 386 9855

@tomderuyck

@niels_insites

@thomastroch

linkedin.com/in/tomderuyck

linkedin.com/in/nielsschillewaert

linkedin.com/in/thomastroch

tom@insites-consulting.com

niels@insites-consulting.com

thomas@insites-consulting.com

Anouk Willems

Olesya Govorun

Head of Insight Activation Studios at InSites Consulting

Director, Strategy & Insights at The Dannon Company

+31 10 742 10 35 @AnoukW1 linkedin.com/in/anoukwillems anouk@insites-consulting.com

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Holly Rozelle Manager, Strategy & Insights at The Dannon Company

Thank you!

@InSites marketing@insites-consulting.com www.facebook.com/insitesconsulting www.slideshare.net/InSitesConsulting

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