Frequently Asked Question for Coborn s CPGs on Customer Centric Retailing

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1 Frequently Asked Question for Coborn s CPGs on Customer Centric Retailing Who is Symphony Retail AI? Symphony Retail AI is a global leader in Customer Centric Retailing software, delivering benefits to retailers and manufacturers by utilizing customer insights to drive execution. By enabling a more engaged, consistent customer experience and optimized business operations, Symphony Retail AI partners with leading retailers and manufacturers in over 70 countries delivering increased sales, margins, profits and customer loyalty. What does our partnership with Symphony Retail AI include? Our partnership with Symphony Retail AI includes the integration of our shopper data for carded transactions into tools designed to support merchandising decisions such as: pricing, promotion, assortment, and customer-centric category management principles. The software is called Category Management Suite or CMS Most importantly Symphony Retail AI will provide category access to our CPG partners, so that they can provide shopper insights to our merchandising team via the CMS platform. Why did we select Symphony Retail AI vs. other vendors who do similar work? Symphony Retail AI is the US and Global leader in Customer Centric Retail. Symphony Retail AI has the industry experience and technology solutions that most align to our current and future needs. Through an extensive analysis conducted by Topco Indirect, Symphony Retail AI was identified as the best-in-class partner. Their emphasis on customer centricity and experience embedding within our retail organizations will accelerate our efforts to drive loyalty through customer-centric retailing practices. What is CCR? CCR (Customer-Centric Retailing) is a process that embeds a deeper knowledge of our customers into the core of our merchandising, marketing and loyalty strategies. The true value of CCR is not in the data or tools; it is the ability to translate customer-centric insights into tactical execution in stores to earn greater loyalty with our shoppers. Who is the sponsor of this initiative? Our company is part of a Topco initiative with five other Topco Members (Hy-Vee, Big Y, K-VA-T, Price Chopper, and Tops). Together this group represents over $20B in sales annually. Symphony Retail AI, Topco, and our CPG partners will drive access, insights and demonstrated value through this program. How will Customer Centric Retailing impact me? We expect CCR (Customer-Centric Retailing) will deliver the greatest benefit to our merchandising and marketing teams. This will include integrating customer insights into existing category management processes and sales planning. New tools to generate insights and better KPIs to track progress with our most important Primary Shoppers will be introduced for direct access to you and our suppliers. Category Managers will have access to CCR tools and will be calling on you their valued CPG partners for insight needs at the category level. Through strong partnership, together you can ensure you are executing customer centric programs that will drive top-line sales and customer loyalty. Page 1

2 Will Category Managers see the same data I will? Suppliers will have access to the categories they choose to invest in subscribing. The tools and reports are designed to mirror what Category Managers see. As the Topco agreement focuses on sales only, there is no margin insight in this data. CPG s will have access to the following core set of reports through our CMS/CCR reports: RSC+ Retail Scorecard Event Impact Analyzer Switching Analyzer Customer Profiler Basket Analyzer Distribution Tracker Customer Migration Tracker How will I, as a CPG, find resources to leverage the CCR Tool? Our CPG partners will be expected to leverage their internal teams, many of whom are already experts in the use of Symphony Retail AI solutions. Whether you centralize insight generation with the category management teams or you leverage resources actively using similar tools across retailers will be at the discretion of each CPG. We expect the same level of category expertise other retailers are provided to help grow their business. How will I be trained? Symphony RetailAI will conduct kick-off training to get new CPG team members started. On-going, each CPG has an identified coach who will support them with regular use and in specific application to support your Category Managers. Will CPGs that invest in shopper insight solutions be given more merchandising support? We expect our suppliers to partner with us to understand our shoppers, delivering the right programs and products to meet the needs of our Primary Shoppers. Understanding shopper segments delivers incremental value not only to Topco Members, but also when used throughout the CPG organization ultimately building stronger brands. Investment in our tools and solutions should not be assumed by our suppliers as an automatic increase in merchandising support on their behalf. The goal of Topco Members is to do what is right for sales and key shopper segments. If the CPG insights drive good business decisions, our goal is to implement them. CPG funding allocated to shopper insight tools should not be tied to trade funding. Investments are expected to be outside of trade budgets, a common industry best practice. How will this impact Topco Members existing trade funding I have to support sales initiatives? We expect no impact to trade budgets already negotiated with Topco Members these insights are commonly purchased at the national level for companies such as Kroger, Albertsons, and others. At Topco we expect similar budget treatment. We expect better ROI through better insights to optimize existing funding and drive sustainable profitable sales growth. Investment in shopper insights should sit outside of trade budgets. Page 2

3 If a supplier is interested in learning more about Symphony Retail AI solutions, who should they contact? CPGs wanting to learn more about Symphony Retail AI tools and pricing should contact Lee Cummins Lee.Cummins@eyc.com or Scott Sandler Scott.Sandler@eyc.com How do I make sure the data and insights I m delivering to Category Managers using new metrics are accurate and customer-centric? Symphony Retail AI utilizes coaches to help CPG partners bring forward proper data. You should work directly with your coach prior to presenting data to your clients to ensure the proper use and context of the information. Who is responsible for negotiating CPG costs on new tools? Symphony Retail AI s principle is consistency and transparency on all pricing. We will not negotiate different rates or access levels across suppliers. Symphony Retail AI will manage all contracts, and this will not be part of your day to day job requirements. How will categories be defined? What if a CPG disagrees with the category definition they want to purchase? Categories will be defined based on our current merchandising hierarchy with some minor adjustments based on category associations. Symphony Retail AI will publish standard category definitions and will ensure you have access if questions arise. CPG questions can be directed to Lee.Cummins@eyc.com What will CPGs have access to? Private Brands? Competition? Customers shop across many products and brands within categories. To optimize the value and application of shopper insights and replicate industry best practice, we will provide access to all brands and products within the categories they subscribe to. Sensitive data such as margin will not be available. Will Private Brands receive access to Symphony Retail AI solutions as part of our agreement? Yes, our internal Coborn s and Topco Private Brands teams will be using all available solutions to help grow our Private Brand business and drive stronger loyalty with our best customers. How will the broker or distributor community supporting our CPG partners receive access? A CPG partner electing to subscribe to shopper data through Symphony Retail AI solutions can elect to allocate IDs to their broker. As a 3 rd party, they will fall under the same sharing guidelines and contractual terms and conditions as the CPG who they are contracted to represent. When should we expect to see changes in our solutions and processes? Coborn s Leadership is working across merchandising and marketing to enhance current objectives and processes with shopper data. Based on their stated goals, you have the opportunity to refocus how you make decisions by leveraging and targeting specific shopper segments. Assortment process will be a key process to enhance with shopper insights. As you are working on assortment reviews you should request and expect shopper data from your key CPG partners. Page 3

4 From the CPG side, we are working on external communication that will be designed to trigger additional discussions between Symphony Retail AI and the CPG community. We will be in touch on next steps over the next several weeks with where you can help support this initiative with communication, and how Symphony Retail AI will support questions from merchandising teams that will likely arise. The CPG community has received initial exposure to the new CCR toolkit and will be asked to participate and purchase our data over the next several weeks. Can you provide some examples of solutions will we be leveraging to understanding our shoppers? Retail Scorecard (RSC). This reporting solution will serve as the basis for division, department and category performance KPIs focused on our customers. Basket Analyzer: Leverage to understanding complimentary products for display planning, promotional bundling, price multiples (% of baskets with 1, 2, 3+, etc.): New Product Tracker: Identify which new products have the strongest repeat levels to help prioritize ad placement, distribution and displays. Identify which new products are appealing most best customers and across different price sensitive segments. Page 4

5 Category Management suite of tools that helps to inform business decisions by understanding our customers buying behavior. Identify if customers are growing loyalty, leaving, or maintain their spend levels and which categories are driving growth or declines among specific customer groups. Rank products within and across categories using core customer metrics such as penetration, share of category spend among best customers, sales trends and key customer segment coverage. Understand who (customer segment) purchases specific products on promotion. Identify Cross-Promotion opportunities Understand which category items are most likely to be in the same basket. Learn which items are driving trips. Identify top and bottom promotions within and across customer segments Know how many buyers shop across categories, products, and brands within and across categories Understand what pricing or promotion drive s customer switching, trade up or trade down. Track and measure newly launched products, and distribution to store level. Understand where products are sourcing volume from or how incremental they are to the category Page 5