FMCG Research Virtual Summit 2020

10.00 Opening remarks from the Chair
Steve Looney, Research Director, Opinium

10.05 Navigating a new world with Human Understanding.

COVID-19 represents an extraordinary challenge to global governments, health services, corporations and individuals alike. Understanding the changing attitudes and behaviours have never been more important. At Walnut we apply a behavioural science lens to some of the consumer data that we have gathered over the last few months to understand which behaviours are likely to stick in the long term and which ones could revert back with time. With a focus on the food and drinks sector this session will show you what the long-term implications for FMCG brands are.

Becky Miles, Research Director Walnut Unlimited 
Andreea Tarasescu, Associate Director, Behavioural Science

10.20 Understanding the modern consumers’ food mindset

We trust farmers but have no idea what they do. We want a more transparent food system but don’t read product labels. Some of us say we are vegans but eat pork regularly. 
At a time of changing diets and unprecedented scrutiny of the journey from farm to fork, Blue Marble teamed up with AHDB to explore the complexities of the modern consumer mind. Encompassing everything from flexitarianism to toys for pigs, this research provides a powerful window into how consumers feel – or think they feel – about the food system and pointers on how food and retail brands can meet consumer expectations.  

Laura Weston, Research Manager, Blue Marble
Susie Stannard, Consumer Insight Manager, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board

10.35 Data and dentists – two things no one should be afraid of!

While some may actively avoid the pain of going to the dentist (dentophobia), for GSK marketers the delight of a dentist visit is in the insight gained – and the pain is in the difficulty of eliciting revealing insights from Dental Experts at large scale and reasonable cost.
Traditionally, GSK Consumer Health prioritised insight discovery through face-to-face networking, alongside high cost expert surveys and focus groups. Insights are found, but it is prohibitive to scale and difficult to avoid the professional bias inherent in surveys and discussion groups. So, GSK Consumer Health decided to test a novel approach, creating and analysing digital data sets:

• Iteratively exploring structured and unstructured data
• Using pioneering analytical technologies such as network and influence modelling and text mining with natural language processing
• Developing a bespoke global crawler to identify key topics and themes

Hear how data insights delivered an effective engagement and relevancy programme for GSK Consumer Health.

Andrzej Moyseowicz, Founder – Innovation Director, Freemavens
Matteo De Angelis, Client Lead, Freemavens
Alexandra Wren, Global Consumer Business Insights & Analytics Director, Oral Health, GSK Consumer Health

10.50 A snapshot of the nation: using photography to provide a new lens on customers’ lives for Asda

Despite the vast amount of data that Asda holds on customers, the link to real customers can sometimes be lost amongst the data. The Asda Insight team wanted to bring customers to life, for their Executive team, grounding the data they engage with in an in-depth view of real customers.
In this session  STRAT7 ResearchBods will share how they brought customers’ lives to life through the medium of photos which together with other customer information generated an interactive photo dashboard for the Asda’s Insight team. Hear how the tool has informed areas such as Christmas 2019 campaign analysis, planning for 2020 and has also aided NPD.

Elaine Morris, Insight Director, STRAT7 ResearchBods
Liz Lamb, Senior Director, Customer Insight Data Analytics, ASDA

 
11.05 Comfort break

11.20 When insight does marketing: delivering ‘beautiful’ research stories to key stakeholders

Unilever needed to put their new deodorant to the test – REALLY to the test – beyond home usage, beyond qual and beyond hot room and scientific testing. The insight team needed to tell a powerful efficacy story to get internal and external stakeholders fully on board and to bring to life consumer feedback.
Partnering with Unilever and Phoenix Dance Theatre, BlueYonder created a TVC standard, research based testimonial demo, that pushed the boundaries of R&D and delivered results more precise, more real, more powerful (and far more time and cost effective) than the work of traditional marketing agencies. A new era of insight stories had begun!

Hannah Rogers, Client Lead, BlueYonder

11.35 Panel: the role of research in driving forward packaging and brand design

As we enter a new decade and the world adjusts to life lived in the presence of Covid-19, it’s essential to understand consumers’ changing relationship with the designed world around them. We are being forced into new behaviours at an unprecedented rate of knots and brand design must adapt. To navigate this new world, a human-centred approach to creative development is needed to capitalise on advancements in the likes of AI and AR, and ensure a better designed world for consumers. Join panellists to consider:

• How will consumers’ relationship with design change over the coming decade?
• How may it already have changed in the advent of the pandemic?
• What is the role of packaging and design in a post single-use universe?
• How should we research consumers’ ever-more complex relationship with new touchpoints?

Chaired by:
Chris Aukett, Director, The Big Picture
Panellist:
Cecilia Sylvan Martin, Director The Big Picture
Jill Marshall, Consultant to the creative industry
John Mathers, Chairman, British Design Fund
 

11.55 Delivering lean and agile NPD innovation 

Mondelez’s SnackFutures innovation team was looking for a more efficient and learning-based approach to developing the ideas and executions for a new disruptive snacking brand. The new brand centres around trends in sustainability and reusing waste materials to produce delicious and healthy snacks. 
Hear how a new behavioural science approach produced a smarter and faster research process as a viable alternative to the traditional NPD research process. SnackFutures are now sprinting, creating minimum viable products (MVP’s), testing, learning and soft-launching products much earlier in the innovation process and reducing overall time to market.

Nicki Morley PhD, Senior Director and Innovation lead, Kantar, Insights Division, UK
Barbara Schandl, Insights Lead of SnackFutures Innovation, Mondelez International

12.10 Using an online survey for exploratory category research

SPAR, the world’s largest international food chain, used a new research methodology, namely an online “Qual survey”, for the first time in Q4 2019 to explore consumer attitudes and language around sustainability and packaging in the fresh produce category, in preparation for a possible repositioning of its offer. Understand the motivations for SPAR selecting this novel approach and the benefits and outcomes achieved.

Richard Clark, Director, MRQual
David Bird, Research & Insights Manager, SPAR UK

12.25 How to buck current retail trends – the US jean shopper

Over recent years, bricks and mortar retail has suffered globally due to the rise in online shopping. Classic retail spaces have adapted to find new ways to entice the consumer through their doors. Consequently, a leading jean brand felt they no longer fully understood their consumer journey in bricks and mortar retail environments. Sales figures were declining in the US, their home market, but was this down to brand issues, retail environment, specific fixtures or possibly changes in how consumers feel about, and buy and wear, jeans?   Magenta will take you through the multi-stage methodology they used to unpick the strategic issues and provide an actionable brand and retail strategy.

Dr Sarah Jenkins, Director, Magenta Research

12.40 Closing comments from the Chair