How to Sustain Category Growth in 2021, According to Three Big-Name Brands

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From providing customer reassurance to utilizing agile tools to democratizing insights, here’s what research leaders from Reckitt, Ferrero, and Campbell’s say they’re doing to cultivate success in their categories, today and going forward.

As businesses around the world continue to settle into a new normal, it’s becoming increasingly clear which behaviors wrought by the pandemic will stick around. Not only will consumer behaviors be different, but so will data collection and corporate response to insights. 

With that in mind, Suzy recently partnered with CMA and SIMA for a virtual panel discussion with research leaders from Reckitt, Ferrero, and Campbell’s. Among other highlights, the webinar covered the most important pivots brands should execute if they want to stay competitive, right now, in this whirlwind of a market. 

Here are just three of them:

Provide Customer Reassurance

A company like Reckitt — which manufactures cleaning agents, among other items — helps consumers feel safer during this particular kind of crisis. But as the world “reopens,” brand retail outlets must work especially hard to boost consumers’ sense of security.

Yelena Idelchik, Category Management & Shopper Insights Director, Hygiene US at Reckitt, said retailers that can provide customers reassurance about their personal safety as they enter stores, with visible wipes and sanitizers and other messaging, will be at an advantage. 

“[This] will become critical in building that trust,” Idelchik said.

If the brand you manage is not in retail but offers some public service, it might be wise to partner with manufacturers of products that are aimed at heightening personal safety in a pandemic. This strategy will help consumers be aware that your company is prioritizing their health and safety.

“You see the explosion of deals where Lysol and Clorox sign up with airlines, like Delta or United, or hotels — Hilton, for example — or Uber or Airbnb,” Idelchik observed. “This will continue to proliferate.”

Utilize Agile Tools

Keeping up with consumer needs is challenging these days, but brands must do their best, or risk alienating their customers. 

“Things are going to shift, and we have to be very agile and respond quickly to these changes,” said Lindsay Fankhauser, Shopper and Portfolio Insights Lead-Growth and Grocery Channel at Campbell’s Snacks. 

When asked by moderator Katie Gross, Chief Client Officer at Suzy, which kind of tools she’s been using to stay current, Fankhauser said, “Vendors that are very agile and quick, like Suzy.”

“We have really enjoyed working with you guys over the past year because we have been able to get quick results,” Fankhauser added. 

Looking ahead, Fankhauser predicted that channels somehow associated with the travel category can soon expect more profound revenue streams. She also indicated that brands should mind the newfound comfort level with internet shopping that consumers have recently acquired. 

Fankhauser believes there’s still an opportunity for brands to pluck new devoted buyers out of the far-reaching waters of e-commerce. But awareness about the rate of these changes can best be cultivated by leveraging agile research tools.

Democratize Insights

Primarily thanks to advancements in technology (and increased affordability), the widespread access to research tools has allowed for “more players to be part of the conversation,” said Phil DeConto, VP of Category Management & Shopper Insights at Ferrero. “That should be a good thing for the industry.”

He added, however, that such a development does generate challenges. Organizations must ask questions like: “Where are the balance points for in-category management?” and “How do we make sure that we are representing velocity and incrementality in the conversation?”  

They must also consider, DeConto continued, how they are “best representing the need for base business and the need to innovate in the space” and “how do those additional voices in the room add a real value now that the access to real information is not the gatekeeper?”

DeConto said that, on a baseline level at Ferrero, the way his organization seamlessly democratizes insights is by not only utilizing a suite of tools for a variety of dataset types but also by reinforcing that every branch of the company is “working as hard as it can for the retailer and for the category.”

For more on how brands can maintain growth or prosper even more profoundly right now, watch the entire webinar at Suzy.com.