Barbara Schandl, Insights Lead SnackFutures Innovation from Mondelez
Day two is underway at Quirks Event London with a brilliant session from Barbara Schandl, Insights Lead SnackFutures Innovation from Mondelez. Barbara told the audience when you work in insights, you need to bring in your business understanding, the trends, and the forces by reading and staying curious about the market.
Barbara opened the session by describing herself as a person who has a natural curiosity about people and the world. She began by referencing a 2016 report by the Boston Consulting Group that stated market research is the number one priority in most organizations. However, her curious side rightly added that a newer post-pandemic report would benefit the industry.
(Image: Barbara Schandl presenting her session)
The primary approach from Mondelez is focused on being agile with a desire to learn what is needed at the moment. Furthermore, to gather insights that help the business learn and move forward. To maximize this process, she recommended inviting consumers to co-create on projects as valuable.
She finished the session by stating, ´When you work in insights, you need to bring in your business understanding, the trends, and the forces by reading and staying curious about the market.´
BV Pradeep – Global VP of consumer insights, Unilever & Jeannine – DS Smith
Next on the schedule was a discussion between BV Pradeep – Global VP of consumer insights, Unilever and Jeannine – DS Smith, Jeannine Ferguson Marketing and Innovation Director, North Europe. This session focused on understanding the future consumer, explicitly focusing on the next ten years.
BV Pradeep started the session by encouraging the audience to learn about China´s rapid growth in e-commerce. He told an interesting anecdote about a consumer in Asia who was convinced that purchasing their fresh produce online was more convenient and ultimately, the food was much fresher than being store-bought. He stressed the importance for researchers to spend time speaking with consumers in their home environments.
In addition, he provided four key factors that insights professionals should direct their attention towards within the example of purchasing food.
1. Convenience – how easy the product is to purchase
2. Time to delivery
3. Freshness – the consumer wants to know how the freshness of meat & veg
4. Shopping experience
Jeannine added that 80 to 90 % of people had an experience with online shopping, and previous barriers to entry are being jumped over. She agreed with her fellow panelists and stated Europeans should be looking at the activities in China to understand how to maximize technology for accelerating online sales for e-commerce brands.
The discussion moved on to the importance of packaging; Jeannine stated a focus should be on making sure packaging decisions are put further forward on the strategic plan in the next five years. Too many times in the past, Jeannine comments that packaging was a late-stage decision and not given the same focus as other areas.
The final takeaway from both panelists was to summarize their thoughts into three key takeaways:
1. Understand that touchpoints are changing for consumers
2. Focus on sustainability; people want to know brands are helping the planet
3. Omnichannel, omnichannel, and omnichannel – thinking about each area’s possible touchpoints and planning.
Daniel Siddle, Senior Consumer and Brands Insight Manager at Molson Coors
The final session covered today was by Daniel Siddle, Senior Consumer and Brands Insight Manager, Western Europe, Molson Coors. Daniel took us on a journey about launching a new beer amid a global pandemic. He stated how important it was to him and his team to deliver modern, fast, and agile research at the correct time.
(Image: Daniel Siddle presenting his session)
He began by stating the three objectives his team had at the beginning of the project:
- Drive belief
- Build out brand proposition
- Help the brand team execute
One of the specific areas highlighted by Daniel at Quirks Event was around the Chulapo Challenge – a source of intrigue for UK potential customers. It was important for Molson Coors to ensure that this personality resonated well with the market and that they understood the symbolism.
(Image: the chulapo challenge)
Daniel explained that they conducted concept testing using a monadic approach to understand packaging options better. The objective was to iterate quickly through different concepts and make accurate decisions.
The beer launch has been a significant success, with the product rapidly gaining fame and recognition.
Three Takeaways from Daniel:
- Focus on what matters
- Expect to iterate
- Build belief of the customer
Conclusion
The Quirks London event has been a phenomenal success, and it has been fantastic to see the industry so well represented by professionals from across the world. Check out how was Day 1 at the Quirks London event.
The Zinklar always-on insights platform is available for insight professionals, marketers, product managers, and anybody who desires to engage quickly and easily with their target consumers.
