While shopper insight has long been one of Kroger Co.’s salient strengths and, sources say, a critical component of its industry-leading performance over the last decade and a half turning insights into action has found a powerful ally in the palms of its shoppers’ hands.
In an email interview with SN, Matt Thompson, Kroger’s VP of digital business, said the smartphone, outfitted with a cleverly designed app, allows the retailer to meet the shopper with marketing, advertising and offers that are both personal in nature and delivered “in context.” Best of all, Thompson said, customers like it that way.
“We are thrilled that the vast majority of Kroger’s digital visits come from customers using a mobile device. We’ve seen more than 3 billion downloads of digital coupons,” Thompson said. “Additionally, Kroger customers love interacting with us on our social platforms and we are learning from these interactions. The digital space opens up so many new and interesting ways to connect and converse with shoppers.”
At Kroger, Thompson said, “Digital marketing is core to our business.”
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He is quick to add, however, Kroger’s willingness to meet customers where they are.
“Our customer communications and marketing approach is focused on meeting the customer in their preferred channel, with the right message delivered at the right time,” he said. “With five generations of consumers shopping with us, and looking for inspiration or information, our communications strategy is designed to include all channels.
“And, as more and more shoppers adopt and prefer digital channels, we are positioning our marketing messages and advertising where we will meet them in context with highly relevant and personalized content,” he added. “Smartphone use and mobile marketing is at the center of this approach.”
While officials often invoke founder Barney Kroger’s name as the true genesis of the company’s devotion to providing what its shoppers want, in the modern era thousands of stores, multiple formats and geographies serving diverse audiences understanding the data helps. Kroger is among the most prominent examples of U.S. chains to successfully derive those insights from shopper data, through partnership with dunnhumby, whose U.S. operations Kroger later acquired an interest in, and dunnhumby’s fully Kroger-owned successor, known as 84.51°.
Insights from that group are informing everything from decisions as to where to locate stores to assortments and the pursuit of new-store concepts like Main & Vine. For the shopper more than 17 million of whom have digital accounts with the retailer — it results in more relevant, “personalized” offers and a two-way relationship with the company, Thompson explained.
“At Kroger we are intently focused on listening to our customers,” he said. “Our customers do a great job of telling us what is working and what may need some adjusting. We ‘listen’ to how customers think we are doing by looking at sales and other key metrics, but we also listen to their voice through sentiment and other measures.
“We invest significant time and effort in talking with our customers through both online and in-field research, shop-alongs and more on a regular basis in order to refine and optimize our programs to fit their needs,” he added.
Date: August 30, 2016