profitero

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Lauren Livak, lead at the Digital Shelf Institute, and Mike Black, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Profitero, a global commerce acceleration company. In this podcast, they’re discussing the new Digital Shelf Institute and Profitero report “Defining Content Effectiveness”. Here you can register to join them in the webinar in February.

In today's episode, we delve into the ever-evolving world of content effectiveness in digital retail. Kiri, Lauren, and Mike unpack the intricacies of creating impactful content that resonates with consumers and drives conversion. Drawing from their new report which involved interviewing over twelve digital leaders, they explore the duality of art and science when it comes to defining what effective content truly means for different brands.

 If you're looking for comprehensive insights on improving your ecommerce content strategy, you won't want to miss this enlightening conversation. Are you ready to transition from merely sufficient content to truly effective communication with your consumer base? Make sure you tune in!

More about the guests:

Mike Black

Mike joined Profitero in 2017 as Vice President of Marketing and has been instrumental in the company’s growth after joining Publicis Group, grew the company’s offerings beyond digital shelf analytics to include predictive analytics, retail media, and content activation solutions. Before joining Profitero, Mike held marketing roles at Nielsen and Staples

Lauren Livak

Lauren leads the Digital Shelf Institute in defining the strategy to create a global commerce community that supports brands, retailers, and future leaders in the complex world of digital. Across her roles, she has worked with hundreds of brand manufacturers helping them to develop an overall commerce strategy and vision for their commerce journey leveraging her work at Johnson & Johnson where she was the owner of the Digital Shelf for the Consumer family of products for North America. She launched a new approach for the way the Consumer North America business went to digital retail both in pure play & omni-channel streams covering multiple platforms such as OTC, Beauty, Oral Care, Baby Care & Wound Care with accountability for 40+ retailers and 33+ brands.

In this episode Kiri, Lauren and Mike discuss:

- The five core pillars of content effectiveness: people, data and systems, process, measurement, and retailer collaboration.

- The importance of understanding shopper behavior and using that knowledge to drive engagement with content.

- How content impacts organic search and can be utilized to educate leadership teams on its importance.

- Using retailer conversion data and measurement tools to understand content effectiveness in terms of emotional and brand impact.

- The necessity for organizations to go through a maturity curve to fully understand and define content effectiveness.

- The significance of internal processes and avoiding siloed teams to maximize content impact.

- The potential of advanced tools, such as AI, once the content effectiveness fundamentals are well-established.

- Upcoming webinar announcement and the availability of the content effectiveness report at digitalshelfinstitute.org.

- The debate around whether content is being managed for mere sufficiency or optimized for effectiveness.

- The essential role of communicating the value of content to leadership, particularly in the absence of clear-cut metrics.

- The value of search-optimized content and transitioning to content that both builds a brand and drives conversion.

- The need for resources that can harness consumer insights, and processes that ensure content reaches the right channels.

- Surprising variations in content effectiveness definitions among digital leaders, indicating a lack of a one-size-fits-all approach.

- Importance of content integration with product launches, and how some brands succeed while others fall short.

- The balance between the creative and methodical aspects of measuring content effectiveness and return on investment.

Mike Black is the CMO of Profitero, a leading eCommerce acceleration company offering intelligence-driven solutions for profitable growth. With a background in marketing, he held leadership positions in product marketing and demand generation at various global analytics companies. Before Profitero, Mike was the Vice President of Product Marketing at Nielson, where he launched new analytics products for the company’s retail measurement business.

In this episode…

Digital marketing has shifted from an occasional perk to a new business standard as brands optimize content to drive conversions on the digital shelf. Yet with so much demand for innovative content and record-high consumption rates, how can you test and measure your content to ensure your efforts generate maximum ROI?

According to eCommerce-focused marketer Mike Black, the first step in content optimization is to assemble your briefs to target retail algorithms and advertise in the appropriate categories. However, keywords and competitors change dynamically and frequently, so you must leverage automation and other analytics tools to track incremental performance. Mike cites the digital shelf as a key performance driver but warns that data sets can become siloed, so by applying the data to various marketing channels like retail media, you can develop an integrated strategy for informed decision-making.

In the latest episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant hosts Mike Black, the CMO of Profitero, who talks about the convergence of media, commerce, and the digital shelf. Mike addresses the democratization of eCommerce and technology, how to leverage software tools for paid media, and how data-driven insights boost content performance.

The CPG Guys, Sri & PVSB, are joined in this episode by Christina Vail, Director of Client Strategy.

Follow Christina Vail on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-vail-0454ab65/

Chrstina answers these questions:

1) What was the impetus to create this research? What were you witnessing in your conversations with clients trying to align to the demand of the evolving omnichannel world?
2) In your report, you identify in great detail something you call the eCommerce maturity curve. Would you walk us through this construct and how you see it helping CPG companies navigate the right structure and strategy for success?
3) Having a plan does not guarantee success in organizational transformation. Your study  prominently recommends that leaders actually evangelize about about the process. In fact, it is the first of six stages you identify. It begins with self-assessment. What is involved in the assessment stage and how do you ensure that leadership is thoughtful about their commitment to the necessary change?
4) The next stage you identify is around education. What does this involve and how do you bring along the rest of the organization in the transformational journey? 
5) People need to start getting their hands dirty in eCommerce. What happens in this Merchandise stage?
6) CPG manufacturers won’t commit to this process without growth components. At some point, It should be clear that eCommerce is poised to become a long-term source of demand, consistently accounting for a mid-single-digit percentage of annual sales (or more).  As demand has begun to outstrip the capabilities of a smaller embedded team, what must the organization do next?
7) When eCommerce starts hitting double digit share of revenue, senior leadership is  fully supportive and is actively funneling innovation into this channel. How does the empowerment stage play into success?
8) The final stage of the process you identify is integration of eCommerce into the very DNA of the organization. When does this happen?

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. 

CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual’s use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast. 

The CPG Guys, Sri & PVSB, are joined in this episode by John Maltman, founder & CEO of e.fundamentals which helps CPG brands unlock eCommerce growth by transforming the knowledge, decision making & agility of brands online through actionable data and expert-led digital commerce insights.

Follow John Maltman on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmaltman/
Follow e.fundamentals on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/e-fundamentals/
Follow e.fundamentals online at: https://www.efundamentals.com/

John answers these questions:

1) We’d love to hear about your journey to founding e.fundamentals. You have some tremendous experience in both CPG and retail with nearly a decade at P&G, consulting credentials at Glendinning, more CPG work at PepsiCo, retail work at ASDA and customer data experience at EYC, the precursor to Symphony Retail among your professional highlights. 6 years ago, you decided to found e.fundamentals. 
2) What are some key areas that you are recommending to your clients to explore on the digital roadmap to success, making bricks and clicks add up?
3) A company’s success in eCommerce is only as good as the team activating against it. What skills does an effective eCommerce team need to develop in order to win in this space?
4) Here in North America, the pandemic has transformed the Instacart marketplace platform into a powerful demand aggregator that brands are struggling to tackle. What do brands need to get right in search and ensure their products get into Instacart baskets to help them succeed on Instacart?
5) Walmart is another major competitor in Grocery eCommerce. What is your POV on their strategy to win in Grocery by reaching shoppers? Does their physical store presence present an advantage to Walmart in this pursuit?
6) How do you advise brands to optimize their assortment on the digital shelf and what are some fundamental differences from physical shelf category management?
7) How is e.fundamentals helping to automate digital shelf analytics for its clients and drive success in enabling brand strategies?
8) As we emerge from the transformative period of the pandemic, what are the key aspects of omnichannel grocery that you are closely monitoring and do you have any leading indicators to share with our audience?

Please provide the CPG Guys feedback at http://ratethispodcast.com/cpgguys

CPG Guys Website: http://CPGGuys.com
Instagram: http://Instagram.com/cpgguys

DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. 

CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual’s use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast. 

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Mike Black.

Mike explains the term DIVA

• Discoverable - being highly visible in retailer search results
• Informative - online, there is limitless real estate available to promote your brand
• Valued - investing in brand building to ensure brand preference can help stave off competitive threats
• Agile - adapt quickly to changes in both consumer behavior and macro issues

And Mike shares where to best bury a "dead body" on a PDP!

Mike answers these questions:

1. Talk to us more about the concept of digital shelf - why is this an important area that brands need to focus on?
2. Is digital shelf management something every company is doing well at this point - it seems like it would be a fundamental practice at this point, right?
3. Where do you see the biggest ROI in terms of managing the digital shelf? What really moves the needle?
4. Recently, you published some really interesting research on the impact of digital shelf performance, ie the impact, going out of stock and what it means for sales. Can you talk about some of that research bit?
5. I believe you are doing some research on the impact of ratings & reviews -- anything you can preview or share with us? 
6. You were pretty active this week in publishing some data out on retailer pricing competing - what were some of the key trends you saw from that? 
7. Not every retailer is trying to compete on price. Target good example 
8. What separates the brands that are using data well in their business from those who are just aren’t there yet?
9. You have been with Profitero for 3 years - what’s the biggest change you have seen in the market since the pandemic? 

CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual’s use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast. 

What is Profitero?

• Profitero is a platform for eCommerce performance, measurement, analytics, and optimization for brands primarily in Europe, North America, and Asia.
• Profitero isn’t an agency, though it has similarities. Profitero doesn’t actually perform the work for the brands, but does create data and create tech to make that data valuable.
• Agencies have seemed to be expendable or interchangeable in the past. Profitero comes in to perform the “know-how” of an agency, but allows the work to be performed in-house. This allows for better visibility into the processes and its effectiveness.
• Some brands that Profitero works with are working with agencies that are managing their eCommerce DTC, their Amazon presence, their paid media, etc. and Profitero’s data helps to inform and optimize all of those processes.

How are brands moving forward?

• “Everybody that was doing eCommerce is doing much more of it. Everybody that wasn’t doing it wants to do it. Either way, everybody needs to know: how do we do it and is it working?” - Keith Anderson
• CPG brands (Pepsi and Heinz, for example) have pushed into having their own DTC platforms. During COVID, CPG brands that traditionally relied on retailers had to push into having their own domains in order to have that direct connection value due to supply chain disruptions or limitations on “non-essential” items.
• “We need to de-risk our dependency on others for fulfillment of demand.” - Keith Anderson

CPG to DTC

• First-party data about customers is valuable - knowing who they are, how they’re behaving, and having direct lines of communication.
• In having your own DTC domain, loyal customers have a place they know they can receive your full selection and in displaying that selection, you have full control over the way those products are presented and priced.
• Both Indirect (retail) and Direct eCommerce presences have value. Typically, these two branches lack communication with each other. COVID has pushed the realization that these organizational structures should be simplified so that brands can quickly and effectively adapt to a changing market.
• Brands should recognize that moving into DTC is a way to get closer to their consumer, get more control over their brand and customer experience, and be more personal with their consumer instead of looking to DTC as a singular pathway to your consumers or as a way to get discovered by new consumers.
• Anderson advises focusing on sustainability for long-term exponential growth: “The sooner you do the right thing, the better the outcome.” - Keith Anderson

CommerceLive

• Profitero hosted a webinar conference to help discuss the uncertainties of the global pandemic and what brands can do to stay ahead.
• “All of your scarce resources really have to be revisited during times of volatility, uncertainty and crisis.” - Keith Anderson
• CommerceLive wasn’t opportunistic, but very community-centric and community driven.

Links

• Jackson Jeyanayagam’s appearance on Future Commerce, Episode 175: “Around You, On You, In You”
• Profitero’s CommerceLive video replay gallery
• Visit Profitero’s website
• Connect with Keith Anderson on Twitter

Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels, we love hearing from our listeners!