Turning Shopper Insights into company-wide Memes

Dannon disrupts shopper research by

engaging with a tribe of shoppers

Turning

shopper

insights into

company-wide

memes

ESOMAR Congress 2015

Best Paper Award

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Introduction:

Increasing the return on

consumer insights


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Danone is the parent company of The

Dannon Company, Stonyfield Yogurt and

Happy Family. The company has taken strategic

steps to achieve a global presence and to focus on four

areas of business with high potential built on health and

vitality: dairy products, bottled water, baby nutrition and

medical nutrition. As one of the projects within the

“Danone 2020” initiative, the North-America based dairy

brands have united their forces to change the face of

Market Research (MR) within their

organization. "Danone 2020" is a business

transformation program designed for a sustainable,

collaborative and community-engaging future. After

completing an immersive Consumer Consulting

Board on shopper insights, the consumer insight

team at Dannon felt the study did not realize its full

potential in terms of impact, reach and longevity. Not

because the study was not well conducted or generated

too little information, but because it generated

information and possibility beyond what was anticipated.

This “first world problem” centered on a

series of “missed opportunities”: many

observations were relevant for a larger audience than

just the shopper teams at Dannon and the insights

would benefit from further elaboration and cocreation

by Dannon executives. Dannon is not the only

company that realizes that market

research findings need, should or can

have a more widespread impact. More than

ever, demonstrating impact of research is the name of

the game in our industry. A recent InSites Consulting

Market Research Impact study (2014) states that only

45% of insight professionals & marketers believe

research succeeds in changing the attitudes and

decisions of marketers. While it is the number 1

characteristic of ideal research, we are far off

achieving it (Schillewaert et al, 2014). Impact does

not follow spending, though, so it is not about

doing more or increasing budgets. Impact is realized

by allocating the investment to the rightful activities

(BCG study, 2009) or doing things differently.


Creating a ‘tribe’ of

healthy minded people



To reframe its understanding of the Health &

Wellness space, Danone initiated the

“Healthy Minded People” community

(figure 1). The initial objectives were to:

Understand the shopping behavior

and context of consumers who aspire

Feed the development of retail concepts,

Innovations and creative brand activation programs

to enchance the shopping experience

Inspire shopper teams and retail partners with

consumer insights

a lifestyle of Health & Wellness

1.

2.

3.

Figure 1. The Healthy Minded People Community screenshot


Uncovering shopper insights (pre,

during and post the in-store

experience) was a crucial objective

for Dannon. Typical shopper research

methodologies like shop-alongs, eye tracking

and virtual store simulations take a narrow view

of the experience of the shopper; one person,

one shelve, one moment in time. A

Consumer Consulting Board or

online community including mobile

ethnography, shopper safaris and

ideation was considered as an ideal method

by Dannon to bring consumers and insights to

live. To capture the holistic shopper journey,

follow consumers during different shopping

trips and tap into the consulting power of

shoppers, Dannon activated 96

shoppers across seven retailers in

the US for four weeks (figure 2).

By following the shopper journey (from shopping list

and in-store experience until groceries are stocked)

and by activating shoppers (e.g. capturing a trip to

the farmers’ market), a unique picture was

established about the needs of the target

group.

Figure 2. Sample of shoppers


Our insight generation approach was built in three consecutive phases. Target consumers engage in an

asynchronous individual observation phase combined with a peer-to-peer discussion

around the consumer journey.

Figure 3. Insight Activation Phases


We immersed on an individual level by

connecting with consumers

via an individual blog. This

online ethnography approach has the

advantage it diminishes the Hawthorne

effect and allows more time to

capture processes from a

natural consumer perspective – e.g. mobile technology allowed to

capture observations on the go and

avoid having to rely on recall and

consumer memory. An example of an

observation task; consumers are

asked to share pictures of

their shopping journey in

different phases; making the list,

entering the store, filling the basket,

checking out and transportation. Next,

they divide their purchases in a

healthy and unhealthy pile to

understand what drives their

perception of healthiness.

Observation Crowd

interpretation

Discussion

Not only professional market

researchers interpret the

data, we also engage a

group of consumers in

the analysis of the

observations. This in

order to obtain richer, more

accurate interpretation of

data that leads to insights.

Our research has shown that

crowd interpretation

leads to 20% to 40%

additional, unique

insights.

Duration: four days.

Participants go from

an individual blog

phase to an interactive

peer-to-peer discussion

environment in the last

phase. This discussion

phase is intended for probing

or “autodriving”. Interviewing

and discussion questions are

experiential, task based and

gamified. Observations

reveal the implicit,

unconscious needs and

wants and combined

with the right probing, a full

picture of the Health &

Wellness consumers’ needs

could be sketched.


This process generated a wealth and mass of data and

a classic 150+ page Powerpoint report. To bring across

the key messages as well as generate a lasting impact

among the original team, we applied a number of

collaborative presentation and workshop

techniques. These techniques all have in common

that Dannon executives had to internalize the data by

interacting, experiencing and actually working it (figures

4 and 5):

Figure 4. Snapshots of techniques to internalize the data

TED-style presentation chunks

were co-presented by the client team

Observation museum stations in

which executives had to

“walk through” the findings

Consumer stories dashboard. All visual

observations were rigorously tagged and

1.

2.

3.included a Consumer Story Dashboard. This

asset made the massive amount of pictures

(almost 1,500) easily accessible by filtering on

e.g. retailer, moment in the journey or insight

4. Competitive ideation and co-creation

among small teams of executives


Figure 5. Screenshot of the Consumer Story Dashboard


This approach of capturing immersive data and

generating solid insights was different from

traditional shopper research in

three ways.

A holistic outlook on the lives and

challenges of the Health & Wellness

consumer was generated instead of the

singular perspective provided by traditional

methods.

Instead of studying consumers as passive

participants in the process, they were truly in the

lead. Through activation/deprivation

tasks and a longitudinal commitment,

we generated a more layered view on

their needs.

understanding consumer behavior in the

Health & Wellness space. The Consumer

Story Dashboard and workshop exercises allowed

them to easily explore more observations than can

ever be included in a traditional research report.1.

2.

3.

After this comprehensive project delivery and

3,465 conversations, 1,399 pictures and

consumer stories, 14 insight platforms

and 78 co-created product and

communication ideas, there was a feeling of

“unused potential” if the insight process would stop

here. Not only should all these findings be diffused

to other employees from different departments and

locations, but the ideas needed further

collaboration to further enrich them.

As outlined at the start of this paper, our next

challenge was all about generating impact

with our market research – this time

research that had already been completed, but

needed a more widespread audience and more in-

depth work.

The Danone team wasn’t just ‘informed’ of the

outcome, they are also active

participants in the process of


Going from ‘insights’ to

‘memes’



For people to take action on a consumer insight,

they first need to learn what the insight is about.

Many times in MR (as as the case here as well), only

a limited group of people is involved in the

knowledge exchange by e.g. participating in the

debrief workshop or managing the research study

themselves. This limited group is then able to shape

an insight platform by adding own thoughts,

observations and/or ideas. If we involve a

wider group of employees, organizations

as a whole will better understand the

consumer and will be able to make

consumer relevant decisions. Furthermore,

the theory of open innovation teaches us that ‘the

one golden idea’ can come from anywhere in the

organization, not only marketing or innovation

(Whelan, 2011). To increase the impact and

maximize the chance of a golden idea to realize, all

employees across the organization

should learn what the key consumer

frictions are in order to share related observations

and ideas and build on them. For example, by

experiencing how consumers are consuming yogurt,

employees see what can be improved.

When such an insight is replicated by

employees and augmented with their

own observations and ideas, shared with

various people across the organization

and triggers action, the insight becomes

a ‘meme’ (Dawkins, 1989). From our “Health &

Wellness” community we had several findings we

felt could/should result in such memes. For

example, the #yolittleones meme. Parents face a

challenge of constantly not giving in when their

young children join them for grocery shopping.

When kids show good behavior in the store, parents

often want to give them a treat. These young kids

are often attracted by the colorful packaging of

unhealthy snacks. We uncovered insights that

provide opportunities for yogurt to become a favorite

to kids and be liked as a healthy option to parents.

To turn an insight into a meme, insight professionals

need to move away from the traditional research

model and establish a change at three

levels to achieve the ‘Memefication of

#MRX’:

1 From reporting to internalizing #experience

While 92% of insight professionals believes their

research generates insight worth sharing with

colleagues, only 65% extensively shares them

with their organization. Furthermore, only one in

five researchers organizes interactive

workshops to discuss results (Schillewaert et al,

2014). All too often, MR takes a passive

and individualistic approach and

executives are supposed to identify their own

actions when undergoing research reports.

However, to trigger meaningful actions of

executives, insight professionals need to

bring insights to life through

interaction with the data – they need to

work the data. Therefore, we have identified four

building blocks that are needed for marketing

insights within organizations: harvesting,

seeding, activating and collaborating (see figure

5). Through ‘harvesting’, we assemble and mold

insights from internal stakeholders which are

already collected.

Secondly, ‘seeding’ enables insights managers to

spread insights via key ambassadors in a

relevant way through the organization. ‘Activating’

triggers stakeholders to not only discover but also

interact with and work on insights. Finally,

‘collaborating’ connects stakeholders to work together

and turn insights into actions and new

future projects.

Figure 6. Four building blocks of marketing insights within the organization

2 From teams to the organization-wide

#reach

In traditional MR, consumer stories and insights

are often discovered and owned by the MR

department. However, in order to trigger

meaningful action all the time, the insight

needs to be co-owned by all

employees (figure 6). First of all, we want

extend the MR reach from executives to

management to enable higher management to

take long-term decisions with a consumer

context in mind. Secondly, we involve the front-

line employees, who are in almost daily contact

with consumers, to shape their consumer feeling

and ultimately improve their performance.

Finally, involving all other employees that have a

rather indirect relationship with the consumer

creates a better understanding of the consumer

context of the business,

making them more motivated as an employee in

general. The extension of MR reach calls for a

layered approach, involving the whole

organization with consumer insights.

Figure 7. Extend the internal reach of MR

3 From projects to habit creation

#structural

For most employees, working with consumer insights is

not a routine. If you wish to trigger meaningful actions

and enable employees to turn an insight into a meme, it

is of great importance that consumer

inspirations become part of executives’

daily jobs. We miss opportunities by thinking on a

project basis.

If we can shift consumer inspiration to

become a routine, we will be more

successful in triggering meaningful actions

and increase the business impact of

consumer insights.


The DannonInsight

Activation Studio

So how can we concretely engage employees from different departments with

consumer insights and allowing them to interact with research data in a playful way?



We strongly believe that consumer insights have not

reached their full potential in terms of ROI. Based on

interviews with clients, the MR Impact Study and our

experience in collaborating with global brands over the

years, we’ve identified a recipe for success

to create a positive business impact with

consumer insights. To enable the insight

professional of tomorrow to do this in an efficient yet

effective way, we developed a mobile

collaboration platform, called the ‘Insight

Activation Studio’.

This is a scalable solution for insight managers so

they can establish the ‘memefication’ of research

in their organizations and create engaging

experiences, across the organization in a

structural way. How does it work?

The Studio connects and empowers

internal stakeholders to share

inspiring observations and take action

together. This digital application (figure 8)

(based on a responsive web design) consists of

several ‘Inspiration Walls’: projects or insight

platforms that uncover a consumer friction,

emotion or unmet need. Each wall is populated

with tiles or findings from the community, all

believed to contribute to the meme. The Danone

team would decide what the most meaningful and

memorable observations to include as an

observation “tile” in the Danone Studio were.

Dannon employees are prompted to add their

own ‘Inspiration Tiles’ of these walls through

observations and ideas by posting photos, videos

and stories. They interact and shape the

Inspiration Tiles of their colleagues through

comments and likes (figure 9).


The studio helps the insight professional to

combine the four building blocks

of marketing insights in an

efficient way (figure 6). By challenging

employees to share their inspirations, we

harvest their consumer knowledge. By

opening an Inspiration Wall, we

seed new consumer insights with

the relevant team(s). By activating

employees to share observations and

ideas on the go, we prompt them to interact

with insights. Finally, by sharing enabling

commenting and feedback, we enable

them to collaborate and work

together to shape outcomes.

Figure 9. Impressions of the Insight Activation Studio


What does it bring? Just like any technology, the Insight Activation Studio brings automational,

informational and transformational value for the insight professional (Day 1994).

Automational – Faster sharing of insights.

Informational – Better and higher ROI of consumer insights.

Transformational – not possible before.

There is a reduction of manual efforts in spreading & seeding insights with more, relevant stakeholders,

leading to more and faster decision making at the same or lower level of costs.

The Studio enables internal stakeholders to spot, share and shape inspirations on the go. The

more inspirations are posted on an Inspiration Wall, and the more feedback an inspiration will receive, the

richer the insight will get. Furthermore, all these interactions also create a deeper understanding of the

insight. In turn, the company has access to richer, more relevant, authentic ideas which are closer

to the reality of the business world, encouraging employees to take action to make better decisions.

A consumer-activated culture. By connecting the whole organization with the consumer, the Studio influences

employees’ day-to-day behavior, helps to collect ideas from the whole organization and transforms the

organization towards an innovation and consumer-centric culture.


In the first stage of the Danone Studio, six Inspiration Walls were set up featuring a total of 42 tiles, engaging the

company in a collaboration wave of four weeks.

#YOMOMENTS What makes yogurt the ideal healthy snack? Share your

snacking moments on this #YOMOMENTS inspiration wall and discover

the dimensions of a healthy snack.

#YOLITTLEONESWhat can we do to make yogurt more attractive as a

snack for kids, from little to older ones? Share your experiences and

see the thoughts of our consumers.

#YODOODLEDo you have an observation or an idea that doesn’t fit

any of the walls? Don’t just keep it on a post-it, share it here.

#YOKITCHENWhat is so great about using yogurt in smoothies, parfaits, desserts

or cooking? Share a few tips from your kitchen and find out about the

culinary experiments of our consumers.

#YONOVATIONAre you ready for some yogurt innovation? Share your

ideas with us and see how your ideas stack up against others.

#YOSHOPDo you have ideas on how to make shopping for yogurt

more enjoyable? Share your own ideas or examples of creative

execution from places you really like.


Impact is the name of the

game



Danone launched this initiative on

an immense scale. All employees of

the Dannon HQ and the plants of

Dannon, Stonyfield Yogurt and

HappyFamily were invited to join.

The launch was supported by a

video explaining how this

new way of collaboration

would contribute to the

"Danone 2020" business

transformation program.

Postcards were sent out to the

plants as an additional touchpoint in

the launch.Figure 10. Launch video


On the next pages we describe the impact of the Studio being live for 4 weeks. We do so in a qualitative as well as a

quantitative way.

Intriguing

Participant feedback about the Studio was that it is fun and

intriguing at the same time

From a visual and design perspective users perceived it to be

very appealing and very different than what they were used to see

(if ever) in terms of market research output. Non-marketing

executives got to experience that research is not all “boring graphs”

and “long reports”.

The content on the Studio shed a different light on consumer

reality and is eye-opening and surprising for people to learn

about different applications of yoghurt.

"It was really interesting to see all the recipes people use yogurt

for. For example, the pasta recipe really caught my attention and I

was surprised people would use yogurt in pasta. It was also to

me to see people using yogurt in savory recipes as I thought

consumers only consumed yogurt as a sweet treat."

“The Studio is visually appealing. .... as life is quite busy, we unfortunately don't

take the time to socialize and share this type of information in person or online.”


People centricityParticipants outside of the marketing department became more people centric

through sharing their own personal stories. A great illustration of this is

Nancy’s idea and contribution to the #YOLITTLEONES wall with a picture of her

daughter.


Out of the 250 executives based in the Dannon White Plains offices,

we reached 83 or 1 in 3 over the course of 4 weeks.

38% of these users where repeat users who clearly

showed a built-up in behavior. The heightened

engagement of repeat users is illustrated by the fact that

their visiting behavior is more intense: the time spent

is 43% higher, the number of pages viewed goes up by

54% (from 2.4 pages/visit to 3.7 pages/visit). In addition,

15% of the repeat users also used the Studio using their

mobile device (against only 1% of the first time users).

This is indicative for the fact that repeat users are trying to

embed the studio into their daily habits.

Reach and Engagement

Increase Consumer Empathy

Executives using the Studio do so because they

wish to bridge a closeness to consumer

gap. Our analysis shows that executives who

have a lower feeling with the consumer or low

consumer contact use the Studio much more

than their counterparts, respectively with a factor

1.3 and 3.3.


ConclusionsThe worse enemy of

a good study is that it becomes ‘ad hoc’


1 Internalize

We need to extend the shelf life of

research by means of making it a

longitudinal and habitualasset. Researchers should more

actively market their product

which is “research”.

Increase the Return On Insight

2 Measure

What does not get measured,

does not get managed therefore it

is important to show clear

increase in ROI.

3 Reverse

We should all reverse the delivery

process of market research from “1

long report for a small audience” to

“small snippets” of information “

for a large audience”.

Boston Consulting Group Study, 2009, The consumer’s voice – can your company hear it? Retrieved from

www on Feb. 10, 2015, http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf

Dawkins, R., 1989, The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 192, ISBN 0-19-286092-5,

Day, G., 1994, The capabilities of market driven organizations. Journal of Marketing, 58, 4 (October), pp.

37–52.

De Ruyck, T., Schillewaert, N., and Knoops, S., 2012, Engage, Inspire Act! ESOMAR Congress paper

Schillewaert, N., Pallini, K. 2014, What do clients think about MR impact. Retrieved from www on Feb. 10

2015, http://www.greenbookblog.org/2014/11/20/what-do-clients-think-about-mr-impact/

Whelan, E., Parise, S., Valk, de J. and Aalbers, R., 2011, Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open

Innovation. Harvard Business Review Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, https://hbr.org/product/creating-

employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/ SMR399-PDF-ENG

Willems, A. and De Ruyck T., 2015, How To Market, Research? MIE conference presentation, Feb. 5th 2015.

References

http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf

https://hbr.org/product/creating-employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/


Thomas Troch, Research Director

at InSites Consulting

Niels Schillewaert, Managing Partner & Co-founder

at InSites Consulting

Tom De Ruyck, Managing Partner at InSites

Consulting

+32 9 269 14 07

@tomderuyck

linkedin.com/in/tomderuyck

[email protected]

+1 646 386 9853

@niels_insites

linkedin.com/in/nielsschillewaert

[email protected]

+1 646 386 9855

@thomastroch

linkedin.com/in/thomastroch

[email protected]

Anouk WillemsHead of Insight Activation

Studios at InSites Consulting

+31 10 742 10 35

@AnoukW1

linkedin.com/in/anoukwillems

[email protected]

Olesya GovorunDirector, Strategy & Insights

at The Dannon Company

Holly RozelleManager, Strategy & Insights

at The Dannon Company


Thank you!

@InSites

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