This is a preview of the free 32-Page Executive Digest from key presentations and panels from the 2011 Shopper Insights in Action conference. It's the ultimate window into the state of the industry. Download it now here: http://www.ShopperInsightsEvent.com

1. The 11th annual
SHOPPER
INSIGHTS in action
July 11-13, 2011 >>>> Chicago, IL
www.shopperinsightsevent.com
EXECUTIVE
DIGEST

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
3 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
4 KEYNOTE: Preparing for a More Digital Future: Loyalty as a Vehicle for Business Transformation
Mike Hogan, SVP Chief Marketing Officer, GAMESTOP
6 KEYNOTE: Operation Customer: Special Forces Insights Units for Optimal Business Value
Bill Hoffman, SVP, Customer Insights, BEST BUY
8 PANEL: Putting the Science Back Into the Research
Moderator: Panelists:
Peter Fader, Professor of Candace Adams, President, Global Retail Strategy, SMARTREVENUE
Marketing, Wharton Michelle Adams, VP, Customer Strategy Shopper Insights, PEPSICO
Tom Krause, Director, Customer Research, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS
Sue W. Elseewi, Director, SHC Customer Research, SEARS HOLDING CORP.
10 KEYNOTE: Tracking a Consumer in Motion: Anticipating Shifts in Taste and Preference
Grant McCracken, Anthropologist, Author of “Chief Culture Officer”
12 INTERACTIVE SESSION: Making History: Creating the Future with the Original Game Changer
A. G. Lafley, former Chairman Interviewers:
and CEO, PROCTER
Grant McCracken, Anthropologist, Author of “Chief Culture Officer”
GAMBLE, Co-Author of
Simon Uwins, CMO, TESCO’S FRESH EASY
“The Game Changer”
Robert Goodpaster, VP, Global Strategy Integrated Business Intelligence, THE HERSHEY CO.
16 KEYNOTE: Campbell’s Path to Purchase Landmark Study: A Coherent Understanding of Behavioral and Cognitive
Leverage Opportunities for Breakthrough Shopper Marketing Activation
Phil McGee, Director, Shopper Insights, CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY
17 KEYNOTE: The New Science of Decision Making
Jonah Lehrer, Neuroscientist, Author of “How We Decide: The New Science of Decision Making”
18 BLOG BITES SESSION HIGHLIGHTS
27 STATS | REVIEWS | CONNECT WITH US

3. INTRODUCTION
A pproximately seven years ago, Walmart did not have a shopper insights organization. Just
noodle that around for a moment.
Most countries’ annual GNP can’t match Walmart’s yearly take. But the company that reinvented
retail, the company that pioneered the smartest supply chain management apparatus on the planet,
the company that for a decade shut off the data spigot to Nielsen, IRI and the rest of the world
because they needed Walmart more than it needed them, the world’s undisputed retail heavyweight
champion, the behemoth from Bentonville, with more than two million employees today, just seven
years ago did not see the need for an internal shopper insights team...
How far we’ve come!
The nature and power of shopper research – both as a discipline and as a deliverable – have
changed dramatically since the first Shopper Insights in Action (SIA) convened 11 years ago.
Within just the last few years, in fact, shopper research has rapidly evolved from a subordinated
cousin of marketing/brand research to a critical business driver on equal footing with conventional
consumer insights in B2C circles.
It could even be argued that the lines traditionally demarcating the “shopper” from the “consumer”
in today’s research terms have become little more than a convenient semantic distinction.
SIA 2011 tackled this growing sentiment head on, evinced by this year’s theme: “Examine the
Blurring ‘Shopper’ and ‘Consumer’: A Holistic Approach to Understanding Influencing the Path to
Purchase.”
This question of convergence, of a 360-degree understanding, was one of several exciting
developments in the field addressed, deliberated and debated over the course of three days by a
record-breaking 600-plus attendees – roughly 70% of whom identified as “clients” – that gathered in
Chicago for what by many accounts amounted to a turning point in shopper research history.
Event Chair Phil McGee, Director of Shopper Insights for the Campbell Soup Company, noted
in his opening remarks that now is an unprecedented time of opportunity for shopper insights
practitioners because the sector is “on fire!”
“You are in the right place at the right time, because the shopper insights space is leading the way in
innovation, even relative to consumer insights,” said McGee.
McGee recalled his first SIA seven years ago – coincidentally around the same time our friends at
Walmart were establishing their first insights function. SIA that year was attended by just 50 or so
“zealots and mavericks trying to make an impact with no budget and no authority,” McGee said.
“Shopper insights is now among the fastest-growing sub-industries within CPG. Companies are
investing in this area, even while they’re pulling back on other functions. The consumer goods
industry is pinning really high hopes on the people in this room,” McGee added.
What struck me immediately this year was not so much the degree of enthusiasm evident on the
manufacturer side – although McGee was not exaggerating in the least – but rather the astonishing
change that has taken hold on the retail end of the spectrum.
(continued on next page)
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4. INTRODUCTION
(continued from pg 1)
This was reflected in part by a 181% surge in retailer attendance over the year prior (and, notably, a
145% jump in category managers attending). But to really get a sense of the magnitude of change
underway, it helps to step back a bit further.
When I attended the first SIA 11 years ago as a research industry trade journalist, shopper research
at the average retailer was typically an outsourced function – to the manufacturers whose brands
lined their shelves and a couple of key suppliers – perhaps coordinated by an internal department
of one or two in a handful of instances.
There may have been data jocks elsewhere in these retail organizations slicing and dicing
information, but if there were, in general, they weren’t doing anything terribly custom, they went by
other names and they weren’t churning out insights as we’ve come to define them.
In fact, a veteran research exec at a Fortune 50 CPG once complained to me that retailers “always
have their hand out” when it comes to shopper insights.
Well, today it seems retailers have taken matters into their own hands.
To wit: Big Box, specialty chains, grocery and even the humble dollar channel represented at this
year’s SIA are all to varying degrees and in their own way revolutionizing shopper research on their
terms, and the progress they’re making is the best barometer I can imagine.
In an increasingly complex and intensely competitive environment where change and uncertainty
are accelerating constants, this is enormously encouraging news!
We’ve also gotten smarter faster, and the industry has embraced unconventional disciplines like
neuroscience and anthropology – and a variety of other “ologies” for that matter – and married them
quite effectively with traditional approaches and novel data streams alike.
Most of all, we now know what we didn’t know we didn’t know, and as you’ll see, we’re getting
much closer to cracking the code on issues that just a few years ago were generally dismissed as
hopeless, the errands of fools.
So without further ado, on behalf of IIR, I am proud to present this executive digest from key
presentations and panels from the 2011 Shopper Insights in Action conference for your
consideration and edification.
Sincerely,
© 2012 Institute for International Research, Inc. All rights reserved
Marc Dresner
Editor-in-Chief, Communications Lead
IIR USA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marc Dresner is IIR USA’s communication lead, audience engagement. He is the former executive
editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the marketing research and
consumer insights industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.
2 www.shopperinsightsevent.com