3 Things Retailers Want CPG Brands to Know

*The CPG Guys and Kroger Precision Marketing leaders pulled back the curtain on why brand-retailer alignment is the new competitive advantage.
* Too often, brands and retailers rely on different maps to reach the same destination. We brought this team together to align on a better path forward.

Recorded live at 84.51° in Cincinnati, Peter V.S. Bond and Sri Rajagopolan, aka The CPG Guys, sat down with Barbara Connors and Brian Dowey from Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) to explore what retailers want CPGs to know.

1. Purchase data is truth serum. Use it to make smarter bets.

Don't tell me what consumers want. Show me what they purchase.

Research matters, but purchase data cuts right to the question both brands and retailers need answered: what do people actually buy?

For years, brands have kept retail data in the ‘media efficiency’ box. Today, the advantage lies in applying it across the entire enterprise, from innovation, to launch, and loyalty.

We’re in a moment of big changes in how people relate to food: nutrition matters, portion size matters, taste matters, and packaging matters. And if that's not enough, preferences are shifting at the speed of the latest influencer trends.

Retailers have the data to calibrate CPG brands with how shoppers are buying today. Every innovation, product launch, promo, and loyalty strategy is rooted in reality when brands build from a verifiable source of truth.

2. Big moments matter, but small events sustain growth

Every brand wants to be part of big retail moments like holidays, back-to-school, and the “big game.” But tentpole events aren’t the only ones that drive growth.

Everyday occasions matter. Shopping trips built around lunchbox meals, snacks for youth sports teams, or summer travel are important for long-term momentum. Major holidays will always be important. But like any investment strategy, diversification is key.

In the podcast, Barbara Connors made the case for why brands benefit from closer retailer partnership:

“Within these moments, there is such a unique opportunity to draft off momentum that the retailer and the brand both bring to the table. There's an opportunity to interject brands in a new way...or [introduce] traditions that could be repeated year after year."

As a brand, collaborating with retailers to understand how you fit in their annual calendar is a huge factor in your performance. Are you a traffic driver or a basket builder? At what point in the “moment” can your brand really shine?

3.Your brand is a player on a team. Define your role.

Retailers don’t see products in isolation. They're thinking about basket composition, adjacencies, and how products fit into the shopper's total trip. Every item has a role to play within the category. Brian Dowey thinks of it like a general manager building a championship team:

"If you have a team with complementary players and everybody knows their role, those are often the teams that win championships. It's not that different from a brand portfolio."

Too many great products underperform because they're not strategically aligned with the retailer to build bigger baskets across the category or store. Product-market fit gets items in stores. Product-market-retailer fit gets items into carts.

Plan together, win together.

Retailers need brands to win. Layering retailer data across the organization—from innovation to loyalty—provides a better understanding of what shoppers want; today, or six months in the future. Purchase signals are the foundation upon which long-term, sustainable growth strategies are built.

Discover More: the current moment in brand-marketing calls for collaboration. Listen to the full episode of The CPG Guys podcast to hear how stronger brand-retailer partnerships fuel smarter decisions: Listen Here