Supplier Relationships

Well yes, seemore details at the link.

Kraft Heinz chief procurement officer: ‘Relationships with suppliers should not be purely transactional'     02-Jan-2020 By Elaine Watson in FoodNavigator

Type ‘Kraft Heinz procurement’ into Google and the search engine helpfully suggests ‘scandal,’ ‘misconduct’ and ‘investigation,’ serving as a reminder that the buying function at one of the world’s most iconic food companies had something of an annus horribilis in 2019. ..."

Kraft Heinz Does Innovation Shuffle

Case study for CPG food and advancing technology.

How Kraft Heinz's CIO avoids getting lost in the shuffle of innovation

Francesco Tinto posed the question, "are we really changing the way we're operating, or just operating the same way and we just changed the technology?"

By Samantha Ann Schwartz  @SamanthaSchann

Since 1937, many a child has sat in the kitchen individually spearing Kraft Macaroni and Cheese noodles on the prong of a fork, creating warm, cheesy memories — it's one of the reasons Kraft Heinz is a household name.

In 2015, Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Co. announced their merger and created the fifth-largest global food company. Two iconic brands, under one roof, was a deal that shook the food industry. It also moved Francesco Tinto from CIO of Kraft Foods Group to global CIO of Kraft Heinz.

Just as Kraft perfected the recipe for its packets of powdered cheese, Tinto found the sweet spot between company culture and innovation — a recipe CIOs struggle to perfect. ... "

Its About the Data

By data I don't just mean the mega enterprise warehouses in place today.  It also includes sensors, human input, text comments, business rules, the output of other analytics systems and much more.  In the enterprise the most difficult issue is often finding and integrating that data with the systems that need to use them.  Have experienced many such challenges.  This will be no different with Cognitive systems. The first question I often get is 'Do we have the data'?  Or I am left to discover they don't.

Positions the challenge:   " How can you knock down barriers to data access so you can anticipate and respond to opportunity? ".   It states the need well.  There then needs to be a 'Watson Data Integration' advisor to help with this process.

As an example, see this recent post about what Kraft is doing with data integration.  Unrelated to Cognitive, but a symptom of the same issue:    

A need for Chief Data Officers:

Kraft Data Based Marketing

An example of data driven marketing, from Kraft.    " ... The company was wedded to a TV-centric model, wasn’t committed to measurement, and thought of media buying as the last step in a marketing plan. It also had a “do what worked last year mentality,” which led Kraft to plan for trends that were likely already outdated in the fast-moving digital world. When forming a reinvention plan about two years ago, Fleischer said the company told itself internally to expect that change will only get faster — there will never be a lull in which you can catch up. ... " 

Innovation by Kraft

A fairly detailed piece on a focused and deliberate drive to innovation by Kraft.   " ... Kraft Foods is aiming for "white space" innovation, which looks for new opportunities in today's crowded marketplace, said Vice President for Breakthrough Innovation Barry Calpino. "Our business unit leaders set the tone and set the example with their sponsorship of innovation -- and innovators. It's important to have empathy to what it's like to work in white space, given the high rate of failure ... " 

Kraft and Data Integration for Analytics

I note in particular here the use of third party data to integrate with their own.  Good case study for CPG.   It is becoming common to understand and utilize free and syndicated data to apply with your own.  This requires understanding the parameters for useful integration.   This also speaks to the increasing value of internal data in this integration.  How do we understand the value of these data assets?  An Opportunity for a cognitive advisor?  Used with specific analytic solutions?  More thoughts on that to follow.

How Kraft uses data integration to boost ROI 
Kraft's focus on data integration following its split from Mondelez allowed the company to leverage consumer information to optimize the effectiveness of its data, infrastructure and content and increase its return on investment, Kraft Vice President of Media and Consumer Engagement Bob Rupczynski said. For example, Kraft used first- and third-party data to find that its Planters brand could be marketed to female consumers seeking healthy nighttime snack options, he said ... "

Market Shifts

In Forbes: Adam Hartung: Growth - Dealing with Market Shifts. Innovation Matters; It’s Why You Care More About Apple than Kraft ...

Why Stores Stock Items that Don't Sell

Correspondent Byron Sharp sends along this informative link:

If you have ever wondered why stores are willing to stock many items that barely sell....

Professor Byron Sharp, Director  Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia
For the past eight years some of the world's leading marketers*, have been funding a special research program to answer fundamental questions about buyer behaviour and how brands grow.

See http://MarketingScience.info for information on the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute's findings.
* including Unilever, P&G, General Motors, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Turner Broadcasting, and AkzoNobel.

Kraft and Fly Garage in Latin America

In Adage: Kraft doing innovation via Fly Garage for Latin America,  with some similar goals to other innovation centers that I have worked with.  " ... Making the Trident brand fun was the mission when Kraft Latin America's Maria Mujica led the company's first Project Fly last November, launching an ambitious innovation incubator for digital projects in the region. Now Kraft is opening the Fly Garage, a permanent home in trendy Buenos Aires neighborhood Palermo Soho for the two-week immersion sessions that will bring together Kraft marketers, agencies and other collaborators like Hyper Island to focus on a single brand and its challenges.

Kraft Foods on Marketing Content Strategy

Good view of foods packaged goods approach.  " ... When you think of “killer content strategy,” do you think of Kraft Foods? For many people, when they think of Kraft, they think of cheese. In fact, Kraft represents a lifestyle. That lifestyle stands for easy-to-make, family-friendly food and recipes.

Kraft has actually been at the forefront of content marketing since long before that term was ever coined. They launched kraftfoods.com back in 1992 – years ahead of the time that many of their competitors would launch websites. This website has grown over the years to include a host of recipes and food-related content. They followed up on their web content with a printed publication, food & family magazine in 2005.... "

Brandwashed Read and Reviewed

Just completed a review copy of : Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade us to Buy by Martin Lindstrom.   To be available September 20.  Have enjoyed Lindstrom's earlier books such as Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.

I will be posting some review snippets of this book here.  I highly recommend every marketer and consumer read it.  It is very much an updated version of Vance Packard's 1958 book: Hidden Persuaders.  Completely updated and containing lots of interesting examples of how marketing manipulates.   In many, but not all cases, he names specific companies and agencies.  Of course today, unlike in the 50s, we have many more marketing channels than just  TV, Radio, Billboards and Print.  The Internet is now here as well.  Shoppers are armed with their own mobile devices, and data about their activities is being recorded at a furious rate.

People who work in marketing or merchandising will know many of the examples mentioned, but I found some I had not heard of.  Lindstrom also commissions some specific studies for the book, such as in the final chapter where he constructs a test of human influencers, using the Morgenson family.   He also mentions  commissioned studies using brain study methods like fMRI.

Since I worked with the design and use of  mock retail innovation centers,  I will start by quoting the book on just such a concept:

" ... Very few people know this, but most major consumer goods companies, including Unilever, Kraft, Pepsico and Coca-Cola have set up 'fake supermarkets' ...  They stock the shelves with their own products and those of their competitors, then late at night  ... they invite people to come and shop.  While they are browsing the aisle, cameras and brain-scanning equipment are measuring what happens in real time while they select and reject various brands and items.  Not unlike in the film  'Minority Report', these supermarkets generally have a control room lined with TV screens on which reps can actually measure the changes in consumers brain waves as they encounter different positioning of products.  Based on this data, the company develops what in the business is called a Planogram, a model showing where each product should be placed to generate the highest sales .... "  

This is mostly correct, and looks ahead as we further seek to understand the conscious and especially non-conscious interactions of shoppers with the shelf and packaging,  using all of their senses.  The store laboratory allows for new retail designs to be both virtually and  physically examined.  The future is here today.

See also Martin Lindstrom's site.  As one review suggests, Lindstrom is very much an insider, and that makes this book all the more telling and interesting.  In today's world, unlike in Packard's, the industry changes very  quickly.  Advances like Neuromarketing, interactive signage, and electronic shelf labels, mentioned in the book, are changing quickly.  The book provides great examples of their use, but cannot hope to keep up with them.  Go to Lindstrom's site, and follow others like this site to keep up to date.

Using Facial Recognition to Tailor Advertising

The basic idea has been around for some time.  Recognize people's faces via a camera facing outward  on a sign and then adapt the promotional interaction based on a person's detected  gender and age.  Now new advances are leading this further.

" .... Once the stuff of science fiction and high-tech crime fighting, facial recognition technology has become one of the newest tools in marketing, even though privacy concerns abound. The Venetian resort, hotel and casino in Las Vegas has started using it on digital displays to tailor suggestions for restaurants, clubs and entertainment to passersby.  Kraft Foods Inc. and Adidas say they are planning to experiment with it as early as this year to push their products.... "

Kraft Using Emotional Profiling

Have looked at a number of related methods,  see also Dan Hill's book: About Face, which I previously posted about.   Should these higher level methods be combined with brain sensor neuromarketing techniques?

Kraft system measures consumer reactions
Kraft Foods has developed sophisticated methods for evaluating the emotional connection between consumers and products. The system looks at consumer responses to specific attributes of products, particularly in new products and relaunches ...

Blooms In-Store 3GTV

Another example of in-store TV networks to leverage the location of shoppers to their brand choices.  This area, which we studied in depth, continues to evolve and grow.  Linking this to store sales to do real-time business intelligence about what works and does not.  An experimental sensor network in the store.  They need good analytics.   The full article below has useful details ... " 

CPG brands sign on for Bloom's 3GTV
Brands including Kraft, PepsiCo and Nestle Purina are taking part in the 3GTV in-store network being tested at nine Bloom grocery stores in the Washington, D.C., area. The network features screens with marketing content to drive content to specific brands or areas of the store. MediaPost Communications/Marketing Daily(6/29) ...

Kraft Advanced in-store Kiosks

I have not seen much about advanced kiosks of late.  We experimented with them in labs and stores.  The additional capability of having a kiosk or display 'look back' at the shopper was also pushed by several vendors, but never broadly implemented.  Here something new in StoreFrontBackTalk:

Kraft's in-store kiosk would see faces and shopping lists

Kraft Foods is developing an in-store kiosk that would make product recommendations based on a customer's gender, the time of day and items the customer already planned to buy. It would use facial recognition to determine gender and a mobile application to access shopping lists, but it would not consider factors including height or ethnicity ... "

Kraft Social Media

Kraft ramps up social media in preparation for the Super Bowl.

Kraft Foods and Business Intelligence

An article in Consumer Goods Technology on Kraft Food's use of Business Intelligence. " ... Kraft Foods discusses its voyage toward information access and analysis, and reveals how areas like product freshness and S&OP can benefit from having improved business insight in the right hands and the right time ... "

Global Businesses Align to Provide Accurate Consumer Data

I am surprised this has not been done methodically long ago.  It is becoming very important as shoppers need to get accurate data in-store.   It is also key for other technological applications, like self-checkout and in store displays.  I know we discussed the problem as early as 2000 ...

Global Businesses Align to Provide Accurate Product Data to Consumers
More than a dozen corporations representing hundreds of billions of dollars in global commerce are working together to address a growing need for accurate product information accessed via mobile devices and the Internet. The Business to Consumer (B2C) Alliance is announced by its facilitators, GS1 US and GS1 Canada, not-for-profit organizations that are part of the global GS1 standards body.

The alliance is composed of representatives from leading product brands, technology providers and retailers. The current list of participants includes: AT&T; Cisco; The Coca-Cola Company; IBM; The J.M. Smucker Company; Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group of Companies; Kraft Foods; The Kroger Co.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Auto-ID Lab; Microsoft Corp.; NeoMedia Technologies; PepsiCo, Inc.; Premier healthcare alliance; Procter & Gamble; and Scanbuy, Inc. ..... "

Mr. Peanut Speaks

Via the GMA Smartbrief.  This reminds me of our own work with the long silent Mr. Clean brand image.   I was part of a team that made Mr Clean get a personality and start to talk.   He had been speechless since his debut in 1958.  He spoke for a few months in the 90s, using an AI brain,  in advertisements and online.  Then,  without any explanation, he stopped speaking and went back to his original supportive but quiet self.  Maybe we should have used a celebrity voice?  I note that an otherwise excellent Wikipedia article on Mr. Clean makes no mention of this episode.

Silent since 1916, Mr. Peanut opens up:
Kraft Foods is updating the Mr. Peanut icon for its Planters brand, changing it from the silent drawing introduced in 1916 to an animated character voiced by actor Robert Downey Jr., but retaining the nostalgic touches. An ad with the character will show Mr. Peanut throwing a party in his home and saying, "At Planters, we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party."  The New York Times (free registration) (11/7)

Data Sharing Between CPG and Retail

Data sharing between retailers and manufacturers have been done for a long time.   Here is an example of the process between Food Lion and Kraft.