Photo: NRF
The key to Hershey's recent success has been its "willingness to share data and share the insights" into what it has learned with its retail partners.
That's according to Michele Buck, the brand's president for North America, who spoke about Hershey's "knowledge journey" at a midday session Sunday at the NRF Big Show. She particularly elaborated on ways Hershey's double-downed investment in "knowledge and insights" has furthered collaboration with retailers.
The first way is helping Hershey make the shopping experience more "fun and engaging," which has become more critical for grocery with the emergence of non-traditional channels such as online and dollar stores.
At in-store concepts, consumers are now taking pictures of themselves next to merchandising materials as a show of their Hershey enthusiasm. Supervalu has introduced end caps that "draw [consumers] into the aisle." At Giant Eagle, consumers can personalize Hersey Kisses with messages such as "XXOO With All My Heart" on the bottom. Hershey is also helping grocers with front-end productivity, including labor efficiency and recommendations for "micro-space planning."
A second area where Hershey taps insights is around consumer and store data to make sure "every inch of your store's even more productive." Hershey's extensive shopping habits data, down to the zip code, complements each store's data to guide local store planning. Said Ms. Buck, "There's more data available than ever before and it's critically important that we mine all that data and really leverage it for success."
Finally, Hershey builds "end to end supply solutions," marrying customers' data, Hershey's data and third-party data such as Nielsen's to "build efficiencies into that global supply chain," reducing out-of-stocks, lowering net inventory and optimizing the product mix.
She stressed using a "category-first approach" in shifting from the traditional transactional nature of selling to "really being consultative" and a "true value partner" in helping boost sales across the entire store.
Said Ms. Buck, "We sell confections but we also sell insights to improve that retailer's total box. And that's given us a seat at the table to help them grow their business in new and different ways."