How to use data for effective retail marketing

We surveyed CPG teams using Crisp (and consulted our in-house product expert) for tips on data-driven retail marketing that makes a measurable impact.

A marketer’s best friend

Marketing is crucial for growing CPG brands. But it takes more than savvy storytelling: real-time insights on how and where products are selling can help marketers make better decisions and meet customers in the right place at the right time. The problem is, easily accessing this data within a reasonable timeframe hasn’t always been easy. 

Brands have worked to fill the data-marketing gap in different ways. They can work with brokers, merchandisers, and digital promotion platforms to try increasing sales. They can purchase (expensive) syndicated data, but that involves multiple players, multiple reports, and infrequent updates.

Crisp was built to bridge the gap once and for all. Crisp gives brands access to retailers’ current sales, distribution, and supply chain data, which are all closely entwined (or should be) with marketing. After all, you can’t sell something that’s not there — and brands that try to are wasting precious time, creativity, and resources. An estimated 5-15% of marketed products are out of stock at any given moment. But in a recent customer survey, brands that used up-to-date retail data increased sales by an average of 18%.

Clearly, timely data is a marketer’s best friend. But where do you start? We surveyed CPG teams using Crisp (and asked our in-house expert, Senior Product Manager Jordon White) to offer tips for data-driven marketing that makes a measurable impact.

Identify priorities and opportunities

In Crisp’s survey, most brands said they check their Crisp dashboards multiple times per day to zoom in on the latest trends — the first step when planning a new marketing campaign. As Jordon explains, a strong handle on sales performance helps determine top marketing priorities and opportunities. Jordon recommends looking for sales hotpots by geography, product, and retailer to determine where sales are trending upward – indicating momentum where marketers can add more fuel to the fire. Marketers should also look for areas where sales are slower, identifying stores that need more support to drive sales. After identifying these target areas, you can download store lists from Crisp to follow up with their marketing teams, advertisers, and buyers.

Jordon summed it up well: “Knowing where you are and where you should and should not advertise is a powerful tool for marketers.”

Drive (and measure) sales lift

Trying to drive digital marketing without in-store sales data is difficult, but Crisp helps bridge that disconnect. As Jordon explains, “In-store data is controlled by the retailer. Even if everybody saw your ad and rushed over to buy the product, you might not know unless the retailer gives you that information.”

One important piece to effective marketing: telling customers where to find products. This seemingly obvious best practice is easier said than done without accurate data notifying brands exactly where their product is carried and in stock. 

Crisp provides access to timely, up-to-date sales and inventory data that’s easy to unpack. With this information, brands can target shoppers near stores where a specific product is on the shelves. Then they can measure sales lift across regions, retailers, and times to actively monitor what’s working and what isn’t and refine their marketing efforts accordingly.

For example, plant-based gelato brand Sacred Serve analyzes Crisp’s reports weekly, which helped the brand increase distribution and see a 25-50% sales lift. Before that, the brand only analyzed data on a quarterly basis.

Analyzing sales trends based on promotions, major holidays, events, and more is critical. Of course, when a product is underselling, brands can use the data to plan ahead and drive awareness where needed.

Expedite ecommerce promos

It can be tricky for DTC brands to move into the brick-and-mortar space, noted Zest Tea founder James Fayal. “You get spoiled with data in DTC and then you move to retail and realize…‘I don’t have any data,’” Fayal said. “I won’t know anything for six months.” 

Crisp connects CPG brands to that ever elusive brick-and-mortar retail data. At the same time, ecommerce insights are also evolving to better connect the two worlds. With omnichannel data, marketers can more easily plan and align their promotions. Crisp’s dashboards already include data from Shopify and Amazon, along with Target and Walmart, which has a dedicated e-commerce dashboard.

Marketers who want to do their own analysis can also use Crisp to pipe the latest retail data into existing business analytics tools like Microsoft Excel, Tableau, or Google Cloud. 

“This allows us more time to analyze and draw insights because we aren’t having to spend the time manipulating Kehe/UNFI portal data on Excel,” said Dan Capraun, Senior Manager of Sales Planning at The Not Company. “We have leveraged this data for retailer-level support to help increase distribution and promotional effectiveness.”

Analyze trade spend 

Brick-and-mortar retail marketing still matters, but Jordon points out that the “stack it high and watch it fly” philosophy doesn’t always work out. It’s impossible to know what’s flying and what’s flailing without accurate data.

Zest Tea’s founder James Fayal had the same experience: “You’re encouraged to do all kinds of retail promotions as a growing brand, but what’s the long-term effect coming out of those promos? You need data to make those decisions — to figure out if you’re attracting the right type of customers who will actually stick around,” Fayal said.

It’s crucial to understand your trade spend and how it varies by region. Using Crisp’s retailer chargebacks dashboards, brands can do just that — even tracking some promotions by the hour. This data will help you analyze how to approach trade spend moving forward.

“It’s given us much better insights into how we perform on promo and allows us to understand the optimal price point and length of the promo to drive the most ROI,” said Sacred Serve founder Kailey Donewald.

As marketing evolves deeper into digital, CPG brands are often left in the dark about what’s happening out in the real world. But there’s hope, and it starts with easily digestible data. With insights at your fingertips to use how and when you need it, marketers can drive and measure sales lift across retail partners.

To learn how Crisp can help your company activate retail data, contact us today. To stay up-to-date on Crisp news and industry insights, subscribe to the blog.