← MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth
MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth
Secrets To CPG Marketing Success
00:18:23
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- [00:00]
Benjamin Shapiro
The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.
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From advertising to software.
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Tom Burgess
As a service to data, across all.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate.
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Tom Burgess
Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Typical lifespan of an article is about.
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Tom Burgess
24 to 36 hours.
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Benjamin Shapiro
If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.
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Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that used to technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.
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Welcome to the Martech Podcast. I'm your host, Benjamin Shapiro and today we're going to discuss CPG marketing strategies. Joining me is Tom Burgess, who is the president of Snip Media, which is an engagement solution company that offers promotion and loyalty programs or CPG brands to engage customers in store and at home. And to start off our conversation, Tom and I are going to talk about the secrets to CPG marketing success. Tom, welcome to the Martech podcast.
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Tom Burgess
Hey Ben, thanks for having me excited about our conversation we're going to have here.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Yeah, it's the topic du jour these days and CPG and sort of the changes and the media networks that surround them. So excited to dig in. Let's start off by doing the elevator pitch. You and I are in an elevator. We're, let's say New York City. Well, actually, where are you based?
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Tom Burgess
I'm based in Rhode island, but New York and Boston close by.
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Benjamin Shapiro
All right. The biggest building in Providence. I'm guessing it's 24 floors.
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Tom Burgess
Yeah, you got it.
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Benjamin Shapiro
And we got a little bit of time. I'm going to press the button. Go ahead, give me your elevator pitch.
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Tom Burgess
As you covered it. Snip helps CPG brands with engagement, audience activation, driving redemptions and purchases of products. I in particular work with the division that we launched a couple of years ago and we have launched our own network and it's a unique network because we are reaching consumers through their banking applications. It's called a financial media network, but we can get into that in a little bit. But we reach tens of millions of users each month. In a very loyal environment, a very trusted environment.
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Benjamin Shapiro
All right, the doors are opening. It's time for me to go. And let's move on to our first segment. We're going to talk a little bit about CPG marketing before we get into the financial media network component of this. Starting off with the secrets to CPG marketing, let's start off with the secret sauce. What's the right way to market a CPG brand today?
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Tom Burgess
Today is the key question, right? Because it's never the same and it all depends on what's going on. Over the last year, you've seen everything from general food products, for instance, you've seen store trips go down, you've seen dollar spend go down, you've seen units moved. All of these things are Trends that the CPGs, they're adjusting, right? They're adjusting their strategy. So they're looking at how can we combat that. And they've got a lot of new options. So you've got ad networks which are very specific these days, much different than what it was in just Programmatic. And I'm going to speak in those terms because I think most of the audience is pretty tuned up on this. We're here in Martech. So programmatic used to be the only way. Now you've got retail media networks. So the brands are starting to. They're trying to do two different things. They're trying to combat this trend from basic economics that are changing around us and we're coming into a very unsure time with the election going on and so forth. So brands don't know what to do. So some are pulling back on dollars, some are adding more dollars into promotions. Some are being challenged with some of the retail media network commitments that they must make. Some are doubling down on their efforts into Programmatic to leverage that data that's available there, the rich data that's there. So I go on, because it's not really a good secret sauce.
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Benjamin Shapiro
I don't think today it seems like what you've unpacked. There is. There's a lot changing. And I think of CPG marketing over the last decade, the big fundamental landscape shift has been the rise of D2C. Right? You don't need a convenience store or a grocery store to be able to get your product right to your customers. There's obviously an online sales component where you can use the Amazons of the world, ebay's and even Walmart and Target to be your distribution lever and not have a physical presence. So when you think about what has changed today, like why Is it different now? And what are the commonplace tactics that marketers are using to figure out this blend of in store, direct to consumer, online marketplace? Is it all just digital advertising and hope? Give me a recipe here.
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Tom Burgess
I'm not going to make a lot of friends at the agencies, I don't think here. Because the fact is agency work is where a brand or a brand manager will go, right? They'll go to the agencies and they'll say, give me something, make me a hero. So agencies are hero producing organizations and everyone in an agency is operating in or working in an environment of fear. Fear to do the wrong thing. So that means test and learn. Today is especially a test and learn environment because we, as we talked about a minute ago, we've got all these new things coming up. So if you are a brand, you are now testing things and this is the smart strategy. We have brands that we work with at SNIP that are coming to us with these budgets that are larger than test budgets but not fully above the line. Massive budgets that are being dedicated. It's a unique time. So we'll see them say we need to test this direct to consumer and that's a great way to go direct to consumer. Drive E Comm. Okay, then we're going to test over Here with these 10 retail media networks and we're going to try to figure out how those work. So today it's a big test and learn and the agencies are nervous. They don't know what works. They aren't. Well, I would say they won't admit that. That's where I'm going to insult some friends. Because the data that's coming back in is now across the board. There's multiple different channels. So any good brand is saying we need to pull back, we need to test each different channel and then we can go back and spend money. The old throw it at the paper freestanding insert is years gone.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Right.
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Tom Burgess
And it's all digital now. And we've got to figure out which channels are working and there's new channels that are popping up.
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Benjamin Shapiro
I just entered into a chili cook off contest. Me and my wife finished third in the Roosevelt Elementary Chili Cook off out of 12 people, I might say.
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Tom Burgess
Outstanding.
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Benjamin Shapiro
And when we talk about the secret sauce here, it actually reminds me of what you're saying with CPG is you have to start with good quality products. You know, I slow cooked a pork shoulder for nine hours. The beans and the beans, they're whatever, they're canned and it's fine. The secret is having patience and allowing the things to mature and stew together. And as you talk about, well, you've got this online component and this retail media network thing and then there's your tried and true traditional offline tactics. Sounds like a little bit of all of these things. Mixing them together and just letting it cook for a little while is really the secret sauce as opposed to it's all one prescribed channel. Get good stuff, do a good job with your campaigns. Test and learn and iterate. I want to move on to our next segment that we call trend or trash. So tell me, do retail media networks work for CPG brands? Is that a trend or is it trash?
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Tom Burgess
Oh, it's a trend for sure. And it's a trend to stay. And they do work and they bring incredible data, especially at attribution data that is more specific to a particular retailer. So are there positives? Yeah, many. Are there negatives? Yep, there are. Guess what? So you've got a retail media network from this channel, I should say this banner, this retailer, you've got another one from this banner or retailer and neither one going to line up for you on their own metrics. So you as a brand are now challenged with how do you compare them? Apples to apples? Do they work? Yeah. Are they going to be around for a long time? Oh yeah, they are. They better than alternatives? No one knows yet. That's the fact right there.
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Benjamin Shapiro
That's really where I want to double click. So I understand the concept of retail media network. Walmart owns a whole bunch of stuff. They've got a bunch of digital assets and they can promote your product on their digital assets. Amazon's got Amazon prime and all these other things, IMDb and they just own a bunch of stuff. So they can promote the crap out of CPG products and they've got a place to sell them. Why is that any different than doing an open web programmatic campaign? Why do retail media networks work? Or why would they be more specialized than just having a broad open web marketing campaign?
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Tom Burgess
Open web is probabilistic in its targeting. It's probabilistic in its attribution reporting. When you have a retail media network, you're dealing in actual numbers. You're right down to the nitty gritty. That's a big benefit. I would say that that's probably the most interesting. Additionally, because you're working with first party data. Okay, you know, we can all talk about is the cookie dead? Is it going to go away? Google changes their mind every quarter it seems. Right now, let me check.
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Benjamin Shapiro
It's 10, 20. Yep. We still get to use cookies.
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Tom Burgess
Right? So we'll see what we see in an hour. But the fact is that the retail media networks have a place, they're real. The data is amazing, especially the reporting data. I think I'm a little bit different. I'm more about reporting data and I'm in a camp of, I should say I'm in the camp of reporting. How did it work? Did I increase my spend, my traffic, my, you know, I move units. Did I have some type of incremental change in one of the metrics that I want to do as opposed to the targeting? The targeting is good. I've been in the ad, the digital ad business for too long to mention tens of years. And targeting has always been something that if you find the formula, which takes a long time to do and now you have AI that's assisting and making decisions for you, then it's going to be very good and it can work and it can increase your performance. Right. Maybe make your spend more efficient and so forth. The retail media networks aren't there yet, in my opinion. I think their reporting data is amazing. Targeting data is there, but it's not honed. So this is where we're at and it goes right back to what we were talking about a minute ago. You got a test. And then there's the sneaky little thing of do they work because they have good data either for targeting or reporting? Or is it working because you're spending money with that retailer and you're getting non direct benefits? All right. Or indirect benefits? Are you getting better shelf space, better marketing, alternative marketing, additional marketing from that retailers, that retailer working with you in ways that are. Because you're spending money on their high margin, high gross margin retail media network, are they giving you other things? Are you a brand that's crafty enough to negotiate outside of just the digital space? Right. There's a whole thing I don't hear a lot of people talking about.
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Benjamin Shapiro
What I'm inferring from you is that retail media networks might not be as sophisticated in targeting as some of the programmatic or traditional display media campaigns that we've been running for a long time. But they have the ability to actually track down to the actual conversion you want and they have the ability to put their thumb on the scale. If you are going to be an advertiser with Walmart and put your products on their shelf, they're going to give you preferential treatment in terms of some of the other benefits, whether it's maybe in store Product placement. Where do you show up in their search rankings? There's other ways for the retail companies to influence your conversion rate outside of just the traditional digital display media that you're buying.
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Tom Burgess
You said it very well. Thank you for it.
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Benjamin Shapiro
There you go. Okay, let's move on to our segment. We like to call this one Double down or Diversify. I understand that the media mix has been changing and we've got all sorts of different places people can buy products in different fashions. Should CPG marketers be prioritizing discounting to move more products? Is that the way to get your products to get off shelf is just lower your prices?
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Tom Burgess
It's an addiction. It is a addiction that is most valuable at different times of a cycle, an economic cycle. We're in a cycle right now where, yeah, it's important right now it's, it's almost a consumer demand. You see another shift that I was talking about, some of the shifts that we saw year over year, most recently and another shift is consumers going to store brands or private label brands. Right. And that means they're looking for. The consumer, are looking for a lower cost alternative. So you as a brand, if you are a high value special brand, then you're going to need the discount to influence that consumer. As the economics change, that could change, that will change. Right. The problem of this addiction is how far do you take your discounting and maybe damage your future when the economy comes back up? Do you have to continue to discount or can you now start to bring less influence, emphasis on your discounting? Can you bring your brand back up?
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Benjamin Shapiro
It sounds like we're both in the same camp of this is diversify away from. You don't want to get into the constant discounting cycle. But it seems to me that there's a pattern here where you mentioned, well, somebody can come in with an off label brand of your product, lower the price and then great, you have to discount to meet the pricing pressure. What is the way to battle against the. Just being stuck in a cheapest price wins battle.
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Tom Burgess
It's always about the value promotion as opposed to, and I mean the product value, not the dollar value. So it's always going to be about a brand showing its higher value to the consumer. It's a better ingredient, it's a higher quality that you want to feed your family with, you want to treat your family better, you want to do the right thing for your own health.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Right.
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Tom Burgess
These are the things that I hear from brands when we're talking to brands. There's like, look Man. Because I'm a discount guy.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Right.
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Tom Burgess
Majority of the work that Snip does is about promoting some type of a reward. That reward could be earning points, it could be a loyalty thing, it could be cash back. So we often have these conversations where the brands are saying, I don't want to just emphasize that dollar off. I want to emphasize that this is a healthier version of this category.
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Benjamin Shapiro
The key word here is the B word. It's brand. Right. If you have a coherent brand and a story, a narrative, a selling point that means something to someone, they are going to lean towards your product. Right. If you are a commodity where nobody knows the difference between your product and someone else's cheapest price wins the. Building a brand not only lowers your cost per acquisition over time, but also helps deflect price pressure. And that's one of the things that I wish marketers would think more about. Mostly in cpg, it's easy to just rely on, well, we have a product and we can compete on price. That is a losing battle over time. Establishing a brand and building a connection with your customers so they look for your products is the way to stop price pressure.
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Tom Burgess
Yeah. The inevitable race to the bottom is what everybody's trying to avoid.
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Benjamin Shapiro
You know what's the one that comes to mind when we talk about this? A company that's really avoided price pressure. Liquid death. They sell canned water. Why is there canned water? $5 instead of three or whatever a 24 ounce bottle of water costs these days. It's the brand. Like that is the example. It's the proof that your brand will resist price pressure. Because do you care whether you're drinking Arrowhead or Aquafina? Probably not.
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Tom Burgess
Don't even know the difference usually, right?
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Benjamin Shapiro
Exactly. But you see that liquid death can and you're like, I don't know, something about this feels like I should spend an extra dollar. Yeah.
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Tom Burgess
What's all the hubbub about? It's cool too, right? Let's face it, it's cool. It's the new hip thing and that always helps.
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Benjamin Shapiro
It's the brand. And that wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thanks to Tom Burgess, the president of Snip Media, for joining us. If you'd like to get in touch with Tom, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show Notes. You could always visit his company's website, which is snip.com that's s n I p p dot com. And if you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this, you can head over to martechpod.com we've got summaries of all of our episodes. You can find the contact information for our guests. You can subscribe to our newsletter. You can always send us your topic suggestions, anything that you want on martechpod.com of course, you can always reach out on social media. Our handle is martechpod. On Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can contact me directly on LinkedIn. My handle is benjshap. B E N J S H A P and if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed. We publish episodes every day during the year, so hit the subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.
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Thanks for listening to the MarTech podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything. Com.