Turning Shopper Insights into company-wide Memes

Dannon disrupts shopper research by
engaging with a tribe of shoppers
Turning
shopper
insights into
company-wide
memes
ESOMAR Congress 2015
Best Paper Award

www.insites-consulting.com
Introduction:
Increasing the
return on
consumer insights

www.insites-consulting.comwww.insites-consulting.com
Danone is the parent company of The
Dannon Company, Stonyfield Yogurt and
Happy Family. The company has taken strategic
steps to achieve a global presence and to focus on four
areas of business with high potential built on health and
vitality: dairy products, bottled water, baby nutrition and
medical nutrition. As one of the projects within the
“Danone 2020” initiative, the North-America based dairy
brands have united their forces to change the face of
Market Research (MR) within their
organization. "Danone 2020" is a business
transformation program designed for a sustainable,
collaborative and community-engaging future. After
completing an immersive Consumer Consulting
Board on shopper insights, the consumer insight
team at Dannon felt the study did not realize its full
potential in terms of impact, reach and longevity. Not
because the study was not well conducted or generated
too little information, but because it generated
information and possibility beyond what was anticipated.
This “first world problem” centered on a
series of “missed opportunities”: many
observations were relevant for a larger audience than
just the shopper teams at Dannon and the insights
would benefit from further elaboration and cocreation
by Dannon executives. Dannon is not the only
company that realizes that market
research findings need, should or can
have a more widespread impact. More than
ever, demonstrating impact of research is the name of
the game in our industry. A recent InSites Consulting
Market Research Impact study (2014) states that only
45% of insight professionals & marketers believe
research succeeds in changing the attitudes and
decisions of marketers. While it is the number 1
characteristic of ideal research, we are far off
achieving it (Schillewaert et al, 2014). Impact does
not follow spending, though, so it is not about
doing more or increasing budgets. Impact is realized
by allocating the investment to the rightful activities
(BCG study, 2009) or doing things differently.

Creating a
‘tribe’ of
healthy minded
people

To reframe its understanding of the Health &
Wellness space, Danone initiated the
“Healthy Minded People” community
(figure 1). The initial objectives were to:
Understand the shopping behavior
and context of consumers who aspire
Feed the development of retail concepts,
Innovations and creative brand activation programs
to enchance the shopping experience
Inspire shopper teams and retail partners with
consumer insights
a lifestyle of Health & Wellness
1.
2.
3.
Figure 1. The Healthy Minded People Community screenshot

Uncovering shopper insights (pre,
during and post the in-store
experience) was a crucial objective
for Dannon. Typical shopper research
methodologies like shop-alongs, eye tracking
and virtual store simulations take a narrow view
of the experience of the shopper; one person,
one shelve, one moment in time. A
Consumer Consulting Board or
online community including mobile
ethnography, shopper safaris and
ideation was considered as an ideal method
by Dannon to bring consumers and insights to
live. To capture the holistic shopper journey,
follow consumers during different shopping
trips and tap into the consulting power of
shoppers, Dannon activated 96
shoppers across seven retailers in
the US for four weeks (figure 2).
By following the shopper journey (from shopping list
and in-store experience until groceries are stocked)
and by activating shoppers (e.g. capturing a trip to
the farmers’ market), a unique picture was
established about the needs of the target
group.
Figure 2. Sample of shoppers

Our insight generation approach was built in three consecutive phases. Target consumers engage in an
asynchronous individual observation phase combined with a peer-to-peer discussion
around the consumer journey.
Figure 3. Insight Activation Phases

We immersed on an individual level by
connecting with consumers
via an individual blog. This
online ethnography approach has the
advantage it diminishes the Hawthorne
effect and allows more time to
capture processes from a
natural consumer perspective
– e.g. mobile technology allowed to
capture observations on the go and
avoid having to rely on recall and
consumer memory. An example of an
observation task; consumers are
asked to share pictures of
their shopping journey in
different phases; making the list,
entering the store, filling the basket,
checking out and transportation. Next,
they divide their purchases in a
healthy and unhealthy pile to
understand what drives their
perception of healthiness.
Observation Crowd
interpretation
Discussion
Not only professional market
researchers interpret the
data, we also engage a
group of consumers in
the analysis of the
observations. This in
order to obtain richer, more
accurate interpretation of
data that leads to insights.
Our research has shown that
crowd interpretation
leads to 20% to 40%
additional, unique
insights.
Duration: four days.
Participants go from
an individual blog
phase to an interactive
peer-to-peer discussion
environment in the last
phase. This discussion
phase is intended for probing
or “autodriving”. Interviewing
and discussion questions are
experiential, task based and
gamified. Observations
reveal the implicit,
unconscious needs and
wants and combined
with the right probing, a full
picture of the Health &
Wellness consumers’ needs
could be sketched.

This process generated a wealth and mass of data and
a classic 150+ page Powerpoint report. To bring across
the key messages as well as generate a lasting impact
among the original team, we applied a number of
collaborative presentation and workshop
techniques. These techniques all have in common
that Dannon executives had to internalize the data by
interacting, experiencing and actually working it (figures
4 and 5):
Figure 4. Snapshots of techniques to internalize the data
TED-style presentation chunks
were co-presented by the client team
Observation museum stations in
which executives had to
“walk through” the findings
Consumer stories dashboard. All visual
observations were rigorously tagged and
1.
2.
3.
included a Consumer Story Dashboard. This
asset made the massive amount of pictures
(almost 1,500) easily accessible by filtering on
e.g. retailer, moment in the journey or insight
4. Competitive ideation and co-creation
among small teams of executives

Figure 5. Screenshot of the Consumer Story Dashboard

This approach of capturing immersive data and
generating solid insights was different from
traditional shopper research in
three ways.
A holistic outlook on the lives and
challenges of the Health & Wellness
consumer was generated instead of the
singular perspective provided by traditional
methods.
Instead of studying consumers as passive
participants in the process, they were truly in the
lead. Through activation/deprivation
tasks and a longitudinal commitment,
we generated a more layered view on
their needs.
understanding consumer behavior in the
Health & Wellness space. The Consumer
Story Dashboard and workshop exercises allowed
them to easily explore more observations than can
ever be included in a traditional research report.
1.
2.
3.
After this comprehensive project delivery and
3,465 conversations, 1,399 pictures and
consumer stories, 14 insight platforms
and 78 co-created product and
communication ideas, there was a feeling of
“unused potential” if the insight process would stop
here. Not only should all these findings be diffused
to other employees from different departments and
locations, but the ideas needed further
collaboration to further enrich them.
As outlined at the start of this paper, our next
challenge was all about generating impact
with our market research – this time
research that had already been completed, but
needed a more widespread audience and more in-
depth work.
The Danone team wasn’t just ‘informed’ of the
outcome, they are also active
participants in the process of

Going from
‘insights’ to
‘memes’

For people to take action on a consumer insight,
they first need to learn what the insight is about.
Many times in MR (as as the case here as well), only
a limited group of people is involved in the
knowledge exchange by e.g. participating in the
debrief workshop or managing the research study
themselves. This limited group is then able to shape
an insight platform by adding own thoughts,
observations and/or ideas. If we involve a
wider group of employees, organizations
as a whole will better understand the
consumer and will be able to make
consumer relevant decisions. Furthermore,
the theory of open innovation teaches us that ‘the
one golden idea’ can come from anywhere in the
organization, not only marketing or innovation
(Whelan, 2011). To increase the impact and
maximize the chance of a golden idea to realize, all
employees across the organization
should learn what the key consumer
frictions are in order to share related observations
and ideas and build on them. For example, by
experiencing how consumers are consuming yogurt,
employees see what can be improved.
When such an insight is replicated by
employees and augmented with their
own observations and ideas, shared with
various people across the organization
and triggers action, the insight becomes
a ‘meme’ (Dawkins, 1989). From our “Health &
Wellness” community we had several findings we
felt could/should result in such memes. For
example, the #yolittleones meme. Parents face a
challenge of constantly not giving in when their
young children join them for grocery shopping.
When kids show good behavior in the store, parents
often want to give them a treat. These young kids
are often attracted by the colorful packaging of
unhealthy snacks. We uncovered insights that
provide opportunities for yogurt to become a favorite
to kids and be liked as a healthy option to parents.
To turn an insight into a meme, insight professionals
need to move away from the traditional research
model and establish a change at three
levels to achieve the ‘Memefication of
#MRX’:

1 From reporting to internalizing #experience
While 92% of insight professionals believes their
research generates insight worth sharing with
colleagues, only 65% extensively shares them
with their organization. Furthermore, only one in
five researchers organizes interactive
workshops to discuss results (Schillewaert et al,
2014). All too often, MR takes a passive
and individualistic approach and
executives are supposed to identify their own
actions when undergoing research reports.
However, to trigger meaningful actions of
executives, insight professionals need to
bring insights to life through
interaction with the data – they need to
work the data. Therefore, we have identified four
building blocks that are needed for marketing
insights within organizations: harvesting,
seeding, activating and collaborating (see figure
5). Through ‘harvesting’, we assemble and mold
insights from internal stakeholders which are
already collected.
Secondly, ‘seeding’ enables insights managers to
spread insights via key ambassadors in a
relevant way through the organization. ‘Activating’
triggers stakeholders to not only discover but also
interact with and work on insights. Finally,
‘collaborating’ connects stakeholders to work together
and turn insights into actions and new
future projects.
Figure 6. Four building blocks of marketing insights within the organization

2 From teams to the organization-wide
#reach
In traditional MR, consumer stories and insights
are often discovered and owned by the MR
department. However, in order to trigger
meaningful action all the time, the insight
needs to be co-owned by all
employees (figure 6). First of all, we want
extend the MR reach from executives to
management to enable higher management to
take long-term decisions with a consumer
context in mind. Secondly, we involve the front-
line employees, who are in almost daily contact
with consumers, to shape their consumer feeling
and ultimately improve their performance.
Finally, involving all other employees that have a
rather indirect relationship with the consumer
creates a better understanding of the consumer
context of the business,
making them more motivated as an employee in
general. The extension of MR reach calls for a
layered approach, involving the whole
organization with consumer insights.
Figure 7. Extend the internal reach of MR

3 From projects to habit creation
#structural
For most employees, working with consumer insights is
not a routine. If you wish to trigger meaningful actions
and enable employees to turn an insight into a meme, it
is of great importance that consumer
inspirations become part of executives’
daily jobs. We miss opportunities by thinking on a
project basis.
If we can shift consumer inspiration to
become a routine, we will be more
successful in triggering meaningful actions
and increase the business impact of
consumer insights.

The Dannon
Insight
Activation
StudioSo how can we concretely engage
employees from different departments with
consumer insights and allowing them to
interact with research data in a playful way?

We strongly believe that consumer insights have not
reached their full potential in terms of ROI. Based on
interviews with clients, the MR Impact Study and our
experience in collaborating with global brands over the
years, we’ve identified a recipe for success
to create a positive business impact with
consumer insights. To enable the insight
professional of tomorrow to do this in an efficient yet
effective way, we developed a mobile
collaboration platform, called the ‘Insight
Activation Studio’.
This is a scalable solution for insight managers so
they can establish the ‘memefication’ of research
in their organizations and create engaging
experiences, across the organization in a
structural way. How does it work?
The Studio connects and empowers
internal stakeholders to share
inspiring observations and take action
together. This digital application (figure 8)
(based on a responsive web design) consists of
several ‘Inspiration Walls’: projects or insight
platforms that uncover a consumer friction,
emotion or unmet need. Each wall is populated
with tiles or findings from the community, all
believed to contribute to the meme. The Danone
team would decide what the most meaningful and
memorable observations to include as an
observation “tile” in the Danone Studio were.
Dannon employees are prompted to add their
own ‘Inspiration Tiles’ of these walls through
observations and ideas by posting photos, videos
and stories. They interact and shape the
Inspiration Tiles of their colleagues through
comments and likes (figure 9).

The studio helps the insight professional to
combine the four building blocks
of marketing insights in an
efficient way (figure 6). By challenging
employees to share their inspirations, we
harvest their consumer knowledge. By
opening an Inspiration Wall, we
seed new consumer insights with
the relevant team(s). By activating
employees to share observations and
ideas on the go, we prompt them to interact
with insights. Finally, by sharing enabling
commenting and feedback, we enable
them to collaborate and work
together to shape outcomes.
Figure 9. Impressions of the Insight Activation Studio

What does it bring? Just like any technology, the Insight Activation Studio brings automational,
informational and transformational value for the insight professional (Day 1994).
Automational – Faster sharing of insights.
Informational – Better and higher ROI of consumer insights.
Transformational – not possible before.
There is a reduction of manual efforts in spreading & seeding insights with more, relevant stakeholders,
leading to more and faster decision making at the same or lower level of costs.
The Studio enables internal stakeholders to spot, share and shape inspirations on the go. The
more inspirations are posted on an Inspiration Wall, and the more feedback an inspiration will receive, the
richer the insight will get. Furthermore, all these interactions also create a deeper understanding of the
insight. In turn, the company has access to richer, more relevant, authentic ideas which are closer
to the reality of the business world, encouraging employees to take action to make better decisions.
A consumer-activated culture. By connecting the whole organization with the consumer, the Studio influences
employees’ day-to-day behavior, helps to collect ideas from the whole organization and transforms the
organization towards an innovation and consumer-centric culture.

In the first stage of the Danone Studio, six Inspiration Walls were set up featuring a total of 42 tiles, engaging the
company in a collaboration wave of four weeks.
#YOMOMENTS What makes yogurt the ideal healthy snack? Share your
snacking moments on this #YOMOMENTS inspiration wall and discover
the dimensions of a healthy snack.
#YOLITTLEONES
What can we do to make yogurt more attractive as a
snack for kids, from little to older ones? Share your experiences and
see the thoughts of our consumers.
#YODOODLE
Do you have an observation or an idea that doesn’t fit
any of the walls? Don’t just keep it on a post-it, share it here.
#YOKITCHEN
What is so great about using yogurt in smoothies, parfaits, desserts
or cooking? Share a few tips from your kitchen and find out about the
culinary experiments of our consumers.
#YONOVATION
Are you ready for some yogurt innovation? Share your
ideas with us and see how your ideas stack up against others.
#YOSHOP
Do you have ideas on how to make shopping for yogurt
more enjoyable? Share your own ideas or examples of creative
execution from places you really like.

Impact is the
name of the
game

Danone launched this initiative on
an immense scale. All employees of
the Dannon HQ and the plants of
Dannon, Stonyfield Yogurt and
HappyFamily were invited to join.
The launch was supported by a
video explaining how this
new way of collaboration
would contribute to the
"Danone 2020" business
transformation program.
Postcards were sent out to the
plants as an additional touchpoint in
the launch.
Figure 10. Launch video

On the next pages we describe the impact of the Studio being live for 4 weeks. We do so in a qualitative as well as a
quantitative way.
Intriguing
Participant feedback about the Studio was that it is fun and
intriguing at the same time
From a visual and design perspective users perceived it to be
very appealing and very different than what they were used to see
(if ever) in terms of market research output. Non-marketing
executives got to experience that research is not all “boring graphs”
and “long reports”.
The content on the Studio shed a different light on consumer
reality and is eye-opening and surprising for people to learn
about different applications of yoghurt.
"It was really interesting to see all the recipes people use yogurt
for. For example, the pasta recipe really caught my attention and I
was surprised people would use yogurt in pasta. It was also to
me to see people using yogurt in savory recipes as I thought
consumers only consumed yogurt as a sweet treat."
“The Studio is visually appealing. .... as life is quite busy, we unfortunately don't
take the time to socialize and share this type of information in person or online.”

People centricity Participants outside of the marketing department became more people centric
through sharing their own personal stories. A great illustration of this is
Nancy’s idea and contribution to the #YOLITTLEONES wall with a picture of her
daughter.

Out of the 250 executives based in the Dannon White Plains offices,
we reached 83 or 1 in 3 over the course of 4 weeks.
38% of these users where repeat users who clearly
showed a built-up in behavior. The heightened
engagement of repeat users is illustrated by the fact that
their visiting behavior is more intense: the time spent
is 43% higher, the number of pages viewed goes up by
54% (from 2.4 pages/visit to 3.7 pages/visit). In addition,
15% of the repeat users also used the Studio using their
mobile device (against only 1% of the first time users).
This is indicative for the fact that repeat users are trying to
embed the studio into their daily habits.
Reach and Engagement
Increase Consumer Empathy
Executives using the Studio do so because they
wish to bridge a closeness to consumer
gap. Our analysis shows that executives who
have a lower feeling with the consumer or low
consumer contact use the Studio much more
than their counterparts, respectively with a factor
1.3 and 3.3.

Conclusions
The worse enemy of
a good study is that it
becomes ‘ad hoc’

1 Internalize
We need to extend the shelf life of
research by means of making it a
longitudinal and habitual
asset. Researchers should more
actively market their product
which is “research”.
Increase the Return On Insight
2 Measure
What does not get measured,
does not get managed therefore it
is important to show clear
increase in ROI.
3 Reverse
We should all reverse the delivery
process of market research from “1
long report for a small audience” to
“small snippets” of information “
for a large audience”.

Boston Consulting Group Study, 2009, The consumer’s voice – can your company hear it? Retrieved from
www on Feb. 10, 2015, http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf
Dawkins, R., 1989, The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 192, ISBN 0-19-286092-5,
Day, G., 1994, The capabilities of market driven organizations. Journal of Marketing, 58, 4 (October), pp.
37–52.
De Ruyck, T., Schillewaert, N., and Knoops, S., 2012, Engage, Inspire Act! ESOMAR Congress paper
Schillewaert, N., Pallini, K. 2014, What do clients think about MR impact. Retrieved from www on Feb. 10
2015, http://www.greenbookblog.org/2014/11/20/what-do-clients-think-about-mr-impact/
Whelan, E., Parise, S., Valk, de J. and Aalbers, R., 2011, Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open
Innovation. Harvard Business Review Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, https://hbr.org/product/creating-
employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/ SMR399-PDF-ENG
Willems, A. and De Ruyck T., 2015, How To Market, Research? MIE conference presentation, Feb. 5th 2015.
References

Thomas Troch,
Research Director
at InSites Consulting
Niels Schillewaert,
Managing Partner & Co-founder
at InSites Consulting
Tom De Ruyck,
Managing Partner at InSites
Consulting
+32 9 269 14 07
@tomderuyck
linkedin.com/in/tomderuyck
tom@insites-consulting.com
+1 646 386 9853
@niels_insites
linkedin.com/in/nielsschillewaert
niels@insites-consulting.com
+1 646 386 9855
@thomastroch
linkedin.com/in/thomastroch
thomas@insites-consulting.com
Anouk Willems
Head of Insight Activation
Studios at InSites Consulting
+31 10 742 10 35
@AnoukW1
linkedin.com/in/anoukwillems
anouk@insites-consulting.com
Olesya Govorun
Director, Strategy & Insights
at The Dannon Company
Holly Rozelle
Manager, Strategy & Insights
at The Dannon Company

Thank you!
@InSites
marketing@insites-consulting.com
www.facebook.com/insitesconsulting
www.slideshare.net/InSitesConsulting

Turning Shopper Insights into company-wide Memes

Turning Shopper Insights into company-wide Memes

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