LONDON: Danone, the yoghurt maker, is reviewing the way in which it uses shopper data with a view to shaping bespoke marketing campaigns for supermarkets in the same way that Google delivers personalised search results.

Danone, whose brands include Shape, Actimel and Activia, has partnered with customer insight and analytics firm Symphony EYC, using its tools to speed up category performance analysis, using data from promotional campaigns, distribution strategies and aisle positioning.

As a result it expected marketers would be able to extract insights within hours rather than days, as was previously the case.

"If you go to Google you're pushed ads that are relevant to you. The experience is totally shaped around the customer," Max Stricker, category management expert at Danone, told Marketing Week.

"It's what we're trying to recreate for shoppers while also doing what's right for the retailer," he explained.

Stricker also anticipated that marketers would spend less time collating data so freeing them up to focus on conversations internally and with retail partners on how to grow the brands.

"Danone is a yoghurt business but every retailer classifies yoghurt in a different way so it's important we move away from the one-size fits all approach," he added.

An example of how retailers are using consumer insights to inform store layout came in a recent International Shopper Insights in Action Event in Prague, where David Nelson, head of space, range and merchandising at Tesco, explained how Tesco Express stores had been redesigned not on traditional category lines, but by "customer proposition".

What this meant was that rather than grouping products by category, they were now arranged to best serve customers who were typically on one of three "missions" – buying food for now, buying food for later or topping up on essentials. (Read the full Warc report here: Tesco focuses on "shopper missions".)

Danone has also noted that consumers are no longer eating yoghurt at a particular time of day and is planning a marketing push in the new year around new consumption occasions. With the help of Symphony EYC, it expects to find potential gaps in the category and pave the way for new product ranges.

Data sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by Warc staff