General Mills backs ‘connected commerce’ in digital push

General Mills, the food manufacturer with brands such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Cheerios and Haӓgen-Dazs, is accelerating its digital marketing efforts in 2023, with connected commerce leading the way. 

Why it matters

• In adapting to a more digital customer journey, General Mills brands have sought to clarify measurement and prioritize performance in key metrics such as search. 
• Connected commerce – building integrated shopping experiences which allow shoppers to purchase on any channel or in store via any device – is the foundation of that strategy. 

Doubling down on connected commerce 

“On the marketing side is something we call connected commerce, and it’s really [about] the funnel. The top of the funnel is where we generate demand, and in a digital world, more and more of our marketing is becoming digital marketing and performance-based marketing,” said Jon Nudi, group president of North America Retail, on the company’s Q2 2023 earnings call.

“We’ve invested heavily to acquire first-party data and really make sure that we have a strong marketing engagement platform [so] that we can then serve up relevant messaging at scale and really customize for our consumers … We’re seeing really incredible returns from that.”

 Upgrading digital shelf capabilities

“We had to develop the dashboards for our team to really look at the metrics that matter, make sure the digital shelf is correct, and make sure that our search metrics are where they needed to be,” Nudi added. 

By building real-time dashboards, executives have more depth of data and are able to respond accordingly.

“You’re seeing it actually translate into strong performance in the market today, and it will continue to become even more sophisticated as we move forward and continue to invest in this capability,” he concluded. 

Sourced from Seeking Alpha