Colruyt Group Insights: Data as a Lever for Success

Danone, a well-known supplier of mineral water, dairy products, and plant-based milk, regularly uses the data-sharing platform of Colruyt Group Insights to better understand consumer behavior. With a database of 3 million households, the data-sharing reports from Colruyt Group Insights offer undeniable benefits, which Danone shares with us today.

Interviewer: What is the importance of data in your decision-making, and how has Colruyt Group Insights changed or helped your approach?

Sam Loeys, Key Account for Colruyt Group: Data is absolutely crucial. To effectively manage our business, we need more than just basic sales and purchase data. We need to understand the real drivers behind what is happening. Colruyt Group Insights provides this valuable data, allowing us to optimally manage our assortment and promotions. We offer a very wide range of healthy products for different target groups, and that in all life stages. We notice that health obviously plays a key role in consumer choices, but to effectively manage our business, we need more than just sales and purchase figures.

Anne Chavane, Category Manager: I agree. In the past, we relied on data from sources like Nielsen, but they lacked the granularity we needed, especially for a category like plant-based drinks, which has a large and diverse product portfolio. Colruyt Group Insights complements Nielsen data by providing much deeper insights into shopper behavior at the individual SKU level. The data from CG Insights complements our analyses; in the past, we could see what our sellout was, but we didn’t know exactly what the drivers were. Here you can easily see the connection with penetration or frequency.

CG Insights: Why is penetration a crucial KPI to consider?

Anne: Penetration indicates what percentage of shoppers buy our products, which is fundamental for assessing the brand’s relevance and growth potential. By analyzing penetration trends, we can identify which product categories have the most room for growth and focus our efforts there.

Sam: Exactly. If we consistently attract new shoppers to our brand, it indicates strong brand relevance. Conversely, if we lose shoppers, it suggests we may be losing relevance and need to adjust our strategies.

Interviewer: Can you give specific examples of how you use data from Colruyt Group Insights to support your decisions?

Anne: We use the platform for various purposes, from analyzing product performance to understanding shopper preferences and regional variations. The duplication with the Venn diagram, for example, helps us analyze the overlap between different SKUs, allowing us to optimize our assortment and ensure we offer the right mix of products to meet consumer needs. This report enables us to understand the interactions between SKUs and see where the complementarity lies, and what we could include in the assortment, so we no longer have to rely on gut feeling or intuition.

Interviewer: The duplication Venn diagram sounds like a powerful tool. Can you explain how it helps you with an example?

Anne: Absolutely. We can use it, for example, to analyze the interaction between large and small formats in our plant-based drinks category. For a long time, it was assumed that small formats served a very different need than large formats, but we didn’t know how much overlap there was. The duplication Venn diagram allows us to quantify that overlap and understand the actual incremental value of offering different formats. By analyzing the overlap between products, we can identify our references that cater to specific consumer needs and those with more redundancy. This information is invaluable for optimizing our portfolio and ensuring its relevance to Colruyt shoppers.

Interviewer: You both mentioned the importance of combining data sources – CGI and Nielsen IQ. Why is this so crucial?

Anne: Relying on a single data source can provide a limited perspective. By combining data from Colruyt Group Insights with information from other sources like Nielsen, we can create a more complete picture of market dynamics. By connecting different data points, we can validate our findings, identify patterns, and develop more robust strategies. For example, we can compare our sales trends at Colruyt with broader market trends from Nielsen to understand where we stand in the competitive landscape.

Interviewer: Thank you both for sharing your insights and experiences with us. It was a pleasure talking to you.

Anne and Sam: Thank you!