Biometric research shapes Shopper marketing plans: Product of the Year Talk

DUBAI- As part of its endeavour to support innovation across all business disciplines and marketing strategies, the Product of the Year [POY] brand recognition umbrella, renowned across 42 countries worldwide for supporting excellence in product innovation, organized the first-of-its-kind POY Talk in Dubai last week.

The breakfast panel discussion, held on September 11 at MAKE Business Hub in Dubai Marina, was held under the theme ‘Getting under the Skin of Shoppers’, challenging the current and established ways of conducting shopper research to design in-store campaigns. Over 50 marketing managers from the largest multinational and regional clients in the consumer goods sector, including POY’s local and regional partners, took part in the discussion.

Competitive Edge Research Reports, shows that 41% of mid-market businesses have one or more big data projects already in place, with another 55% planning to start one in near future. The challenge with having a large pool of consumer data to go through is in finding answers to businesses’ questions, that’s why according to this same research,  80% agree they need to better analyze their expanding data collections.

Renowned experts from various business spheres took centre stage in the POY Talk, which focused on encouraging an overhaul of shopper behavior research and providing added value to the POY partners. The panel discussion tackled shopper marketing effectiveness to generate sales by uncovering the latest research methodologies focused on understanding consumers’ behavior.

Speakers included Roy Armale, Planning Director at Geometry, who shed light on biometric research that enables in-store campaigns to generate sales, while Amine Issa, PhD from the Mayo Clinic Everest Research focused on the integration of biometric research to reduce bias, presenting available technologies in medical research that can help marketers unravel stronger consumer insights. The discussion also involved Ms. Mariam Chahin Marketing Director at Marks & Spencer, Al Futtaim Group, and Mr Wael Habchi Group Shopper Marketing Manager at GlaxoSmithKline who spoke about the application of the methodology in a live retail environment.

Dory Kfoury, CEO – Middle East and Africa for Product of the Year, said: “As the world’s largest consumer-voted program, we have always believed in understanding the consumers’ shopping behavior pattern and the company’s and our partners’ marketing effectiveness and methodologies. To understand the challenges of an oversupply of consumer data better, we initiated the POY Talk and we are happy that our experts helped in highlighting this core issue.”

He added: “We are confident that the participants found the POY Talk an enriching experience and they unraveled some new ways of tackling consumer behavior and formulating an effective in store marketing strategy – and our endeavor was to facilitate this.”

The Product of the Year Middle East award serves as a shortcut for the shoppers in the supermarket as an approved and trusted sign of innovation. For manufacturers of the winning products, the POY recognition is a powerful marketing message proven to increase product trial, awareness, distribution and sales. Globally, POY has been working with over 100 multinationals and a number of local and regional companies.