Business Programs

The 2010 Marketplace Conference offers the most expansive and timely selection of education programming in the industry with topics covering the most critical issues facing Retailers and Suppliers today. You are guaranteed to leave armed with real life solutions to help run your business more effectively.

Please continue to check back for details on additional sessions, as updates are made often.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
A Shared Ownership of the Future: Activating the New Economics of the Shopper at the Shelf
(Exhibitors Only)

Frank Beltran
Western Region Sales Director
Kantar Retail

Bryan Gildenberg
Chief Knowledge Officer
Kantar Retail

Brendan Langan
Director of Retail Insights - Drug and Club
Kantar Retail

Jennifer Zanelli
Client Relationship Director
Kantar Retail

As we move forward into a more dynamic era of retailing, shoppers, retailers, and suppliers are countering growing complexity with simplicity. Simultaneously, they are embracing new measures to capture a greater return on their money and time, working capital, and innovation. Winning at retail will not only entail mastering the art of "doing more with less," but will require a holistic view and shared ownership of the shopper and the shelf.

• Gain insight into how shoppers are making decisions and which factors are behind outlet choice and conversion.
• Deepen your understanding of the strategies retailers are using to simplify their operating models while enhancing the experience and overall returns.
• Benchmark different approaches best-in-class vendor companies are taking to drive growth and innovation-and contend with increasing demands for collaboration, growing costs to serve, and demanding negotiations.

Monday, June 7, 2010

8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
The Path to Purchase

Steve Frenda
Managing Director, Strategy & Development
The In-Store Marketing Institute

Dr. Brian Harris
Chairman
The Partnering Group, Inc.

Catherine Lindner
Vice President, Retail Marketing
Walgreen Co.

Diane Wallace
Vice President, Shopper Marketing
Coca-Cola

This session will discuss a new research initiative entitled the "Path to Purchase" and will focus on the work of the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing which was created in April 2009 to develop a new model of effective collaboration for consumer product marketers and retailers. It comprises marketing and merchandising executives from 10 leading U.S. retailers, and is facilitated by the In-Store Marketing Institute and The Partnering Group. Coca-Cola has generously served as lead sponsor. An additional group of 12 strategic advisor manufacturers and agencies has been formed to provide additional input.

Shopper marketing and conquering the "Path to Purchase" is the next evolutionary stage in strategic retail marketing, and a mandatory component of effective consumer marketing in general. Attendees to this session will take away:

• The most essential and effective form of shopper marketing involves effective collaboration between retailers and product manufacturers.
• Effective shopper marketing demands that satisfying the shopper needs is the focal point of the strategies and tactics necessary for success.
• To date, shopper marketing has been driven primarily by manufacturers. But to fully capitalize on its promise, retailers must play a key role in further developing the concept and the processes required to carry it out.
• The RCSM was formed to provide a mechanism for the development of effective retailer-manufacturer collaboration that will drive mutually beneficial business results for both parties.
• Commission's objectives include developing a framework of strategic, operational and organizational requirements that retailers will need to effectively integrate shopper marketing into existing business practices.
• Shopper marketing encompasses an array of integrated marketing and merchandising activities that can influence behavior in all three stages of the shopper behavior cycle (planning, shopping and consuming) and at all steps along the path to purchase.
• Collaboration may begin at the planning level, but more often will manifest itself in the joint development of shopper-focused and actionable marketing and merchandising programs at both store level and during the shopper journey.
• To fully realize the potential of shopper marketing, retailers and manufacturers must establish working relationships that are more open, productive and results-oriented than has been the historical norm.

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