The Industry is Changing and So Are We!

I write this piece today as we announce the relaunch of our company, PRS IN VIVO USA, rebranding as Behaviorally. This article attempts to frame out the larger context in which we see the entire insights industry confronting the new realities of 2021. Perhaps it will also answer the question of why we took the step to relaunch and rebrand in this exciting way.

 

 

We’ve seen shopping behaviors change more rapidly in the past year than at any other time in history. Retail is now decidedly digital and the path to influence consumer choice is irrevocably omnichannel.

Last summer, Store Brands magazine announced that US grocery retailer, Albertson’s, revealed a startling 276% increase in digital sales in the 16 weeks ended June 20. Kroger reported a 92% increase in their online sales. And even at mid-year, Instacart, the online grocery “click and deliver” service, announced a staggering 500% increase in order volume. In October Tesco reported 69% growth in online sales noting that from the start of the pandemic it had more than doubled its UK online delivery slots to 1.5 million per week. The December holiday shopping season shattered records for digital purchases, brands and retailers grappled with the mammoth implications for fulfillment and delivery. Of course, following the SARS pandemic 15 years ago, Asia has always led in the adoption of e-commerce and omnichannel retail and continues to do so. 2020 really saw the rest of the world start to catch-up.

In this context, brands have been forced to reassess their tried-and-true shopper marketing strategies, not just in an attempt to spur growth in these volatile and uncertain times but to stay relevant and survive. It is tempting to blame COVID-19 entirely for these circumstances but these changes were merely accelerated by the pandemic. GreenBook has always been a harbinger of the factors that spark trends and instigate change, that is important for the brands we work for and fellow market research agencies. For those who have been following GreenBook editorial over the years as I have, two topics have been persistent (and prescient) themes that are highly relevant now: the importance of behavioral science as the anchor for defining and diagnosing consumer choice and the need for digitization in both the business questions we solve and the way we collect the data to uncover to develop our insights and advisory.

To unpack this further, let’s first address behavioral science.

Many agencies talk about behavioral science and push it as their “new” competency. Some even consider behavioral science “a trend”. It is simply not new. It is the one constant in this time of great uncertainty. But it is only an authentic differentiator for those insights agencies who have done the hard work to make it effective and authentically foundational.

It is not enough just to read (and quote) Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Richard Thaler, and other academics, and embroider all the complicated explanations of “system 1 thinking” to the surface of your traditional approach to research methodology. In truth, as PRS, we spent decades observing and measuring the inflection points in shopper and consumer experience, empirically grounding our research in the principles of behavioral science. We have actively created a simple but effective behavioral framework to which we can tie all our metrics and recommendations for defining, diagnosing, and driving shopper growth.

So relative to our relaunch, it is only natural that we leaned into “behavior” in our choice for communicating our new brand.

 

Now let’s look at digitization.

There have never been as many ways to observe consumer behavior in both the digital and physical retail environments. Very few of those techniques and technologies, however, simply lean on the old ways of conducting research. The speed with which the pandemic initiated lockdowns and other limitations to congregating in-person caught many researchers on the back foot, unprepared to respond. But those who had heeded the signals that the path-to-purchase was shifting to omnichannel, who had also invested in the digital platforms to address both digital and physical retail, have been well equipped to respond. We were able to uncover the factors influencing shopper choice in this new paradigm and had the category expertise to recognize what actually matters, which is critical because one thing is abundantly clear: brands still need to understand how to win at shelf, whether that be digital or physical.

We may not have all the answers for this uncertain present. But for us, our commitment to helping clients to succeed in this new retail reality comes down to two things: a digital-first approach and our truly unique and effective behavioral framework focused on the singular objective to drive our clients’ future shopper growth.

That’s why we have changed our name to Behaviorally. It manifests the thinking that shaped our vision and strategy to guide our clients to a confident future, with a behavioral framework that remains the most reliable constant in an uncertain world.

Photo by lexi lauwers from Pexels