ATKearney releases follow up discussion on 'Winning with Digital' study

NEW YORK — Retailers’ shift from traditional to digital marketing vehicles stands to threaten the traditional forms of collaboration between retailers and their consumer packaged goods partners and requires even tighter collaboration between the two parties in order to succeed. That’s according to ATKearney’s newly released “Implications of the ‘Winning with Digital’ Study.”



To shed light on retailers’ shift from traditional to digital marketing vehicles, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores asked ATKearney to conduct a study. That study, dubbed “Winning with Digital,” was unveiled during the recent NACDS Total Store Expo in Boston. However, as ATKearney conducted that study it came to believe that digital transformation has far-reaching implications worthy of further discussion. Enter the follow-up “thought paper” called, “Implications of the ‘Winning with Digital’ Study.”



In the follow-up discussion, ATKearney suggests that, in order to collaborate effectively in digital marketing that moves product in the physical world, retailers and manufacturer partners must align on five key points:

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  Target segments;


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  Explicit parameters;


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  Ample offers;


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  Motivating content; and


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  Rapid test and learn.

“The majority of predominantly brick-and-mortar retailers still have large transformations ahead of them to exploit the opportunities available from digital techniques. Mindsets, organizations and processes will change as marketing approaches shift toward digital. Meanwhile, CPGs can support their retail partners through this transformation,” the paper states.