Catalina Digs Deeper Into Data Science to Enhance Shopper Engagements

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At Catalina, we’ve been thinking about the impact of data since 1983, when we came up with an idea to leverage grocery store scanners to give shoppers up-to-date product ads and coupons at checkout.

More than 30 years later, the shopping experience has changed dramatically. It is not only commonplace for shoppers strolling through the mall to receive automatic text messages offering coupons for the latest laptop or handbag – it’s almost expected. The Internet, mobile technologies and social media have led to tremendous advances and insights into business-to-consumer marketing and loyalty, all of which has helped streamline the path-to-purchase.

At the center of the new digital marketing world order is, of course, data. Successful loyalty programs are far more sophisticated than they appear integrating deep insights around consumer preferences and behaviors, as well preferences about how messages are delivered. Delving into these insights and understanding the parameters help marketers reach and engage customers and prospects with personalized campaigns. And by personalizing that path-to-purchase, companies can begin turning shoppers into buyers and building brand relevance along the way.

Earlier this year, we unveiled our Ad2Offer solution, which enables consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers to deliver value, via ads and redemption offers, to precise shoppers where they are most likely to receive and engage those offers – whether via mobile, desktop or in-store print. Understanding how a shopper prefers to find and use coupons is key to understanding how to communicate with them.

Because Catalina has the richest shopper intelligence database in the world with two years of purchase history, we are able to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. However, organizing and gleaning strategic insights from this much data takes advanced, scaleable analytics systems.

That’s why this year, we embarked on a digital transformation this year to supercharge our analytics work. We turned to IBM and their advanced, unified, Integrated Analytics System to leverage its advanced data science capabilities.

Catalina partners with more than 10,000 of the world’s leading CPG brands across every major category – and 125 retail banners globally to provide shopper intelligence insights that lead to more personalized – and effective – consumer engagements.

As retailers and brands continue to invest in insights-driven marketing programs to engage the right shoppers to increase sales lift, and loyalty as well as drive visits and basket size, data science is at the heart of everything Catalina does. With such a mandate — and a global presence — having the support of the IBM system will help us be more effective today, and scale into the future.