Gone are the days of “going” online; we’re always online! It is estimated that the average person will look at their smart phone about 46 times a day. You might be doing that right now, in fact, if you are reading this story on a mobile device. Yet, even if you are reading this the old fashion way—on printed paper—you too will help fill up the bottomless pit of big data because after you finish this article, you might decide to Google a company or person mentioned in this text, or you might send a colleague an email about why they should read this story too (hint, hint). Or maybe you will head out to lunch and pay for your sandwich and soda by credit card at the local c-store.

According to industry pundits, during 2013-2014, there was 500 times more data generated than during all of mankind, and we as a society are creating even more data every single second. The generation of Big Data is moving at a speed that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.

Consider this: during the average internet minute, nearly 700 Uber rides are taken and 1.7 million Instagram users like a photo. This activity—not to mention all the transactions on Amazon or inside a Walmart, tweets on Twitter, posts on Facebook and snaps on SnapChat—is making up a growing “ecosystem,” according Andrew Appel, president and CEO of IRI, Chicago.

“This is the decade when data will become alive,” Appel told attendees gathered at the Gaylord National Resort & Conference center National Harbor, MD for IRI’s 2016 Growth Summit. Attendees included staffers from well-known CPG firms in the household and personal care space (Clorox, Valeant, Yes To, Gojo, P&G and others) as well as leading retailers such as Costco, Albertson’s and Target, to name just a few.

Appel explained how today’s connected lives are impacting CPG manufacturers and retailers. He told attendees that we are at the beginning of the consumer personalization revolution. The CEO touched on changes in how media gets consumed, the rise of chat platforms, connected cars and shrinking delivery times.

Appel also highlighted new tools from IRI that can help companies harness the growing “swarm” of Big Data and use it quickly and wisely to grow their business, such as the IRI Liquid Data Portfolio, Q-IRI, IRI-Lift (see our May 2016 issue) and other capabilities—all of which attendees were able to check out at the Innovation Showcase, which also included kiosks occupied by SPINS, MaxPoint, Harman, comScore and other IRI partners.

Use Data Wisely
“Data isn’t smart; the use of data is,” said Julie Krueger, director, US retail industry at Google.

Krueger, who has also worked for Helene Curtis, reminded the audience that the online world has already changed the retail world. For example, during the holiday season (November-December), foot traffic declined 60% between 2010 and 2015, but sales increased 17%. What’s more, 70% of all retail sales in the US are digitally influenced.
“Mobile, is at the heart of the revolution,” noted Krueger, who said that 50% of searches on her company’s site are made on a mobile device and 20% of all e-commerce transactions on Black Friday were done on a smart phone.

At the same time, the consumer’s attention is much more fragmented. “Moments have replaced sessions and visits,” she said.

Next, Vivek Sankaran, COO of Frito Lay North America, Inc., explained how companies can advance personalization to unlock ROI. As he started his presentation, he asked the audience if their companies were truly serious about personalization.

“The time is now to get serious. If we don’t, people outside this room will crack the code,” he said.

According to Frito Lay executive, companies like Starbucks have already done so. The java retailer has built an entire infrastructure to support a business that thrives on personalization—from training baristas to creating an entire language that consumers use inside the store—where else does one order coffee by uttering: grande two pump no foam vanilla chai latte?

“They took a commodity and personalized it,” Sankaran said.

The notion of “’want’ has changed to ‘I want my,’” added Sankaran, who cited Lay’s Do Us a Flavor campaign as an example in which an older brand connected with customers on a more personalized level and saw ROI. During the 2013 campaign, there were 3.8 million submissions—and Frito-Lay recorded a 12% increase in sales at the brand, as three new crowd-sourced flavors (including sriracha) hit store shelves.

But the spiciest presentation of the morning came from Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of digital agency VaynerMedia.

Starting off, Vaynerchuk provided insight into his background: he’s the son of a Russian immigrant who was more interested in selling baseball cards than school, but grew his family’s wine business from $3 million to $60 million in five years and launched one of the first e-commerce wine stores in the country, winelibrary.com, in 1996.

“When you have no money, you make every penny count,” he said about the marketing strategy he developed for his family’s wine business.

According to Vaynerchuk, who has been an angel investor and backer of companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Birchbox, the world is seeing the “single biggest shift in consumer attention” thanks to smartphones.

“This is the TV and TV is the radio,” he said, holding his smartphone high in his hand for the audience to see.

Vaynerchuk contends companies that don’t recognize the shift in consumer attention to smartphones and venues like Snapchat and Instagram will share a fate similar to brands that failed to recognize the advantage TV had over radio.

Vaynerchuk also had some pointed criticism for cosmetic company executives who wonder why “they can’t sell makeup when they are spending millions of dollars on advertising in a magazine that a 14-25 year-old will never read.”

Closing out the day’s general session was Michael Strahan, who spoke via Skype. Urging the audience to dream big to achieve their goals, this NFL-star-turned-media-personality/entrepreneur dispensed some advice: make everyone in your organization feel valuable.

“Everyone will go out their way for your company. If the team is winning, everyone is winning,” said Strahan, who wittily reminded the audience that the gap in his teeth “is not as big as it appears on the screen.”

Clothes, Computers and Cars
George Blankenship opened the final day’s general session. In his presentation on the future of innovation, this former Gap, Apple Inc. and Tesla Motors executive discussed the role he played in executing the retail strategy of all three.

Blankenship rose from a store manager in training at the Gap to vice president for real estate strategy. When he was set to retire from the Gap after 20 years, he received a call from Steve Jobs.

“He wanted to sell computers like how Banana Republic sells fashion,” said Blankenship, who signed on with Apple for an 18-month position that turned into a six year tenure during which he opened the company’s first store in 2001 and oversaw Apple’s retail growth across the US and internationally, including building its iconic glass cube in New York City.

While it might be hard to believe now, Apple’s retail success wasn’t a given; according to Blankenship there were challenges from the start. For research, Blankenship would hang out to watch people buy computers in stores like CompUSA and Circuit City and time and time again he would hear customers say that ‘they didn’t want an Apple.”

So to sell computers, Apple planned to “ambush people when they didn’t want to buy a computer” by putting stores in malls.

Blankenship recalled one particular press review that came in after the first store’s opening weekend in 2001—where lines weaved throughout the inside and even carried on outside the mall in Virginia. Peter Burrows of Business Week said that Apple would be “turning the lights out on an expensive and painful mistake in two years’ time.”

After Apple, Blankenship was hired by Elon Musk in 2010 to craft Tesla’s retail strategy. Musk (who Blankenship called the next Steve Jobs) also faced many challenges along the way, but there’s no doubt that Tesla is on the rise. In late March, the auto company started taking reservations for its Model 3, and by April 7, Tesla counted 325,000 reservations (at $1000 a pop)—for a car that won’t be available until sometime in 2017 or 2018!

“Assume that someone is going to redefine your industry,” Blankenship told the audience. “Will it be you?”

Hardly Small Potatoes
If you think selling soap is difficult, how about marketing instant spuds at a time when everyone is talking about eating farm to table?

During the “Who Are the Growth Leaders in CPG” breakout session, IRI and Boston Consulting Group provided a look at the companies that sit atop its ranking of more than 400 CPG manufacturers based on dollar and volume sales growth and market share gains.

Speaking at the session was Drew Facer, president and CEO of Idahoan, the potato company that ranked No. 5 on this year’s Growth Leaders List among small companies (those with 2015 sales between $100 million and $1 billion).

Facer provided insight into what his firm has done to garner an 86% loyalty rating among its consumers—in a commodity category. And while he was talking about ‘taters, his advice was sound for any company, including those in the household and personal care space.

For example, while the CEO demands that everyone in his company is frank about the products they create, Facer also relies on third party sensory panels to deliver honest insight.
“If you don’t have someone to tell you the baby is ugly, you will lose money,” he said.

In closing, Idahoan’s Facer said every brand must continue to grow and develop to remain relevant, because “if you don’t obsolete yourself, someone else will.”