Behavioral Coaching: A New Frontier for Test & Learns

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, the need for smart, data-driven decision making is more critical than ever.  This is particularly true in the world of CPG and retail marketing, where the stakes for innovation are high and the margin for error is often razor-thin.  The reality is that as many as 95% of new CPG innovations fail, despite significant investment in consumer research, product development, and large-scale marketing campaigns.   

The question that arises: how can companies cultivate an environment of successful innovation while mitigating the risks associated with in-market failure?  One promising solution is the concept of “test and learns”, which enable marketers to make small, incremental changes based on observed shopper behavior, driving substantial improvements that can perfectly position a great idea to make it in an oversaturated, noisy, and evolving retail environment.  Test and learns are by no means a novel concept, however, developments in AI and machine learning allow marketers to leverage observational insights through the lens of specialized “behavioral coaching” to provide the objectivity and prevision necessary to make informed decisions with speed and scale.   

Test and Learns: Turning Great Ideas Into Success Stories 

The test and learn approach is simple, yet powerful.  It involves applying an intentional stimulus, monitoring reaction, measuring for impact, and iterating to deliver the optimal final deliverable.  CPG marketers look to test and learns to ideate and evolve, but often in a setting grounded in forced feedback, such as consumer surveys, test groups, etc.  While those practices are quite valuable for certain stages of the innovation lifecycle, there remains a missing piece of evidence that is plainly hidden from view within the four walls of the company headquarters.  VideoMining has brought test and learns to a new frontier, empowering marketers to ask the question: once an idea becomes reality and hits the store floor, what happens next? 

VideoMining has brought test and learns to a new frontier, by creating a platform that brings immediate, scalable visibility to the in-store environment, experience, and the behaviors and reactions of shoppers when faced with specific stimuli.  The key element here that unlocks a world of knowledge for marketers is that this research is observed, unaided and unsolicited, among real shoppers, in real stores, facing real stimuli.  The big picture, which was previously veiled in theory, can now be rooted in fact, making test and learns more valuable, insightful, and impactful. 

Behavioral Coaching: Elevate Your Innovation Process and Win with Shoppers 

Behavioral coaching plays a crucial role in VideoMining’s test and learn process.  By providing both qualitative and quantitative behavioral feedback, which is aggregated, assessed, and interpreted across millions of shopper trips through the power of AI-led machine learning, VideoMining helps marketers ideate with intention, iterate, and develop to deliver maximum impact.  Through this process, marketers gain an in-depth, behind-the-curtain understanding of their shoppers’ needs, preferences, and motivations.  This feedback can be leveraged to refine and optimize processes, products and marketing strategies, leading to improved performance in-store. 

Where can the test and learn concept with behavioral coaching be applied?  The opportunities are limitless, but there are 3 key areas where CPG marketers often look to this practice, and VideoMining’s expertise: 

The behavioral insights obtained through VideoMining’s unique AI-powered observational research platform, coupled with our behavioral science expertise (honed with 100s of in-store tests) makes VideoMining the perfect partner for ideating, testing, learning, and building the future of shopper-centric retail. 

What’s your big idea?  Find out how VideoMining can help redefine test and learns and bring your big idea to life.  Drop us a line at solutions@videomining.com