Numerator’s third annual Emerging Brands Summit was held on Thursday, September 12 2024. The virtual thought leadership event focused on how emerging brands are unlocking the power of panel data to accelerate new opportunities based on verified shopping behaviors, consumer attitudes, interests, and opinions.
Insights from our clients & presenters:
Adnan Durrani (CEO & Founder) of Saffron Road shared his perspective on how as the US population is becoming increasingly diverse, especially amongst Gen Z and Millennials, brands will need to align with the changing demographic trends. These diversifying and influential younger cohorts have an increased demand for global cuisines, as well as for quality meal solutions as they are intentional about their health and are more likely to shop “better-for-you”. Brands will need to consider how product offerings can meet diverse needs for younger generations, whose purchasing power will be growing and could be the ‘game-changers’ driving future growth opportunities.
Syndicated data is tactical. Numerator is very strategic. – Saffron Road
Lindsey Scholtz (Director of Brand Management) for Every Man Jack led the audience on a journey to understand how Every Man Jack has become a trusted partner for retailers such as Target. The Men’s Health & Beauty category continues to evolve as men are focusing on personal care more than ever before and want products that align with their values. Numerator data helped Every Man Jack take a “consumer led” approach through identifying who their consumer is and why they bring value to the category, how their new items could convert more shoppers and drive incrementality and have informed successful scent innovations through direct consumer feedback. These insights have ultimately further developed a strategic relationship with their key retail partners.
This data led to the launch of our newest scent, and this research has fueled a partnership with Walmart. It’s still early, but happy to say this is one of our most successful launches we’ve seen.
– Every Man Jack
Matt Gorman (Vice President, Category Management & Insights) shared his unique perspective on brand evaluation having been a part of BODYARMOR during their acquisition with Coca Cola in 2021, to now having helped Impact Capital Private Equity acquire growing brands such as JUNKLESS. During this session, Matt shared his perspectives on how data helped position BODYARMOR externally, and how he’s taken these findings and is applying them to building the JUNKLESS brand, as well as what other factors he considers in brand evaluation with a consumer lens.
We need to bring awareness to the brand, not just with retailers that don’t have the brand but with retailers that do because it’s a very fragmented category… having a brand like JUNKLESS won’t get a ton of share of thought. The story we tell though is one where we highlight how we’re helping offset the negative trends we see among larger brands and the overall softening of the category. Numerator helps us provide the data behind that story. – Impact Capital Private Equity
Graham Goeppert (Senior Vice President of Digital Commerce & Media) introduced to the audience how poppi identified which generational segments they should target and how to best reach these audiences. Numerator data provided insights such as generational household affinity to other brands, what the dollar value could be of increasing each generation’s shopper trips, and what are the right media channels to reach each of these key generational segments. This allowed poppi to strengthen their media targeting through mapping growth according to consumer segments, incorporating shopper profile insights into media planning, and develop tracking for media accountability & optimizations.
Numerator’s Dr. Leo Feler (Chief Economist) closed out the summit by building on Adnan’s commentary that younger consumers are more diverse, with migration as the leading contributor in US population growth, proving this is a key segment for emerging brands to connect with as they enter their prime purchasing power years. Analyzing where emerging brands can capture diversifying consumer spend, not only do Costco and Whole Foods see a higher percentage of sales from emerging vs. enterprise brands, but these retailers also have resonated more with 1st and 2nd generation immigrant shoppers, accounting for nearly 40% of sales. A growing category as an example of success that has captured more consumer segments is Prebiotic and Probiotic sodas. Since 2020, distribution has grown in new channels, such as club and mass, with Target and Whole Foods being the top retailers in 2023. The category also has the right offering of a “better-for-you” soda, as it now sources the most absolute dollars of growth from Soft Drinks out of all other Beverage categories. And lastly, it’s bringing in new consumers from broader diverse demographic cohorts, appealing to a wider audience than its core early adopters.
Younger consumers tend to be more multicultural and it’s also the case that they tend to be more experimental, or “brand promiscuous”, their brand preferences aren’t set and they are willing to try new things.
– Numerator
Numerator remains committed to helping emerging brands achieve sustainable and long-term growth. If you’d like to dig deeper into anything we covered at Emerging Brands Summit, reach out to your Numerator representative or get in touch today to discuss how we can help tell your brand’s story from a consumer lens.
