Designing Relevant Experiences with Behavioral Data with Erika Reed, Manager of Data Strategy at General Mills

This episode features an interview with Erika Reed, Manager of Data Strategy at General Mills. After serving companies like Best Buy and Life Time in the marketing space, Erika ventured into analytics in 2020. She now uses data and technology to drive insights into action and helps brands deliver meaningful and engaging consumer experiences.

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Erika to discuss providing a value exchange for consumer data, grappling with unknown traffic, and focusing on behavioral data instead of demographics.

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Key Takeaways:

• More than ever, consumers are not willing to readily give up their data. However, they will for the right value exchange. Offering them points, dollars, or convenience opens the door for companies to collect rich purchase data while providing value back to consumers.
• When it comes to building strategies, focus on the insights behavioral data tells you, not just demographics. Behavioral data allows marketers to create profiles and build relationships with consumers based on their purchasing habits.
• It’s critical to ask consumers precise questions when first engaging with them. For example, Pillsbury asks consumers, “Who do you cook for?” when signing up for recipe inspiration. They can then combine this information with other data to create a customized and relevant experience.

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“We have all of this behavioral data, which is the most important type of data in my opinion. We can get to know a lot about you based on what you're buying, and we can use that to go find more of you. [...] Historically, we use demographic data as a proxy to get closer to relevancy, but now we have all of this rich purchase data that can give you signals that demographic data can't.“ – Erika Reed

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:07) - Erika’s career journey

*(08:10) - Industry trends in consumer engagement in CPG

*(11:44) - Changes in consumer behavior in CPG

*(21:40) - Challenges in the consumer engagement journey

*(31:08) - How Erika defines “good data”

‍*(36:06) - An example of another company doing it right with consumer engagement (hint: it’s DSW)

*(39:30) - Changes in consumer engagement in the next 6-12 months

*(42:58) - Erika’s recommendations for upleveling consumer engagement

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Links:

Connect with Erika on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

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