Catalina Collaborates on In-Store Promotions with Kroger’s 84.51° Labs
The shopper intelligence firm Catalina and Kroger’s retail data and analytics unit, 84.51°, are collaborating on a solution that will deliver Kroger’s digital promotional offers to customers who shop exclusively in-store. Catalina Reach Extender will be a complementary solution to the way 84.51° delivers offers currently. It’s designed to expand the impact of promotional offers by aligning those offers to the way customers actually shop.
“It’s a way to ensure that all Kroger shoppers have access to meaningful, personalized value,” says Wesley Bean, U.S. chief retail officer for Catalina.
Shoppers who’ve been identified by 84.51° as shopping exclusively in-store at Kroger’s will be flagged, and Catalina will provide relevant offers to that group via in-lane printers located at store checkouts. The offers themselves will complement the targeted promotional offers that 84.51° already delivers through Kroger’s website.
The collaboration is designed to bring more in-store shoppers into Kroger’s fold, and to align online and offline promotions in a more uniform way. It also provides Kroger with the ability to connect certain CPG brands partners with the company’s engaged customer base.
“We are focused on working backwards from our customers’ strategies,” says Kevin Hunter, Catalina’s chief commercial officer. “With the rapidly changing retail landscape over the past few years, it’s imperative that we listen deeply to the needs of our customers in how they seek to engage their shoppers, and to be agile and efficient in our approach to drive value into the partnership.”
84.51° currently delivers personalized promotional offers to Kroger shoppers via its website, mobile app, and, more broadly, through its Loyal Customer Mailer. The company is a retail data science, insights, and media firm born from Kroger’s acquisition of the U.S. assets of its data science partner dunnhumby back in 2015. 84.51° has found incredible success thus far; it’s credited with helping Kroger become an omnichannel powerhouse in the grocery sector.
Late last year, Kroger and 84.51° launched a Science and Technology Solutions team focused on delivering solutions that could someday “revolutionize customer engagement in retail.”
This is just the latest in a string of high-profile collaborations for Catalina, as well. Hunter says the shopper intelligence firm has invested a lot in innovation, and it sees the value in strategic partnerships.
“No company can be an expert at everything; we have the self-awareness to know that working closely with smart people in specialized and complementary organizations will make our overall offering more powerful and successful in reaching 100% of consumers and delivering measurable ROI for our retail, brand and agency partners,” Hunter says.
As far as what comes next, Hunter believes Catalina’s investments in innovation and collaborations with other industry players will continue, even as other firms are tightening their belts ahead of what could be a rocky year in tech.
“Innovation will continue to be at the heart of everything we do at Catalina,” Hunter says. “While we pioneered the in-lane channel 40 years ago, we have transformed into an omni-channel media platform that delivers highly-targeted, personalized and measurable promotional messages across in-store, CTV, OOH, and digital media with an obsession on effectively measuring the results that these channels deliver for our partners.”
