With McVitie’s featuring in over 120 countries, pladis Global is an industry-leading producer of biscuits and confectionery. Alongside this core brand, the company makes, markets and distributes many other delicious brands including the iconic Turkish brand Ulker, Carr’s, BN, Verkade and Go Ahead, along with a recent partnership with Godiva to create delicious premium chocolate ranges for the chocolate aisles of supermarkets and convenience outlets.
Pladis Global Company Facts
- Pladis Global has a workforce of 16,000, spanning 25 factories in 11 countries
- Biscuit sales in the UK hit just over £2.5bn in retail, bought by 99.5% of all households
- In the UK, pladis is the biscuits category leader, with a market share of 24.5%
- Pladis Global brands were responsible for delivering more than two-thirds of category growth in 2019
Pladis Global Primary Business Goals
The main goal of the Shopper Fundamentals workshops was to share knowledge and expertise with the pladis customer sales teams to provide them with both an understanding of fundamental shopper expertise and also the ability to have broader conversations with retailers.
- Introduce shopper needs into category planning and range reviews
- Understand the basics of shopper psychology in-store (and online)
- Encourage greater retailer engagement using shopper expertise as a lever
- Share information relating to in-store visibility, appeal, engagement, and sales
Adcock Solutions Ltd designed, developed and facilitated a series of insightful Shopper Fundamentals workshops that embedded the core foundations of effective shopper psychology within pladis customer teams.
“Phillip’s sessions were thought provoking and helped support our commercial teams in thinking beyond the numbers"
The Workshops
We scheduled six 1-hour workshops as part of pladis Global’s ‘Customer Academy’ training programme, engaging with more than 90 sales team members from across the globe. The sessions combined knowledge sharing with regular Q&A sessions to not only accelerate the attendees' understanding of shoppers, but also give them an opportunity to consider new in-store and online possibilities.
Following the success of our first workshop, subsequent sessions built the pladis knowledge base and focussed on:
- Understanding the different types of shopper
- Understanding how shoppers shop for biscuits
- How to communicate with shoppers in-store
“The sessions have provoked a strong interest in shopper psychology within the team and we look forward to rolling out the learnings to the wider business”
The Outcome
A key area of opportunity was identified that involved leveraging shopper psychology to optimise in-store effectiveness. In other words, how to get the most from each shopper facing initiative, promotion and even packaging.
Pladis Global have now completed their shopper module and are disseminating the insights further throughout their business.
They have recognised the potential from embracing shopper psychology and behavioural science and have invested in actively growing their expertise in this area, helped in no small part by Adcock Solutions Ltd.
Action Points
- Develop more relevant conversations with retailers by incorporating shopper insights
- Respond to what real shoppers really want when shopping for biscuits
- Adapt in-store displays for various retail channels and shopper missions/need states
- Create more effective and meaningful engagement with both shoppers and retailers
Summary
When an understanding of shoppers is combined with a more psychological approach to shopper needs in-store (and online), the result is a better biscuits category; better for shoppers, better for retailers and better for the brands they sell.
