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The Kroger Co. is keeping the capabilities of its retail media network current with consumer and technology trends.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Michael Schuh, VP, media strategy & product at Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), a division of The Kroger Co. focused on connecting brand partners with shoppers and supported by its 84.51° data analytics subsidiary, about how changes in the way customers consume media and search for products are affecting KPM’s operations.

"Brands today often still leverage retail data in a very traditional way,” said Schuh. “There is a lot more that can be done to help brands understand their audience wants and needs. They can segment their audience in different ways than in the past and unlock information on how customers shop for brands, collect more demographic information, and build models to target shopper behavior across all channels.”

According to Schuh, the emergence of new consumer engagement channels, especially next-generation video channels such as connected TV (CTV) and streaming, is changing both how consumers discover and shop brands and how they can be tracked and targeted.

“For the first couple of years of their existence, retail media networks were tied to the brand investments shoppers were making and retail partners’ onsite search and display activities,” said Schuh. “In 2023, we are seeing retail media companies starting to directly influence customer brand investments. Retailers are investing in streaming and programmatic channel advertising. Audience data is going from third party to first party, and retail media networks are now providing better targeting.”

This means advertisers can now use the retailer’s sales data to reach relevant households through CTV and video with digital advertising inventory suppliers including Magnite, OpenX, PubMatic, and Xandr.

Schuh said that KPM also enables its partner brands to target customers by certain key behaviors or propensities.

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