Kroger Blueprint 2023 Event Recap

Last month our Harvest Group Kroger team hosted our annual Kroger Blueprint event in Cincinnati. We created our series of Blueprint events to remove the barrier between retailer strategy and our clients by hearing directly from retailer executives about the strategies for growth in the coming year and how they apply specifically to your business. 

A Day of Community, Collaboration, and Connection  

The additional benefit of an event like Blueprint is the community, collaboration, and connection we get to experience between our clients, Harvest Group team, and Kroger representatives. Our desire is to foster an environment where learning can happen at any time throughout the event. 

We were fortunate enough to hear from several Kroger, 84.51°, and Harvest Group leaders, most notably  Stuart Aitken  (Chief Merchant and Marketing Officer),  Carlo Baldan  (Group Vice President, Center Store Merchandising),  Michael McGowan  (Senior Vice President, Data & Insights, 84.51°), and  Cara Pratt  (Senior Vice President, Kroger Precision Marketing, 84.51°). 

The information and insights shared were abundant. Below we’re recapping just a few of the top strategies covered at the event:  

Five Insights from Harvest Group’s Kroger Blueprint 2023 Event

1. The “balance the consumer” strategy will continue and impact promotional strategy.

    • Stuart discussed the continued strategy to win with Very Price Sensitive (VPS) consumers by creating price points which drive trips and repeat. 
    • The Director and Category Manager (CM) panels discussed that Kroger will be moving to “fewer hotter” promotions to hit key price points to get consumers “off the couch and in the store.”

2. The impact of the “increase pack out/limit out-of-stock” (OOS) strategy will continue to be felt at the shelf-level.

    • Kroger is continuing to move to increase pack-out to at least 80%, in an effort to limit OOS during these key hotter price promotional timeframes. 
    • This will result in potential SKU reduction at shelf and an ask for change in case pack sizes to increase pack out. 
    • Suppliers should be ready to defend shelf space, drive units per store, and support innovation with well-rounded marketing and promotional plans. 

3. Retail media investment has become table stakes.

    • As we heard from Cara Pratt (KPM), the CMs, and Directors on the panel, the expectation of investment in KPM is increasing. 
    • We heard from Sejal Sheth (Vice President, Digital Commerce & Media, Harvest Group) and Mark Stamps (Vice President Retail Media Development, Harvest Group) about the increased value of developing a strategy and execution plan for on- and offsite as well as closed loop reporting to determine the actual ROI/ROAS on your investment. 
    • Both KPM and Harvest Group executives walked through the impact of Kroger’s new in-house, self-serve ad platform that launched on October 9.

4. Market Share + Units + Households + Repeat Rate.

    • At last year’s Blueprint, it was clear the #1 metric that mattered was market share. 
    • While that continues to be the case, it was evident from Stuart, Carlo, the CMs, and Directors that Kroger continues to monitor additional key metrics which lead to market share growth, including units, total households, and repeat rate.  
    • These leading indicators result in the lagging indicator of market share which is still the critical measure of success. 

5. 3CM will expand in 2024 and all manufacturers are called to participate.

    • While it was announced last week that you must invest in Stratum Platinum to be a formal participant in the 3CM process, we heard from Carlo, the Directors, and CMs that they continue to lean on emerging brands for category level data related to trends, innovation, consumer preferences, and competitive intelligence. 
    • The result of the 3CM process is a formalized 3-year strategy which is signed off by the Directors. 
    • Suppliers of all sizes should be asking what role the category plays in the entire store and what role their brand plays within the future strategy of the category. 

We heard from Stuart and Carlo that the expectation for the merger with Albertsons is on track to close in Q2 of 2024. The direction from Kroger leadership was to “stay the course” and that “nothing changes on day 1, day 2, or day 3.” Leaders asked for suppliers to continue to work with the Kroger team to prepare as if the merger will happen and reiterated that the first elements of integration will be related to pricing and supply chain. 

We are incredibly grateful for the dedication of time and resources from our Kroger and 84.51° partners to make our event meaningful for our clients. 

We look forward to continuing these events in the future as we pursue the strategy of removing the barrier between retailer and client. If you’re interested in learning more about Harvest Group’s services at Kroger, send us an email at hello@harvestgroup.com or fill out our Contact Us form here.