DEERFIELD, Ill. -- As candy and snack maker Mondelez International continues its nontraditional work with tech-savvy startups, several retailers, including convenience-store chains 7-Eleven, Mac’s, Kum & Go and QuickChek, have entered the mix in an effort to broaden perspective and inspire real-world disruption.
Continuing an initiative it started in 2012, Deerfield, Ill.-based Mondelez winnowed a number of competing startups to finalists that would work with their in-house, snack-and-candy brand teams and eight retailers. The hope was to develop potential new technologies that would boost consumer affinity and purchase.
“We know the path of purchase with technology has become complex, with consumers really making shopping an anytime, anywhere experience,” said Kim Yansen, director of field shopper marketing for Mondelez. “So the trick with mobile is how to interject and connect with people, making shoppers into consumers.”
Retailers in particular play an important role for Mondelez, Yansen told CSP Daily News, in that snacks and candy are impulse buys that sell best when customers are physically in a store.
“Our categories are not planned purchases,” she said, “So when people park and go inside, we have to … make sure they buy something and lift the category for retailers.”
In a process that began this summer, startups and retailers—including supermarkets and big boxes along with the convenience stores—met with brand teams from Mondelez to develop solutions over a 90-day timeframe. The solutions would undergo field testing to see if they could become viable.
One of the effort’s goals is inspirational. Yansen said the teams will “immerse themselves in the culture of a startup … so you get each perspective and build something powerful together.”
As previously reported, those collaborations are:
- Sampler collaborating with Albertsons & Ritz brand, U.S.
- Shelfbucks collaborating with Meijer & Oreo brand, U.S.
- Shelfbucks collaborating with Wakefern & Halls brand, U.S.
- Freckle IoT collaborating with 7-Eleven & Oreo/belVita brands, U.S.
- Strap collaborating with Kum & Go & Trident brand, U.S.
- Turnstyle Solutions collaborating with QuickChek & Swedish Fish brand, U.S.
- Turnstyle Solutions collaborating with Mac's Convenience Stores (Ontario Division) & Cadbury brand, Canada
- Aislelabs collaborating with Metro & Triscuit brand, Canada
- Earshot collaborating with 7-Eleven Canada & Dentyne brand, Canada
- Aisle411 collaborating with Halls brand, Canada
Mondelez is a global snacking company with 2014 revenue of more than $30 billion. Among its products are biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages, with recognizable brands such as Oreo, LU and Nabisco biscuits; Cadbury, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; Trident gum and Tang beverages.
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