In a rapidly shifting marketplace, brands are leaning more heavily than ever on retail data to navigate economic volatility and changing consumer behavior. Jenny Holleran, vp of media, insights and loyalty at Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), discussed how retail media networks are reshaping marketing strategy during an interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan.
Data signals are essential amid market volatility
“Brands are facing a lot of volatility today,” Holleran said, pointing to inflation and rapidly evolving consumer habits. Retailers like Kroger, she explained, play a key role in helping brands stay ahead of those changes by sharing timely and actionable data.
“Are customers becoming more price sensitive? Are they loyal shoppers, or new to the brand?” Holleran asked. “Those signals help brands adjust quickly and create trends before they happen.”
By providing granular, near real-time insights, Kroger’s retail data allows marketers to better understand who their customers are, and how their preferences are shifting across categories and channels.
Retail data is transforming media planning
Holleran described retail data’s impact on media strategy as “wildly disruptive — in the best way.” She said that brands and agencies aren’t any longer thinking about data only in terms of on-site or lower-funnel activation. Instead, they’re applying those insights across the entire marketing funnel, from streaming TV and connected media to product listings and in-store campaigns.
“Some people may say the funnel is dead,” Holleran said. “But it’s really about using data through every stage of the funnel.”
That evolution, she noted, is enabling Kroger’s advertising partners to scale omnichannel campaigns and connect brand-building activity more directly to measurable outcomes.
Measuring true incrementality
As retail media grows, many marketers are grappling with how to measure performance across platforms. Holleran acknowledged the complexity: “I don’t envy brands trying to make sense of measurement today.”
At Kroger, she said, data accuracy and incrementality are top priorities. The company captures 96% of all transactions, across both brick-and-mortar and digital channels, allowing it to analyze long-term buying behavior over decades of customer relationships.
That depth of insight supports more rigorous test-and-control models, ensuring that reported lift represents genuine incremental sales, not purchases that would have occurred anyway.
“If I were a brand, I’d ask: What’s your data set? What’s your methodology?” Holleran advised. “That’s what drives real growth.”
Retail media as a brand growth engine
Asked whether retail media’s rise means all marketing is turning into performance marketing, Holleran pushed back on the idea.
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” she said.
While retail media delivers measurable sales results, it also strengthens long-term brand growth.
“We have an incredible understanding of who our customers are and what drives their loyalty,” Holleran said. “When brands grow, Kroger grows.”
She added that retail media offers an unprecedented ability to connect metrics across the full funnel, from brand exposure to conversion, creating a more complete picture of how marketing investments build equity over time.
“Some say retail media is just media,” Holleran said. “I think it’s better, because when you grow, we grow.”
You’re watching “Using Precision Data to Build Brands”, a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Kroger Precision Marketing. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
