R.J. Reynolds delivers on its pledge to its retail partners with a powerful new online tool: Get Engaged.
R.J. Reynolds has launched Get Engaged, a new feature on EngageRJRT.com, the online resource for R.J. Reynolds’ retail partners.
Get Engaged was created as a research and learning platform intended to provide retailers with shopper insights and other educational materials to help manage the tobacco category.
It is estimated that nearly 70% of convenience store transactions include very little conversation with the consumer, and dialogue can often seem forced. Get Engaged provides access to data, learning and insights that emphasize the importance of engagement. It also offers relevant training resources developed to help retail associates and managers improve their interactions with adult tobacco consumers.
Why Offer this Resource?
It’s well established that the tobacco category drives foot traffic in convenience stores. Get Engaged helps retailers better understand shopper behaviors such as frequency, loyalty, and cross-category purchasing.
Information available within the “Shopper Insights” section of Get Engaged can provide R.J. Reynolds’ retail partners with a better understanding as to what the market basket of an adult tobacco consumer might look like.
How Did Get Engaged Come About?
From the beginning, the Get Engaged platform was designed and built while working closely with retailers. The process involved reviewing scan data from over 67 million transactions, interviews with nearly 4000 shoppers, and conversations with adult tobacco consumers in convenience stores over the course of a year.
R.J. Reynolds’ vision for the tool is that it will continue to evolve, and grow over time, based on marketplace and retail dynamics as category transformation occurs.
Get Engaged was built with collaboration in mind. That’s part of what the Optimize tool offers within Get Engaged.
What is “Optimize?”
Within Get Engaged, there is a tool called “Optimize.” Optimize is a resource that R.J. Reynolds’ retail partners can use, as part of their category assessment, to evaluate the potential profitability of an adult tobacco consumer. It offers an in-depth look at profitability, the products that adult tobacco consumers typically purchase, and how often they visit convenience stores. It allows R.J. Reynolds’ retail partners to look at the category and understand the profit drive from all major tobacco segments—cigarettes, moist, snus, OTP—with views on price tier, key brands and transaction types.
For example, Optimize can help retailers understand the dynamics of single-pack versus multi-pack adult tobacco consumers—which is critical considering the proliferation of multi-pack offers throughout the marketplace.
Optimize builds in metrics from adult tobacco consumer shopper insights and allows a retailer to use its own account-specific details to assess how potential changes may impact the bottom line.
How Can Retailers access Get Engaged?
Get Engaged launched the week of Feb. 27, and is available to all RJRT retail and wholesale customers exclusively through the customer Website: EngageRJRT.com. To register for access to the Website, please see your R.J. Reynolds representative.
Mike Auger, R.J. Reynolds vice president of trade marketing development weighed in on Get Engaged:
“We’re speaking to the retailer, our customer, in a more collaborative way. We’re not telling them simply, ‘how to grow business by selling more Camel.’ We’re going much broader than that. Many of our own people, as well as our retail partners, have been asking for this for years. Based on customer satisfaction surveys, we’ve found that R.J. Reynolds is seen as a trusted partner, as a tobacco manufacturer who is highly engaged with its customers. And now we have a way to add more value to our relationships with our retail partners.
“As we approach a store, when we visit either at the buying office or the outlet level, we’re bringing more than just what retailers may traditionally expect out of a consumer products company. We do those traditional things to help build your business, but another value we bring is education and meaningful engagement with our retail partners through tools such as EngageRJRT.com, Get Engaged, and Optimize. It involves the thought leadership that we remain committed to. We’re doing something different. We’re thinking differently. Driving innovation throughout our business is a key component of our Transforming Tobacco strategy.
“We’d like to think we’re bringing a unique competitive advantage to our retail partners. And there’s much more to come in terms of what we can bring to a retailer. We’ll work together with our retail partners as we continue to transform the industry and evolve the Get Engaged platform.”