Simpactful Senior Partner, Heather Burgess, and Senior Consultant, Jan Grammerstorf, were invited back to guest lecture at the Wharton School of Business by Lecturer, Dr. Annie Wilson, PhD who received a Doctorate in Marketing from Harvard Business School and a BA in English and Psychology from Georgetown University. Her work has been published in numerous marketing journals including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Association of Consumer Research, and Appetite, and has been covered in Harvard Business Review.
This science-led and thought-provoking approach to Marketing and Retail has made Dr. Wilson’s classes popular amongst MBA and undergrad Wharton students alike. “This course is designed to teach students the principles of consumer psychology and to understand how they can use foundational principles of consumer behavior theory as both a lens through which they use to approach marketing strategy, and a toolbox for designing and implementing tactics in the marketplace.”
Heather and Jan were invited to share their deep expertise on the importance of understanding and integrating principles of consumer psychology into omni retail. “This is the second time Heather and Jan have given a guest lecture in my courses, and both times I have been amazed, not only by their wealth of expertise, but their ability to make the content accessible, digestible, and applicable for students who want to work in these marketing areas moving forward,” remarked Dr. Wilson.
Jan Grammerstorf has spent a career helping to transform the retail environment and is passionate about giving back to the University of Pennsylvania. “Forging strong partnerships with retailers is something I appreciated during my 30 years in the CPG industry at P&G and Mars and it was enjoyable to return to my alma mater and share with Dr. Wilson’s class what I learned through my experiences. Whether you are shopping in a physical store or online, retailers and suppliers are working together to exceed their shopper’s expectations. The Pandemic emphasized how important it is to make sure you are 100% in-stock on your best customer’s preferred items and that you use timely brand and retailer data to provide an assortment that meets essential needs and is on trend. Dr. Wilson’s class was highly engaged and asked great questions about driving value impression and orchestrating shopper behavior to deliver bigger more profitable shopping baskets. We discussed why retailers and suppliers are exploring unique relationships in retail stores and how the omni-channel experience has evolved from brick and mortar and on-line to multiple fulfillment models that deliver the experience consumers desire wherever and whenever they want to shop. Dr. Wilson’s class was well grounded in consumer behavior and research that will enable them to lead in this space as they pursue their post MBA careers.”
Heather Burgess reflected on the experience: “I spent several years in corporate leadership roles at Procter & Gamble codifying, teaching, and consulting with new approaches to brand building an innovation leveraging emerging insights from the science. In parallel, retailers, researchers and the Sales organization worked to explore ways to harness the same insights to make shopping more intuitive. I was then fortunate to spend several more years working at Amazon, where I considered how retailers and brands could apply the principles to drive breakthrough in an evolving omni-shopping environment in which “self-selection” is done within differentiated physical, desktop, mobile and tablet shopping environments through platforms serving up personalized organic search results and ads. I am incredibly inspired to see researchers like Dr. Wilson taking the discussion to the next level with the next wave of CPG leaders. The students in Dr. Wilson’s class challenged us with thoughtful questions, including how brands and retailers might apply the drivers to Marketing and Retail choices within the metaverse. We have only begun to uncover the possibilities”
Simpactful is a CPG and retail consultancy featuring successful practitioners from both the Retail and Brand side of the desk working shoulder to shoulder with clients to solve business challenges with proven, intuitive, and impactful omnichannel solutions. To learn more about how Simpactful experts from both the brand and retailer sides of the CPG desk can help you, contact the Simpactful team today at contact@simpactful.com or 925-234-6394. Visit www.simpactful.com
