Kantar, WPP’s data investment management division, has launched Kantar Consulting, a specialist sales and marketing consultancy designed to ‘switch on growth’ for brand owners and retailers. Kantar Consulting is formed from the merger of four founding brands — Kantar Added Value, Kantar Futures, Kantar Vermeer and Kantar Retail.
As is known, Kantar Retail is a retail, sales ecommerce and shopper specialist. Kantar Vermeer is a brand, organizational excellence expert, focused on marketing ROI. Kantar Added Value delves in cultural understanding, brand purpose and positioning and Kantar Futures in consumer foresight and trends.
Kantar Consulting’s assets include PoweRanking, RetaiI IQ, RichMix, XTEL, VR Infinity, GrowthFinder, Global Monitor, and the ‘Marketing, Insights and Purpose 2020’ series. At launch, its client base includes companies such as Unilever, Pepsi, Tata, Bayer, Amazon, Walmart and several regional clients.
“We live in a new era of consumption. Growth can no longer be assumed, yet there are more, not fewer, opportunities to build breakout brands and new lines of business. Future growth exists, but beyond the comfort zone of most organizations; it is more granular, less silo-ed and more opportunistic,” commented Phil Smiley, CEO, Kantar Consulting, commented.
The company officials explain that since Kantar Consulting is unique in combining retail, sales, ecommerce and marketing expertise, and a deep understanding of how consumers think, live, behave and buy, unlike many other consultancies it is able to both develop strategies and execute against them.
“We will rewrite the rules of demand and the conventions of marketing and sales. Our whole demand philosophy will help clients go beyond strategy to generate and convert demand and create long-lasting, sustainable growth,” Mr Smiley added.
“We are creating Kantar Consulting to fulfil our ambition of bringing a deeper, more rounded consulting offer to our clients. Alone and in combination with other capabilities, Kantar Consulting will be a core part of Kantar and WPP’s success in the future,” added Eric Salama, CEO, Kantar.