DemandBetter 2011 Recap

A Look Back at Our Ninth Annual Customer Conference

DemandTec's ninth annual customer conference, DemandBetter 2011, which was held at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco on May 9-11, was our best DemandBetter yet. Underscoring the conference theme "Join the Revolution," DemandBetter 2011 highlighted the importance of shopper insights, collaborative planning, and critical business decisions that define how the DemandTec network and user community creates value. DemandBetter 2011 featured two keynote presentations, 17 breakout sessions broken into four distinct tracks, six user training sessions, the DemandTec Solution Showcase, Customer Advisory Board meetings, and multiple peer networking activities.

"The whole program was very impactful."
– National Hardware Retailer

General Session: Dan Fishback Unveils Vision for DemandTec Network

Kicking off DemandBetter 2011, Dan Fishback, President and CEO of DemandTec, outlined the company's significant product development milestones, corporate philanthropy, and acquisitions during the past 12 months.

Fishback also provided a vision for the future of the company, reinforcing that DemandTec will increase its focus in shopper-centric analytics and enable collaborative dialog on the DemandTec network.

"I'm convinced that we need to continue investing in our core business, while introducing social business context to the DemandTec network," he said.

Marc Dietz, Vice President of Marketing, and Armen Najarian, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, at DemandTec, gave a live demonstration and tour of the DemandTec network, showcasing the integration of social business context and new partner services.

"Moving forward, the DemandTec network will expand to include a wide variety of new partner services available to users," Dietz promised.

Also included in Tuesday's opening session was Evan Marcus from Target Corporation, providing an overview of the DemandTec Retail Challenge from the sponsor perspective. More information is available at www.demandtecretailchallenge.com.

Keynote Speaker: Don Peppers Calls for Customer-Centric Approach to Managing Your Business

A customer-centric approach to managing business and collaborating with trading partners served as the launching point for the Tuesday keynote. Don Peppers demonstrated that social channels give marketers and merchandisers a greater ability to match product and services with shopper desires in-store and online. This was the central message of Tuesday's keynote speech by Don Peppers, acclaimed author and a founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group.

"The whole world is optimizing by customer, so focus on more customer-centric solutions, do it more collaboratively, and work to create a genuinely trustable business model," charged Peppers.

Peppers presented a series of examples of how the world of human interaction and content consumption continues to change dramatically as a direct result of technological advances and the explosion of data. He also emphasized the need for what he termed "trustability" for companies to truly engage shoppers and align more effectively with trading partners.

"I really loved the keynote speakers – both were very inspiring."
– National Hardware Retailer

Breakout Sessions

DemandBetter 2011 guests were guided to 17 breakout sessions that addressed key topics for retail marketers, retail merchandisers, consumer products manufacturers, and executives, including: 

• Overcoming Practical Difficulties when Leveraging Shopper Insights
• Maximizing the Return on Investment in Merchandising Analytics
• Trends in Targeted Marketing
• The New Face of Opportunity: Selling in a Changed World
• Collaboration as a Competitive Advantage

"Great companies, great people."
– National Electronics Retailer

DemandTec Solution Showcase

The full suite of DemandTec and partner services on the network were featured during the DemandTec Solution Showcase. Front and center at the event was DemandTec Connect™, a new DemandTec solution designed to infuse the power of social collaboration and context within the many services on the DemandTec network.

"The solution showcase was very valuable."
– National Consumer Products Manufacturer

DemandTec Innovation Awards

The first annual DemandTec Innovation Awards were presented during the DemandBetter Banquet. Five retail and consumer products companies were honored for their use of DemandTec software and analytical services.

For retailers, the Business Enablement award went to FreshDirect, LLC and the Most Revolutionary awards went to Grupo Pão de Açúcar and Target Corporation. On the consumer products side, the winners were Ocean Spray Cranberries for Business Enablement and General Mills for Most Revolutionary.

"I'm excited to participate in the first annual DemandTec Innovation Awards. Congratulations to all the award winners and nominees," said Michael Kantor, Founder & CEO of the Promotion Optimization Institute, and one of this year's judges for the awards.

Closing Keynote: Hugo Bethlem on Sustainability in Retail

Hugo Bethlem, Executive Vice President, Grupo Pão de Açucar presented the closing keynote, which was an inspiring perspective on sustainable, responsible retailing. Bethlem's keynote address focuses on the retailer's role as a responsible corporate citizen serving a diverse and emerging Brazilian economy through multiple store formats.

DemandBetter 2011 Sponsors

DemandBetter 2011 was sponsored by a distinguished group of DemandTec partners, some of which provide services on the network: