• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, November 10, 2015

Walmart and Procter & Gamble still come in first place in Kantar Retail’s PowerRanking, a benchmarking study that compares how stores and brands view each other. But this year, fueled by digital and data infused-marketing, Kroger and PepsiCo have landed in the No. 2 spot—a first for each brand in the 19-year survey. And Kantar says the shifts reveal just how critical digitally-enabled strategies have become.

“This year’s rankings show how important it is for companies to be prepared to pivot,” says Ginny Valkenburgh, SVP and one of the authors. “Those who are ready to move and make decisions, with their analytics in place, are doing better.” 

She says retailers continually mentioned PepsiCo’s innovative marketing approaches, outranking them even above P&G. “It has done some great work in driving growth, especially with digital campaigns, tailoring them to retailers’ needs,” she tells Marketing Daily. The rankings, based on data from the 600 largest retailers and manufacturers, is based on how trading partners evaluate each other in key areas of their commercial relationships.

She says PepsiCo is also a good example of “the rise of the entrepreneurial company, with a lot of pressure on snack food business to have healthier snacks, for example. It has done a good job of bringing the retailer along the pipeline of these new better-for-you and more convenient products.”

Among manufacturers, General Mills came in No. 3, followed by Coca-Cola and Kraft Food Groups.

Kroger owes its increased ranking to both optimization of data-driven tactics and its customer-first strategy. And among retailers, Target is ranked third, followed by Costco and Amazon. But while Amazon continues to gain, “what surprised us is that while we’ve seen some real gains and big jumps in Amazon, it seem to have stabilized somewhat in the overall composite of the PowerRanking,” she says.

And in fact, Walmart’s e-commerce strengths are solidifying its overall dominance, adds Dan Raynak, EVP of strategy and development. “Walmart is No. 1, as it has been for all 19 years, but when we ask who is going to be the power retailer of the future, it’s score actually goes up. Manufacturers understand that Walmart has a lot of money and resources focused on winning. And when ranked by efficiency, it far outpaces all other retailers.”