Commentary

The Weather Company Predicts Consumer Demand For Brands

The Weather Company is working with brands to forecast consumer needs and ensure there are enough products on shelves when customers look for them in retail stores.

The intelligent platform, Weather Engine, is based on AI and The Weather Company's 40 years worth of data. And it's attracting lots of brands based on its enterprise-level capabilities. 

“We all swim in data,” says Randi Stipes, CMO at The Weather Company, but finding the correct data led the company to build the platform to forecast product demands. 

Predictive product forecasting partly based on weather data attracted OFF, the well-known insect repellent. The company combined its first-party data with The Weather Company’s decades worth of weather data to better understand the impact of insect activity based on weather.

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That understanding led the company to make better product manufacturing, merchandising and distribution decisions, as well as advertising and marketing through combining data. Having that insight determined whether stores would have enough products on their shelves when consumers look for them in stores.

“Weather has become more volatile, and the dependence that brands have on the weather isn’t binary,” she said. “It’s about extracting the insights that are not as obvious as to what drives consumer behavior.”

The Weather Company’s business has historically focused on helping brands use the data for advertising and marketing, but now has expanded into forecasting, inventory, and pricing, Stipes says. It is based on the idea that marketers are responsible for much more than advertising.

Early this year, The Weather Company released a report noting that supply-chain optimization, and demand planning are the latest reasons for this type of data.  

Eight out of 10 retail executives said enhanced intelligence from weather data has the potential to contribute positively to annual revenue growth.

Ninety-four percent of CPG executives said they will increase their use of or continue to use weather data in the coming years.

They also said the data can be used to plan for higher operational costs such as insurance premiums, material prices, and transportation, and helps to evaluating potential profits and risks in new markets and informing decisions on business expansion.

Some 78% of executives said incorporating advanced weather analytics into their decision-making processes could enhance their ability to anticipate and respond to market fluctuations.

Seventy-seven percent who participated in the survey said using weather insights effectively can help them be better at their job, and 75% leverage weather intelligence as a service would provide greater value compared to relying solely on raw data.

Magid surveyed 297 C-suite and VP-level executives in the U.S. on behalf of The Weather Company. The qualitative phase involved 45 in-depth online interviews, and the quantitative phase involved 252 respondents. Fielding data were not mentioned.

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