Robert Holston - SymphonyIRI Group

About Robert Holston:

Robert Holston is a 17-year veteran of the consumer products and retail industries and currently serves as senior vice president of Modeling & Analytics Solutions for SymphonyIRI Group. He focuses on commercialization of consumer and shopper analytical insights to drive accelerated growth for leading CPG brands.

Prior to SymphonyIRI Holston was practice leader for Shopper Marketing at Deloitte Consulting LLC. Previously, he was the global director of Shopper Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, where he was responsible for the development and deployment of “The Coca-Cola Way of Shopper Marketing” to the global business operating units and customer teams. Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, he worked for a tier-one management consulting firm in its Brand Strategy and Customer Relationship Management Practice, where he supported the development and growth of the Brand Analytics business. A few of his clients included Pepsi Bottling Company, Nestle, Samsung Electronics, British Petroleum Retail, and ExxonMobil. Holston also spent five years with Mobil Oil Corporation, where he gained considerable retail experience in roles of increasing responsibility in finance, retail brand development, store operations and franchise management.

Holston is a frequent contributor to publications and his analysis and points-of-view on retail marketing and the commercialization of brand strategy have appeared in AdAge, Brand Week, Fortune, and in The Financial Times. He was the 2008 keynote presenter at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) annual sales and marketing conference.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from Drexel University and a master’s degree in business administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Robert Holston:

Hot Topics

Richer, cross-industry collaboration: Retailers and manufacturer partners can produce tangible results including aligned objectives, stronger shopper insights and joint planning, activation and measurement through richer collaboration.
Extract more ROI from effective branding and marketing: Effective branding and marketing programs are essential in building equity that engages shoppers and leads them to make purchases, resulting in sales growth and stronger relationships with partners and customers.

Hot Topics

Richer, cross-industry collaboration: Retailers and manufacturer partners can produce tangible results including aligned objectives, stronger shopper insights and joint planning, activation and measurement through richer collaboration.
Extract more ROI from effective branding and marketing: Effective branding and marketing programs are essential in building equity that engages shoppers and leads them to make purchases, resulting in sales growth and stronger relationships with partners and customers.


	“Investing in aggressive, but carefully planned shopper-centric segmentation strategy now and enabling it with scale technology and analytics capabilities while shoppers are re-evaluating their attitudes, has the potential to significantly increase shopper loyalty and result in long-term sales uplift and improvements in business health.” “Investing in aggressive, but carefully planned shopper-centric segmentation strategy now and enabling it with scale technology and analytics capabilities while shoppers are re-evaluating their attitudes, has the potential to significantly increase shopper loyalty and result in long-term sales uplift and improvements in business health.”