Markant Austria: 11th Information Day
The 11th Information Day took place on 17 October 2024 at Palais Ferstel in Vienna. Around 250 Markant partners from industry and retail took part in the event and listened to presentations by renowned speakers from the worlds of business, science and sport. Journalist Corinna Milborn hosted the programme.
To kick off the event, Corinna Milborn interviewed the Managing Director of Markant AG, Dominik Scheid, and the Managing Director of Markant Austria, Thomas Zechner, about the current market situation and new developments within the Markant Group.
"As Markant, we are constantly growing and are currently experiencing a very strong increase in the need to further expand our range of services," explained Thomas Zechner by way of introduction. The current situation is tense and people are reacting with reluctance to buy. "That is why we want to support our partners even better and create efficiency and process optimisation," added Dominik Scheid. Markant has therefore set itself the task of further developing existing services and creating new ones at the same time. This has now resulted in a broad service portfolio along the value chain.
As a data-driven company, particular attention is paid to the topic of cyber security: "We have a high level of resilience and continue to work on our resilience every day through consistent digitalisation - for ourselves and our partners," emphasised Dominik Scheid. The Markant Marketplace of Services should also be emphasised. Over 2,500 companies are already using the platform and the number is growing every day. "We have come a long way towards realising our vision of becoming the leading service platform in Europe and some of the services are already in use in Austria," said the Managing Directors.
There is a lot to come for the industry, especially with regard to environmental issues: "It is becoming particularly difficult for small and medium-sized companies to maintain an overview. We therefore want to create transparency," announced Dominik Scheid. "Thanks to Markant Austria's initiative, we have succeeded in setting up a comprehensive ECR working group that deals with the European Supply Chain Directive (CSDDD). Together with all retailers and many industrial companies, we have set ourselves the task of organising the preparatory measures for this new EU directive as uniformly and optimally as possible," said Thomas Zechner.
Artificial intelligence is also playing an increasingly important role within the industry: "By founding our start-up retail.ai, we also offer AI services such as the ProductWizard, which has just won the ECR Award," emphasised Thomas Zechner proudly. The goal: "We want to become the reliable partner when it comes to generative AI," announced Dominik Scheid. Despite the dynamics and innovations on the market, one thing will not change: "Our corporate culture is based on the values of trust, cooperation and progress and we invite our partners from industry and trade to help shape developments and create added value together with us," the Managing Directors appealed.
High-calibre speakers
Klara Fichtenbauer, Senior Marketing Consultant at Consumer Panel Services GfK Austria, opened the specialist presentations with an overview of current shopping behaviour on the topic: "FMCG shopper trends 2024 - end of the perma-crisis?" and invited participants to take part interactively.
The ongoing crises are frustrating shoppers and increasing their desire for more security. While the proportion of households with financial worries rose significantly between 2021 and 2023, we are currently seeing an improvement in the financial situation of households. Nevertheless, the focus on price remains and consumers are shopping pragmatically. Confidence in branded products is declining and the trend towards private labels, particularly among younger households, is continuing. The proportion of special offers also rose to a new record high in the first half of 2024.
In addition, health issues are gaining in importance across Europe: in Austria, concern for physical health is the most important. Nevertheless, the willingness to spend more money on sustainable products remains low: since 2021, the willingness to pay more for organic/ecological products has fallen from 51 to 41 per cent. Klara Fichtenbauer advised taking shoppers' concerns seriously, but also keeping an eye on actual purchasing behaviour. For her, one thing is clear: "You have to know the consumer: It's not a time for generalisation, but individuality."
Then the programme moved on from consumer behaviour to the hotel industry: in his presentation "Innovation by tradition - challenges facing the luxury hotel industry and its partners", Matthias Winkler, CEO of the Sacher Hotel Group, took a close look at the current hotel industry and went into more detail about the hurdles that need to be overcome.
The topics of sustainability and innovation do not stop at the luxury segment: "A lot has changed, short-termism and volatility are increasing exponentially," explained Matthias Winkler. He sees the three biggest challenges as being digitalisation, individualisation and human-to-human. "We need to welcome both - offline and online," emphasised Matthias Winkler. After all, digitalisation also holds potential: guests can already be offered a digital room key or a virtual 360° tour. "We want to create trust with total transparency," emphasised Matthias Winkler. The hotel industry cannot ignore AI either: room control via chat and voicebot is already possible.
"Individualisation will have to increase in the hotel industry - for us, this means offering experiences. Only individualisation leads to success," says Matthias Winkler. To counteract the shortage of skilled labour, he has set himself the goal of making work meaningful and fun, as this is the only way the entire team can perform together. Training and further education, flexibility and co-design play a major role for him. "The central thing is an intensive human relationship."
The programme continued with the future topic "Brain versus artificial intelligence - who has the upper hand?": Henning Beck, neuroscientist and author, provided exciting insights into the differences between humans and AI and backed these up with short experiments with the audience.
Nowadays, information is permanently available. However, it is important not to confuse information with knowledge: Henning Beck emphasised: "People think in models and concepts and this is what distinguishes a human brain from artificial intelligence". He explained that there are two possible ways of processing data in the universe: You can either look at many manifestations of something and take a best-of variant - this is how AI works. Or you can internalise the design or blueprint - like we humans do. This allows us to construct any number of new variants of something.
Henning Beck went on to explain that AI only works if all framework conditions remain unchanged. However, if these change, human thinking is required. AI does not understand the difference between cause and effect, it has no conceptual understanding. For him, it is clear that it will not be able to replace human thinking: "We question things and break the rules. That's how people change the world". He is certain that the next big idea will be thought up by a brain – perhaps with the support of AI, but not by AI alone. "We understand the world instead of just analysing it. We need to utilise this strength. It's what makes us human," emphasised Henning Beck.
The closing speaker was former ski racer Felix Neureuther, who is also known as a book author and founder of the Felix Neureuther Foundation. In his presentation "How commitment grows from success", he revealed what drives him after his successes in sport and how he defined his identity after his sporting career.
With private stories from his life, he offered an insight into his personal experiences as an athlete and shared how he dealt with setbacks. His advice: "Put everything in perspective. You need courage and optimism in every situation in life." The transition from competitive sport to normal life was not easy for him, but he was able to learn a lot from his parents' experiences. He has made it his mission, especially in the age of AI and increasing digitalisation, to promote children's creativity and encourage more movement in everyday life. By founding the 'Beweg Dich schlau' programme, he wants to bring about long-term change and promote greater health awareness.
Skiing still has something magical for him, because you can spend time with the family and show children the joy of exercise and nature. However, his adrenaline is now about whether the nappy is full when he changes it, he joked. "When you have children, you no longer live just for yourself. You put your own interests to one side and prioritise those of your children. Our time is not infinite, it's something very valuable," he reflected in conclusion.
Corinna Milborn and Thomas Zechner thanked the speakers for their interesting presentations. "We took a lot of positive things away with us today. The words 'courage, people, trust and positive continuation' in particular summarise the day well. That's what we have to do as an industry. Success means thinking ahead creatively. We need AI, but we also need people," summarised Thomas Zechner. The topics were discussed in depth at a joint closing lunch.
The 12th Information Day will take place on 23 October 2025.