Collaborative Analytics

Is Engagement about deals or more?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:23:55 +0000

Much has been said about of the ability of social media as enablers for brands to connect with consumers in a “two way dialogue”. But to entice the consumers into this engagement is largely through traditional marketing tactics like discounts and promotions. What's really going on is that companies and brands are amassing followers by offering coupons, freebies and access to exclusive deals. So it’s not so much about passion for a brand or brand’s values but about deals.

But is that something to worry about?

Sneak preview of iCATalytics integration capabilities with SAP Solutions – Part 3

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:14:37 +0000

In continuation with my previous post, which focused on a process level integration, I'll cover the UI level integration capablities of iCATalytics in this blog post.

Sneak preview of iCATalytics integration capabilities with SAP Solutions – Part 2

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:17:36 +0000

In continuation with my previous blog, which focused on a data level integration, I'll delve deeper into the process level integration capabilities of iCATalytics in this blog.

Sneak preview of iCATalytics integration capabilities with SAP Solutions – Part 1

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:28:33 +0000

Having suggested the potential value addition of having out-of-the-box integration between TPO and SAP solutions in my last blog, I thought it might be a good idea to share a sneak preview into some specific integration capabilities of iCATalytics. I plan to do this over the next few weeks with this being the first in the series.

New Addition In Digital Marketing Mix

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:49:42 +0000

Unilever was recently in news for sacking Lowe, London, as the ad agency for its Peperami snack brand in favor of an inclusive strategy where the key lies in involving the consumers in the process of generating ad ideas. Although not a startlingly bold or original concept, it is interesting to see large CPG companies experiment with such emerging technologies and the new digital marketing mix.

The term ‘crowdsourcing’ coined by Jeff Howe’s June 2006 Wired Article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” is now extended and being used by savvy marketers to describe the concept of ‘crowdsourcing’ as a means to connect their brands with customers right from its innovation stage. Crowdsourcing provides clients with a relatively inexpensive, yet abundant check on ideas and helps garner insights from community thinking that may have been missed.

Collaboration-The New Business Strategy

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:53:24 +0000

The goal of demand-driven programs to “sense the shelf as well as align supply chains in order to serve the shopper at the shelf with minimal latency” is becoming a reality with increasing number of retailers willing to share their data with CPG companies.

Historically retailers have been wary of sharing data and doubtful of the tangible benefits they could derive of such a partnership. CPG companies who have addressed the concerns of retailers have got compelling benefits and managed to change the common view that data sharing is a technology strategy.

TPO applications need to respect the 800 pound gorilla in CPG Industry’s IT landscape

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:31:32 +0000

The dominance of SAP as the primary ERP system in CPG companies’ IT landscape, is a well established fact. Any look at the leading players shows that more than 90% of the CPG companies use SAP as the primary transaction processing system. What does this mean for any TPM/TPO system?

Power of the collective wisdom

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:18:52 +0000

Collaborative Analytics has taken out the silos from the business analysis process and data from disparate sources like customer, transactional, operational are analyzed to come up with a single, unified version of the truth. The new mantra of involving the stake holders, both internal and external to an organization, in a collaborative manner for product ideation and definition is leading to faster and more acceptable product deployment in the market and therefore more profitable business results. The fresher perspectives that multiple frames of references brings about combined with the tacit knowledge has led to deeper insights and more robust analytic skills.

New Age Marketing – The Digital Paradigm

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:14:30 +0000

As the consumer is becoming more and more engaged in the digital world, the industry is finally getting serious about digital media. Leading companies have cut measured U.S. media spending overall last quarter, while spending on internet display ads has more than doubled, according to data from TNS. It is a great way to connect with consumers and really have much deeper ongoing relationships with them. Ability to see a measurable impact on sales has allowed them to justify even more spending on digital down the road. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, estimated that CPG digital spending shot up more than 60% last year to $1.5 billion, increasing its still-modest share of all digital media spending by two percentage points in a year to 6%.

SAP Solutions with Integrated TPO

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:06:45 +0000

Trade promotions are an important business practice adopted by Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies to increase market share, shelf space, revenues and margins. The SAP Trade Promotion Management (SAP TPM) is a well rounded solution that address all the major processes spanning sales & promotion planning, field planning, customer sell-in & negotiation, retail execution & validation and both pre-event & post-event analysis.

Trade Promotions 2.0

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:02:46 +0000

The CGT summer conference reverberated with two main themes- How to leverage the digital revolution for better sales/ marketing and around the evergreen topic of trade spend. As the companies are still struggling to better manage and optimize the trade spend- the second biggest line item in the balance sheet, discussions and presentations centered around various ways in which trade spend should be treated as an investment, instead of expense.