Top 2011 Trends for the CPG Industry
As we embark upon 2011, we are optimistic about the direction the CPG industry is heading. Despite the economic downturn and the slow recovery; we are seeing continued success with our CPG clients. CPG companies have had to come to terms with a new breed of shoppers- she is smarter about and where and what she buys, more value conscious and relies extensively on social media and mobile devices for her everyday needs. Over the last year, as we listened to our Clients, their understanding of this new consumer has and will drive some of their most significant investments in 2011 and beyond. following are some of our top predictions for the CPG industry in 2011:
· There will be investments in small scale, high impact innovation. Mobility, to better engage with consumers, build brand perception, assist making buying decisions in the home, at the store and at the shelf will be a key area of innovation.
· Multichannel strategies will become more important. Retailers/CPGs will look to mobility to engage consumers before, during and at time of purchase using various tactics from social communities, mobile couponing and promotions.
· Private label brands will continue to see an uptake. Consumers are looking at in-store/private label brands more favorably. CPGs will continue to invest in product development and innovation to better the value perception of their brands and the product segments they currently command. This will enable them to better compete with in-store brands.
· Investment to extract value from CPG companie's core transaction processing systems will increase - Over the last 5-7 years, CPG companies have made investments in globalizing and standardizing their core systems.. Many of these companies will not want to extract value out of these investments and hence Business Intelligence, Analytics and Business Process Management will see investments in 2011
· Expand the functions that could be "shared serviceable" - Analytics, MDM and TPM will be prime suspects for shared services. . CPG companies will move beyond the usual suspects of Ffinance, Accounting and HR . to areas like MDM, TPM and Analytics. Processes will be broken into sub-processes to be evaluated for "shared serviceability" and transactional parts of these processes will move to shared service operations.
· 2011 IT Investment Priorities: CPGs will look at investing in mobility, collaboration within and outside of their enterprises and digitizing their value chains.
What do you predict for the CPG industry in 2011? We would love to hear what you think - please feel free to share your thoughts below.
We are looking forward to a great 2011, and hope yours is the same. We are very proud to start our year by recently being recognized as #1 among leading Retail IT Services Providers by the prestigious RIS IT Services LeaderBoard: http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Pages/retail-IT-services.aspx.
Comments
Th blog is an excellent read, and a point taken. additionally, I believe that the consumer's focus and perception of 'value' will be one of the key drivers for the CPG industry in 2011. For some customers, 'value' could mean the same quality at a lower price, for some it could mean the availability of all thier needs under one roof....It is likely to be a cycle - the consumers will keep redefining / refining their needs and the CPG indudtry will keep devising tactics / strategies to meet them. And the web will play an important role as the medium of expression of the need and the value. Timely acquisition, processing and interpretation of data will become very important, and often a differentiator towards success. The only thing that I feel can be improved is that the consumer shoud be able to register for the mailers that thet get. I personally receive a plethora of papers in the mail each week, and would like to avoid that. I would want what I am interested in, and I should be able to make that choice clear. It might save some trees too...
Posted by: Himanshu Mishra | February 28, 2011 1:15 AM
To add to it there will be more collaboration with the retailers ,they being the Customers and integration with their investments
Posted by: Sanil | March 8, 2011 11:04 PM
Great Read Arun. I wanted to add the folowing perspectives as well -
1. Consumers behavior is expected to remain guarded, and they will continue to focus on at home, from scratch meal preparation, self administered health and beauty care. Consumers will make a concious effort to make their products last longer. Categories catering to these will perform well.
2. Today's CPG consumer understands that many factors influence health, and food and beverage are central to overall wellness strategies. In the Food and beverage sector, we will see CPG players investing in new products and product extensions to help consumer achieve their goals of overall wellness, vitality and longetivity.
3. The non food sector of CPG is also being heavily influenced by wellness and logetivity goals. We will see categories catering to nutraceuticals and products that provide anti-aging benefits or similar attributes will fare well.
Posted by: Syed Farrukh Jalal | April 13, 2011 3:57 AM