Henry Ford once famously quipped about the Model T car in 1909- Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. As I hurriedly move around the aisle of the local Kroger Grocery store looking for a particular brand of I-forgot-what; I couldn't help but think that this was perhaps the best instance of SKU optimization ever done!

But this is 2011, and things have become a tad more complex ever since. CPG companies are looking to hold on to their market share- at the added cost of increasing their SKU portfolio; retailers are looking to streamline their aisles, lessening clutter and increasing their efficiency; and above all- customers are looking for simplicity in the choices they have once they enter the retail stores rather than the overwhelming assortment of confetti colored, similar looking products that craves for attention across the aisles.

Although many would have liked us to believe, but the fact is that just having a presence in the social networking bandwagon won't suffice if the CPG companies were to win the battle in the stores. Like a duck which is frenetically paddling underneath but shows a Zen like calmness on the surface- there is hard work being done by the enterprising CPG companies to stay ahead of the curve and optimize their SKU portfolios.

Michael E. Porter's 5-forces model more or less defines the market strategy that an organization can employ to gain the maximum on its limited resources, increase RoI and maintain their competitive advantage. For most CPG companies reducing SKU complexity and joining the lean-trim bandwagon might be the most obvious thing to do. CPG companies are looking deep at their tactical and strategic factors to come up with a win-win formula and SKU Optimization is a clog in that wheel of success; albeit an important one. An ideal situation for strategic decision makers keen on a strong SKU Optimization process is to keep on reducing the number of Stock keeping units as much as possible- which in turn would lower costs, reduce losses due to OOS (Out of stock) of the Power SKUs, and efficient economies of scale.

The devil is in the detail, or in the realm of BI we call it 'data'- sometimes for the lack of it and sometimes for the overkill. In order to generate reports on key SKU Optimization metrics we are looking at synergy between disparate data sources, business intelligence and reporting tools, and various departments within an organization with their own agenda. Moreover, there is always a trade-off between the cost of acquiring the data and analyzing it to make sense vs. the incremental benefit the business users derive out of the report. They must look for answers to critical questions like which bottom SKUs to trim, which are my power SKUs, how much market share I'm willing to lose to retain my cost competitiveness and so on.

BI professionals are looking at combining data from disparate sources like Shipments, SAP, Nielsen, AOD and then normalizing the metrics to give a clearer, common picture of the state of the business and making it simpler (1-2 click reports) for the users to analyze the report more effectively and make real time business decisions in a collaborative mode. For a truly global CPG company, we are talking about similar reports being generated across geographies and more standardized the process, more optimal is the output. A typical SKU Portfolio Optimization report typically consists of SKU Count, Productivity, and Ranking of SKUs details and the decision makers are able to slice and dice the filters to suit their needs.

The data is the hard fact, how it is interpreted to suit strategic and tactical needs is of the essence and to roll it out for multiple categories, brands, SKUs, Business Units, Channel will define the thin line between success and failure. For instance, A Loss Leader strategy employed by a CPG company will obviously have a different philosophy than say a Profit Maximization Strategy.

An example-

While analyzing the SKU Optimizations report details we might observe that a particular SKU is sold only to the Bottom 3-4 Customers.

The questions that immediately comes to our minds are-

·         Is that a strategic decision? Why are we even selling this product to the bottom customers only? Are they a strategic partner in some other Geography?

·         Can we stop manufacturing these SKUs and replace them by the Top selling SKUs? This will reduce my costs, reduce OOS and will give me more space in the aisles for my Top SKUs.

·         Or wait!! Are these my discontinued SKUs that are being liquidated and sold to the bottom customers?

Although the CPG companies may not like it, but reducing their long tail SKUs which makes up for say, the bottom 10-12% volume SKUs as their 'one-size-fits-all' SKU optimization strategy is an adventure waiting to unfold. The objective of a good SKU Optimization initiative remains the same- Reduce OOS, optimize the retail space and save on fixed and variable costs. SKU Optimization, for a fact, is the journey; the traveler needs to decide where they want to go!

At the Kroger store, I saw some promotional packs of a particular brand of chips in the aisles- and then I thought to myself- what a terrible waste!! Extra production shifts, marketing costs, extra packaging, one additional SKU, added complexity and what not.

Am I becoming cynical? I don't know. I just wish for a simpler, clutter free and efficient world. Well, isn't that a truism?!

Posted by Jagat J. Saikia at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Are Brick and Mortar companies facing extinction?" »

Posted by Tanveer Singh Khanuja at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It has always fascinated me that most Research and Development labs have thousands of ideas and concepts that are developed, evaluated, striken off, re evaluated and finally a few make it through the new product development cycle. The sheer number that trickles down the funnel to make it to a new product is mind boggling. However, in a number of industries (excluding highly structured R&D organizations like Pharmaceuticals), the underlying science of developing these concepts has not been tied to streamlining and managing it like a project. While we all understand that R&D is also an art, the view from the shareholder value also puts a focus on more streamlined and higher visibility into this process so that it is more integrated into the overall Marketing framework of the company and brings about more predictability into the new product pipeline.

We are seeing more R&D organizations embracing these aspects by:

-          Using integrated project management tools that not only provide visibility to the concept development but involves the Marketing organization as a key stakeholder in the process to provide feedback.

-          Standardizing the Gating process across Global and Regional level New Product Development process.

-          Minimizing manual work and updates

-          Providing Tools / Mechanism for most accurate and streamlined communications between the teams that is involved in NPD Process globally, to increase the productivity and reduce rework.

-          Providing better reporting tools to track KPI's across the NPD Organization.

Are you seeing this happening more in your organization ? After the initial wave of streamlining the new product development is this the next wave of collaboration for New Product Development

Posted by Kapil Khanduja at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last weekend on Saturday, my mother asked me to accompany her for the monthly grocery purchase to the closest retail store from our home-'D-Mart'. We went to the store in mid-morning around 11am thinking it would be relatively less crowded. But I guess, everyone's thought process was exactly like us and the retail store was buzzing with people. Yet, due to effective and now well placed self-service practice in organized retail stores in India, we did not take too much time to finish purchasing our grocery (Just 30 mins!!). But then it was the time for the herculean task of standing in serpentine queue of billing. It took us approximately 50-55 minutes to finally reach the counter and pay the bill. Though there were 5 different counters with cashiers working as fast as they could, the waiting time was still very high.

Suddenly my mother asked a very innocuous question- "Why do we need to stand in queue? Why can't we have a system where we can swipe the product as and when we purchase, pay the bill on our own and then go? We are spending (or wasting) more time standing in queue than it took us for purchasing items".

Continue reading "Self-Check out: Will it be the future of Indian retail stores?" »

Posted by Priyanka Soni at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

"Do you wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins?

Nothing."--this iconic line by a certain teenager named Brooke Shields catapulted her into instant fame and, in a way underlined the influence of brands in defining our social fabric.

A gentle breeze swept across my face as I entered the DLF Emporio Mall in New Delhi. For one moment it felt like I was in another world- someplace like Milan's Via Monte Napoleone, London's Bond Street, or the venerable Fifth Avenue in New York... a smorgasbord of everything fashionable and haute! Emporio is India's answer to other International fashion capitals-- concierge service, 5-star ambience, presence of revered brands like Dior, Gucci, Armani and Louis Vuitton and a shopping experience that is purely world class. Having said that, Emporio Mall is targeting only the creamy layer of people in the Wealth pyramid, but it serves as a shining example of the good things happening with Indian Luxury retailing at present.

Every brand has a story to tell... and the aura of exclusivity coupled with high income elasticity of demand takes care of the economics for premium goods. Gone are the days when the typical well-heeled Indian had to travel overseas to buy their favorite designer labels or ask their non-resident friends to grab the stuffs from Duty-Free stores. Almost all major Indian metros are now warming up to premium and ultra premium retail experience although retail space still remains a prime concern. Due to prohibitive real estate prices, many of the premium labels are increasingly looking at operating from luxury malls than from 5-star hotels.

Key Challenges:

1.       Lack of dedicated retail Space; fashion high street

2.       Expensive real estate; which significantly hits the bottom-line

3.       Increasing the client base; target the high income population

4.       Improve service offering

5.       Establishing 'Luxury' as a need among Indian customers

6.       Focus on affordable luxury for Indian customers

The Great Indian Retail story has been told, retold and foretold... and still we have a divided house full of enthused supporters and voracious detractors.  Are we ready for the big jump or is India not yet ready for the bigger stakes of premium luxury retailing? As Bob Dylan once famously crooned--- The Times They Are A-changin' and if we look around closely we can see certain subtle changes which auger well for the luxury goods retailing in India.

By 2009/10 India became home to around 126,700 millionaires, these high-income households present a huge customer base for the luxury labels. The Indian luxury retail market is growing currently at a CAGR of 25% meaning that consumers of luxury goods are warming up to luxury brands in a big way. According to BusinessWorld magazine's The Marketing Whitebook 2010-11, five neighborhoods in Mumbai and Delhi and one in Punjab account for 65 percent of potential luxury customers in India. Higher disposable income, propensity to buy, and a demand driven market are all pointing towards a huge potential for luxury goods and services in the days to come. The Indian economic growth story is complementing the Great Indian Retail story and together we are in for an exciting time.

As I gathered my thoughts, the aroma from the café in the central atrium of Emporio mall wafted towards me. I saw a lady nibbling on what looked like a Low Carb Catalina Salad; well known faces that I have seen only on television and magazine covers walked past effortlessly. The pace was unhurried, languid, as if shopping was always meant to be a sensory experience. This is the new India... yet so unlike India!

Posted by Jagat J. Saikia at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Considered by some to be the father of modern advertising, John Wanamaker is credited with saying "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". 

Wanamaker's question is one of the biggest in marketing and one which persists to this day.  Living in the late 1800s - early 1900s, his was a world of mass market print media where it was very difficult to correlate marketing and advertising spend to actual sales in his retail stores. 

Fast forward to the late 1990s - early 2000s, and digital marketing and online sales channels are offering retailers and CPGs the opportunity to calculate ROI on marketing spend.  Tracking with tools like Google Analytics and Omniture allowed marketers to isolate specific activities along the process and divert funds / attention to those providing the most return.  A simple example is the ability to track impressions to clicks to conversions to online sales (and incremental profits). 

These are simplistic high ROI examples that don't take into account factors like brand awareness or sales driven to Bricks & Mortars, but you get the idea. 

So what about companies not selling online?  How can they track media effectiveness to a Brick & Mortar point of sale?

One way is to use an offer with a coupon or code that provides a 'line of sight' from the media channel to the point of sale.  If a customer redeems the offer then the revenue can be attributed to the campaign.  Though mobile couponing has seen successes in this, a challenge is that printing coupons and remembering codes can be an impediment to redemption and conversions. 

Another method is something we take to large CPGs.  This involves running analysis on historic campaign data from costs to target segments to response numbers.  Insights can be derived on the contribution of the different media types, and then the insights are used to model and simulate future campaigns.  Marketers can then select the optimal media mix which maximizes their response and activation rates, and in turn incremental sales and net profit!

If only John Wanamaker could see what has become of his classic question...

Posted by Kaysa Kumar at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently met up with an old friend who works for one of the largest global advertising and marketing groups.  His focus area is Consumer Goods companies, and over drinks he was telling me that his clients are increasingly viewing digital marketing development services as a commodity. 

While he was speaking from an agency perspective, his reference to commoditization got me thinking about what those CPG clients are driving towards.  In this case it brought to mind 3 things; cheaper, quicker, and consistent; and how digital marketing platforms that we've built and run for global CPGs enable these goals. 

Cheaper - When we hear commoditization we immediately think costs.  My friend's concern is the cost of his agency services and a race to the bottom in rate cards, but there are many other cost components for CPGs.  Some companies are already realising cost benefits by consolidating hosting & support activities and optimising processes, but this is only one gain to be had. 

From an Infosys perspective the next logical savings opportunity comes in leveraging offshore delivery.  Using the Global Delivery Model to shift work can immediately realise development and deployment savings of over 30%.

A further enabler of cost savings is in reusable assets.  Agency rate cards can be expensive, and duplicating development effort across numerous sites can quickly add up.  By reusing assets like webservices across sites, agencies can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in development costs (and of course pass that savings on to the customer)!

Quicker - Reusability is a nice segue into time-to-launch.  In today's dynamic marketing environment the time to take a site live is key.  CPGs can't be limited to pre-planned marketing activities; they need agility to immediately react to everything from shifting consumer tastes to competitor movements.  

As in our cost example above, calling on a library of reusable webservices and assets can shave weeks-to-months off development schedules, bringing sites live in a fraction of the time taken previously. 

When combined with efficiencies from (previously mentioned) optimised processes, we've even seen sites taken from concept to live in less than 24 hours.

Consistent - In its early days Digital Marketing was a bit like the Wild West with brand and agencies within the same company left to their own devices; creating sites and campaigns with little alignment and few standards.  This obviously led to inconsistency in user experiences and messaging across the brand portfolio and geographies.  As digital strategies developed, consistency has gained importance with companies ensuring brand teams and agencies align to defined standards and practices.  Building processes and audits in to a Digital Marketing Platform allows CPGs to ensure compliance whether it's messaging, aesthetics, or user journey. 

Further, those same reusable webservices we talked about earlier mean that users are automatically getting a consistent experience when logging in, registering, or interacting with the site in any number of ways.

So if my friend is right and digital marketing development is being commoditized, a digital marketing platform may be the smart way for tomorrow's CPG to reap benefits in cost, time, and consistency...

Posted by Kaysa Kumar at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Test Marketing - The easy win ?

Tropicana & GAP - We are all aware of the sequence of events unfolding as they recently tried to revamp the brand image with brand new logos and packaging. However soon after launch, the blogosphere came alive with the negative feedback on the new look of the brands and both the companies were forced to roll back the changes. Millions of dollars spent on launching the new brands look went down the drain. Millions more spent on reversing the launch and meanwhile the brands were tarnished and conceivably lost loyalty - the highest level of consumer satisfaction that the Marketeers vie for. More importantly, the 'straddlers' - consumers on the fence would have moved to competitor brands.

Enough has been said about the mass effect of social media and the feedback cycle and I don't want to discuss that here. The question that crops up is how can the companies that have been doing test marketing for so long go so wrong? Months of focus groups, feedbacks, test marketing could not measure the final feedback from the market which was diagonally opposite of what they expected.

There is a lot of thinking going around on how Marketing can leverage the social media & blogosphere, however isn't test marketing an easy win to start this? Place your new brand look on social websites, get feedback on them and let the consumers select what they like. Easy, convenient and cost effective. The added advantages of doing social test marketing are:

v  Consumers feel involved in the decision - brand affinity & loyalty increases.

v  Wider base of feedback is possible rather than restricting to as specific focus group or segment.

v  Negative social comments post launch get neutralized by consumers who 'own' the selection and decision process. The best medicine for bad social publicity is positive social reinforcement.

The biggest issue is that the competitors know about it also and can plan a counter strategy especially in the case of new product launches. Other industries (especially media) have adopted the test feedback from the consumers to shape the final product. CPG companies have tested the waters with specific feedback on products already launched but not on test marketing. The other challenge will be the Agencies - are they ready to embrace the open model ? How can they help the CPG companies to leverage this model.

What do you think? Will this model work in making and launching more successful products and increasing brand affinity? What are the challenges?

Posted by Kapil Khanduja at 2:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

 The events in Japan shook the earth.. literally. No words can describe the suffering that people in Japan are going through. Dual natural calamities and then a nuclear emergency coming all at once is truly unimaginable. And hence something that no one plans for. Yet this is the time when it is most imperative that the millions affected be helped at the earliest possible time - within hours or days. Similar large scale disruptions have happened in the past - Indonesia Tsunami, Chile, Haiti, and in war scenarios.

Amongst other things, lots of basic consumer goods are needed for recovery. For instance, bottled water, packaged high nutrition imperishable Ready to Eat foods, sanitation, cleansing and household products, and clothing.  This is needed. Urgently. At a low cost or even at no cost to the end consumer. At places which are most inaccessible.

CPG companies bear an important responsibility in making this recovery happen.

The challenge is that exactly at this time, the regional/ local supply chain suffers the most too. These disasters led to severe supply chain disruptions- from unavailability of raw material, to factories closing, to infrastructure, port, roads and warehousing disruptions. The people who would run the local links of the supply chains are often themselves the affected ones.

The question is how can companies create truly agile supply chains that can operate fast in these difficult times?

- How can the CPG organizations' regional leaders and their teams quickly and proactively organize themselves, prepare fair-priced or subsidized offers, contact buyers (donors, relief agencies, and host governments) to quickly determine the impact, and get the contractual arrangements sorted out? Can this be done in hours, not days and weeks?

- In parallel, how can the demand planners quickly get visibility into the event-driven demand,  the available inventory, and determine the gap for categories that are known to have an increased demand after these catastrophic events?

- What is the best way to determine the right SKUs and the right packaging?

- How can the Supply planners provide this "Demand Signal" to the factories in near real time, and ensure adequate production?

- How can supply chain planners re-prioritize some of the existing production, and existing inventory towards these humanitarian needs?

- How can alternate transportation and warehousing contracts be put in place, and goods moved fast from multiple factories and warehouses?

- How can the last mile problem be solved? Partnering with the emergency response team is a must, and that's something many in the local distribution network might not have experience with.

These are some of the many questions that CPG companies need to solve for, while creating their "disaster recovery" plans. If you are aware of any best of breed examples /  benchmarks, we would love to hear from you.

Posted by Aditya Mittal at 3:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Arun Raghavapudi at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

That's the tagline Chipotle uses to introduce their iPhone app! Welcome to a world where the shopping experience is completely enabled by a mobile device.

I was at the Apple store yesterday for an accessory purchase and was amazed by how quick the entire process was. The store associate used an iPod touch based POS system which had an attachment with a barcode scanner and a credit card magnetic strip reader. No more standing in lines for checkout!  

Continue reading "1985 Called, they want their fax machine back!" »

Posted by Vishnu Veerubhotla at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A casual glance at the soft drink bottle or a can of juice running a loyalty program shows that the whole process and experience of earning loyalty rewards is antiquated. Imagine the number of people who will actually note down the website address and the rewards code, login to the website, register and enter the code to win rewards or loyalty points. The conversion rate must be abysmally low also leading to erosion of brand affinity. What if you could effectively bridge the gap with a simple bar code?

QR codes are the answer. With a smart phone and a QR code reader, consumers can scan the code from an ad, a catalog or the product packaging and get automatically redirected to the website or send an SMS with their entry.

Continue reading "Better shopper experience and loyalty with QR codes" »

Posted by Vishnu Veerubhotla at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Winning Consumers In-Store - 2" »

Posted by Larry Danna at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For as long as I can remember, influencing opinions and guiding decision-making at the point of purchase have been key objectives for CPG companies. However, recent developments in the global economic landscape and rapidly evolving technology are gradually increasing the need for CPG companies to engage consumers at the moment of truth, in-store.

Why CPG companies are focusing on in-store interactions?

Continue reading "Winning Consumers In-Store - 1" »

Posted by Larry Danna at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Social Retail: The Age of Consumer Conversations" »

Posted by Larry Danna at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Cross-Channel Convergence" »

Posted by Larry Danna at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I remember the days when I would walk down seemingly endless aisles at the department store looking for the best deal on my favorite Colombian coffee only to find that the offer had ended just a day earlier. Two words come to mind when I think of those times; disappointment and frustration.

Fortunately for me, and all of you reading this blog, there are now better ways of getting what you want, whether it's detergents, diapers, or any other consumer packaged commodity. Here's what has changed the game:

Continue reading "The Rise of the Prosumer" »

Posted by Larry Danna at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately, there is a definite trend in the US towards making healthier eating options available to kids.
- Michelle Obama has provided some much needed visibility and support to this cause.
- The US Congress is working on legislation that incentivizes healthier school lunches.
- The top beverage companies are taking off unhealthy products from US schools. Clinton’s initiative have been  instrumental in making this happen.
- News organizations are focusing on the growing childhood obesity in US and raising awareness of this hidden epidemic.
- In the health care debate, most believe that prevention is certainly preferred to cure.

At the same time, I believe there are several challenges that remain in making kids eat healthier. Here are some I can think of.

Continue reading "Who moved my cheese pizza?" »

Posted by Aditya Mittal at 4:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As social media usage has ramped up, it's become increasingly clear that there's value in all that digital chatter and whisper. If only you can identify what's significant- that’s the multi-million dollar question. Few companies have the resources to personally monitor what consumers are saying, although some have tried- e.g. Comcast and JetBlue.

Continue reading "Are you listening to the gazillions of digital conversations?" »

Posted by Anindya Trivedi at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my Infosys colleagues, Madhu Janardan, blogged right before the Holidays last November about how consumers are suffering from “item variety overload” when confronted with 24 varieties of mustard, Heartburn pills that are either fast-acting or long-lasting (wouldn’t you want both?) and the like.  Now besides being an expert in Grocery Retail, my friend Madhu is an excellent cook, so he knows his way around a Grocery aisle and knows the pain of which he writes.  But Madhu and consumers aren’t the only ones that may suffer from “item variety overload.”  Grocery category managers and IT executives are straining under the weight of all the data that this “variety” is causing. 

Continue reading ""Enough already!" - Too much variety, too much data but not enough insight for Category and IT executives" »

Posted by Don Vangeloff at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's SuperBowl time and while corporate America is getting geared up for SuperBowl Sunday and the advertising extravaganza, Pepsi has taken a bold move. Instead of spending marketing dollars on SuperBowl ads, Pepsi has decided to launch a new initiative around social media marketing . The new initiative, called "Refresh Everything" is being promoted through Facebook and YouTube to connect with the fans and help the community. "Refresh Everything" is an innovative combination of (blogs)ideas and (polls)votes to fund great ideas through millions in grants. This is a monthly campaign where ideas can be submitted and voted for, all by the end consumers and fans.
 
It's interesting to see CPG firms using social media to engage with their customer base to increase brand loyalty. Marketing dollars moving from traditional media to social media... Is this the beginning of a trend?

Continue reading "Flight of marketing dollars to social media... is the SuperBowl starting a trend?" »

Posted by Vishnu Veerubhotla at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "The Winter Sale Continues – Is it Price you want or Quality?" »

Posted by Anand Ramakrishnan at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In this age of discerning and value chasing shoppers, Customer Loyalties can change in a single moment and gaining or retaining loyalty is a marketing warfare. Store is the final frontier where products are given equal opportunities to see, evaluate and choose the brand. Brands can be made or broken in these last few minutes of life span a shopper will give to your brand. It is then highly imperative for the brands to make best use of these last few minutes and ensure that the customers stay loyal. Here are 3 basic strategies, Retailers and CPG companies can look at to enhance customer loyalty.

Continue reading "Enhance Customer Loyalty at the Final moment of truth" »

Posted by Kirthi S Subramanian at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When a consolidation happens  in any industry, the market takes the news in awe. The market reacts swiftly initially with lot of news-spread, followed by strong analysis, view points and the market settles down accepting the new order and moves on. I’m sure the same will happen with the JDA i2 acquisition. JDA historically has been a great aggregator and have done acquisitions at strategic moments in its growth phase. Acquisition of Intactix, E3 and Manugistics all helped JDA solidify its position in the market, expand its footprint and establish itself as the leader.

Continue reading "JDA i2 acquisition: 3 point view" »

Posted by Kirthi S Subramanian at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

By Rrituraj Sharma and Mahesh Bukkapatna

During one hectic day’s afternoon coffee break, I and Mahesh were reminiscing our childhood days of watching movies in the theatre. We were discussing on how, apart from the main movie, another exciting attraction for us were the 10 minutes of ad-films of some of the then popular brands projected on the big screen. This was in the eighties. This was when organized retail was yet to become a force to reckon with.

CPG companies have always made concerted efforts on creating brands out of the products that they have produced and promoted. However, with the advent, growth and maturity of the retail industry, private labels have come to take a significant share of the consumer’s wallet. This has made the CPG companies to introspect and revisit their market strategies in order to continue with a robust bottom line and top line growth despite falling margins because of higher production cost, advertising expenditure, intense competition and increasing distribution channel expectations.

Continue reading "Private Labels Challenge for CPG Industry – Compete or Collaborate (Part I)" »

Posted by Rrituraj Sharma at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "How the recession has been good for us" »

Posted by Sandeep Dadlani at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Driving efficiencies through PLM: From F1 to CPG" »

Posted by Vishnu Veerubhotla at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the last few weeks, I have been very much occupied during my weekends in trying to build my Farm and my Mafia gang. Before you start wondering about my spare time activities, let me reassure you that I’m actually referring to two of the hottest games on Facebook from a company called Zynga. The games being referred to here are “FarmVille” & “Mafia Wars”.

This led to the question - Would games from Retailers or CPG companies be an effective tool for social marketing and gathering customer feedback on new products & initiatives?

Continue reading "Advertising through Games & Social Commerce" »

Posted by Anand Ramakrishnan at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From ideation to making the product available on the shelf, a typical CPG company spends majority of their promotion and advertising dollars on traditional channels- TV, radio and newspapers. Now pause for a moment and consider this:

• Close to 300 million Facebook users- a potential consumer base equivalent to the size of the US population!
• More than 100 million users log into Facebook at least once a day.
• 7 million unique visitors in Twitter in Feb 2009 – that’s a growth of 1382% over last year

With such exponential growth of digital traffic, are the rules of engagement beginning to change? Can CPG companies afford to ignore this new ‘emerging digital market’ and its potential purchasing and influencing power?

Continue reading "Digital Consumers – Are they driving CPG companies to think out of the box?" »

Posted by Anindya Trivedi at 1:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent blog by Sandeep Dadlani talked about how companies have started becoming more savvy about increasing usage of rich mobile platforms like iPhones.  This was quite thought provoking. I believe we are reaching a tipping point on rich mobile phone usage with high network bandwidth. The competition and provider economies of scale would start a explosive spiral of increased usage and lower costs, similar to what happened with laptops, broadband and GPS.  That means a major expansion in reach for companies- both CPG and Retailers, big changes in customer research and buying behavior, and massive reduction in costs to reach the consumers.

However, I also believe that while many have started having a "iPhone strategy" or a "digital marketing strategy", only a few have a truly strategic understanding of the impact, why this is a big threat & opportunity at the same time, and the capabilities they have to build and more importantly integrate .

Continue reading "IPhone and Blackberry: Threat or opportunity?" »

Posted by Aditya Mittal at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

1. Restaurants will see a dip in sales as consumers prefer eating in
2. Grocery coupon usage and redemption will increase as consumers look for deals to maximize the value of their grocery shopping trips
3. Retailers will cut back store expansion and focus on less expensive channels like online for marketing and sales
4. Brands will reduce their advertising spend significantly (most estimates predict an unprecedented 5-9% drop this year in ad-spending)
 

But the more intriguing and unexpected trend is how consumers are becoming more internet and  mobile-savvy and how retail and consumer product companies are reacting and keeping pace with the consumer.

Continue reading "As we grow poorer we become more mobile-savvy!" »

Posted by Sandeep Dadlani at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)