an emergent trend that could have huge implications for their retail customers as well.
P&G has begun piloting an online operation it calls eStore with PFSweb Inc., an e-commerce infrastructure company. P&G’s test market is 5,000 of mostly its own employees. Meanwhile, 29 other CPG giants – including General Mills, Nestle and Novartis – are testing online sales through a startup e-tailer known as Alice.com...
Free-standing inserts (FSIs) – always a significant force in couponing – have surged in recent times. In fact, FSIs have seen the most activity in a decade, with over 272 billion coupons dropped, representing an increase of 8% since 2008 according to the 7th annual FSI Distribution Trends Report.
Authored by Marx Promotion Intelligence, a division of Minneapolis-based TNS Media Intelligence, the report says retailer promotion pages earned a record spike, increasing more than 37% to in excess of 9 billion pages in 2009. This continues the pattern of substantial year-over-year growth rates that started in 2007.
“Last year was an historic one for the FSI industry as well as for coupon industry in general...
After a decade of false starts and indifference, the CPG community finally is re-awakening to the possibilities of e-tailing, led by a new online-sales pilot program – and a new statement of strategic commitment – by Procter & Gamble. The global giant is in the vanguard of a number of major CPG companies that are experi-menting more seriously with Internet sales than perhaps ever before,
CPG SOLUTIONS
Trade Spending Challenges
Smaller CPG Companies
Although trade promotion spending can be 10-30% of a consumer packaged goods company’s gross sales, few companies – particularly small to midsized manufacturers – know what they are getting for their money.
With consumer preferences shifting to private label, and retailers reacting to this trend with SKU rationalization that cuts out national brands, manufacturers need to catch up with their trade dollars. This means an investment in specialized trade promotion management technology, especially for nearly half of the companies that still rely on Excel spreadsheets to do this increasingly complex job, says Rob Bois, Director of Product Marketing, MEI Computer Technology Group.
Trade spending growth has been flat lately
after several years of increases, but it has not decreased, and will start rising again in the
Marketers often try to innovate through the rearview mirror. The best way to influence consumers is by keeping up to date on changes in strategy and tactics, and then incorporating them into the marketing plan.
The latest advances in integrated marketing will be presented at the annual conference of the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) March 23 and 24 in Chicago. Click on the first arrow in the control bar and listen to a sneak peak of the proceedings:
There’s a lot happening with assortments nowadays. Mega-retailers are wondering if they need to carry so many SKUs on their retail shelves. At the same time, they’re redefining the roles of individual categories in their stores.
In some categories, retailers are figuring out that national brands are not always the drivers of the category. They are looking to eliminate or significantly reduce the number of national brands on the shelf while increasing the more profitable store brands.
What to do? Click on the first arrow in the control bar to listen:
What brands are grocery shoppers buying most frequently nowadays? What made them buy those brands as opposed to others?
A new consumer survey provides a snapshot of the purchases and motivations in select product categories: beverages, snacks, coffees/teas, cereals, and cleaning products. The first brands that shoppers put into their grocery carts were Vitaminwater, Chex Mix snacks, Starbucks coffee, , Kashi cereal, and Lysol cleaner.
“There is no question that shoppers are influenced by both merchandising and promotions,” said Janet Eden-Harris, chief marketing officer Boulder, Colo.-based Market Force Information which conducted the survey. “In the six product categories we studied...at least one third of consumers were influenced to buy a product they had not planned on buying in the last 30 days...
It's tough losing your biggest customer and many brands today are finding that out firsthand as Wal-Mart Stores is aggressively pursuing SKU reduction in its stores.
Advertising Age reported recently that Wal-Mart has decided to go from four plastic food storage bag brands in its stores to two. Pactiv Corp.'s Hefty and Clorox's Glad brand products have been removed from the retailer's store shelves, leaving all the space for SC Johnson's Ziploc and Wal-Mart's own Great Value private label. Wal-Mart's business likely represents a third or more of the individual brands' food bag sales.
Bill Pecoriello, an analyst with Consumer Edge Research, said Wal-Mart's cuts in plastic food bags is likely to expand to other categories...
