Remember Step 2 of the Eight Step Process anyone? Define the Role of the Category. Well, how did that work out for you? It was an important consideration. Pointless to propose strategies that were a mismatch for what a retailer sought to achieve “top-down” with that category. In a limited space environment, tough choices need
Back in the day, most larger CPG firms had massive human resources, and budgets for data to match. There was the capability to strive for the optimum within insights and data solutions. Things have changed. CPG is under pressure as never before, as growth slows and retail competition heats up. Companies react by slimming down
Data is the currency of modern business. Getting the right conclusions and taking action driven by data is critical to personal and collective success. But I reckon the canary has just keeled over in the coal mine. I have probably sat through or presented at over hundreds, maybe even a thousand data presentations in my
We talk to CPG companies about shopper insights day in day out. We are used to rooms filled with “category” people, and indeed salespeople. But it's amazing how rarely brand managers come along. I think the shorthand or even subliminal implication to marketing departments is that talking shopper is about retailers, selling, more about execution,
Coaching has come on a long way in recent years. Gone are the days where only gut feel and experience counted. Now a top coach has a huge range of diagnostic data at their fingertips to make better recommendations and come up with more effective plans. What do I mean by diagnostic data? This is
It's an amazing story. The startup of a single tiny side street burger bar that became a $3 billion international company. I listened to the story told by Jerry Murrell, the founder, about the cornerstone of their success. Deceptively simple – they gave customers the best possible product. Early on he allowed his sons (who
Your first job with your buyer is to build a relationship as a trusted advisor. Only then will your ideas and proposals be credible. In a recent Advantage Survey of USA retail buyers in CPG, references to “objective information and advice” came only second to “good communication” in what behaviours make a best practice supplier.
We may not like to think about it, but as humans, we are all subject to a range of unconscious biases. These get in the way of our rational decision making so that we often end up with worse outcomes than we should. Clear, unambiguous, quantitative data, well explained can overcome these “gut feel” problems.
I spend my life in data. I love it. Give me a fact versus a guess any day of the week. I know I may be in a minority in that regard, but I think marketing should be a balanced synthesis of science and art. As a musician, I know and love art. Art is most likely where
We are taught it on our first day in sales training. That the customer only cares about WIFM: “What’s in it for me”. So, whatever we are proposing has to solve the buyer’s problem. Or meet the buyer ’s needs. But how much of what an account manager is provided by his or her business
