“Actionable Insights” — is there any bigger cliché in the category management and shopper insights world than those two words? Usually you see these words in the context of a service provider making claims about its unique ability to provide value. “We translate data and reports into actionable insights that help you grow your business.
For many drug store executives, the conventional wisdom is that their customers simply don’t buy value brands — such as Suave and VO5 shampoo, or Aim and Pepsodent toothpaste. When looking closer at their stores’ offerings, the truth is that the executives’ beliefs are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Customers in these drug stores are less likely
This is a subject that will inevitably scrape a political nerve or two, but it is vital for all consumer packaged goods (CPG) practitioners and suppliers to understand this basic premise: The disproportionate gains in income by the highest-income groups is the primary reason why CPG sales growth is lagging GDP growth for the past
SHELTON, Conn. — There has been a long-standing debate over the size of the vitamins, minerals and supplements (VMS) category. We started our Vitamin Study in 2005 with a simple goal: to get a more accurate measurement of the category size. With our 2016 study, we offered a broader and more robust set of data
Much has been written about the historic sluggishness of the consumer packaged goods industry. Since 2013 CPG industry sales growth has been below 2%, and that growth has been entirely driven by pricing. In response, we see companies merging, brands being sold and jobs being lost. The pundits in our industry sit on the sideline
At long last, we have identified an area of our industry in which the reality actually matches — and indeed exceeds — the hype. I am speaking of the vaunted Millennials, the 18- to 34-year-old age group who one would think (based on the all of the articles in the press) accounted for the vast
It’s time for the retail industry to wake up, open its wallet and ditch those loyalty cards. A little too strong? OK, then how about committing to some major out-of-the-box thinking on how to make these programs actually work — because it certainly is not happening now. For decades, loyalty cards have been pushed by
