Despite being major players in the CPG industry, large food and beverage companies have seen mediocre growth over the last four years. According to research from McKinsey, these big firms lagged far behind medium-sized (3.8%/year) and small manufacturers (10.2%) who flourished during that same period with more than double their sales numbers!
Insights can save large CPG companies from SMB disruptors - if used correctly.
Consumer package goods executives face a daunting challenge: developing sustainable and profitable growth amidst the growing number of SMBs who continue to quickly steal away their market share. To stay competitive, it's critical these legacy brands recognize that size no longer does all the talking as today’s crowdfunding platforms helps small-scale businesses disrupt even the world’s largest corporations in record time.
Size doesn't matter the same way it used to. Crowdfunding for high-demand, small-scale businesses is allowing SMBs to disrupt large legacy brands more than ever.
How are these small but quickly-growing businesses achieving this level of growth? They understand their consumers. Ultimately, consumer demand is the force that is driving this changing CPG landscape. Today’s consumer is:
Highly informed
Price-sensitive
Socially connected
Self-promoting
Seeks instant gratification
Trusts the crowd
If you compare this to the picture of how a traditional CPG enterprise is being run, you may see a stark difference: silos, command and control, bureaucratic planning processes, politics and lack of sharing, disconnection from the front line, etc. How can this type of company adapt effectively to today’s consumer needs?
The winning advantage is to discover what the future looks like using both insight and experience.
Experience + Insight = Foresight
To stay ahead in the competition, organizations must recognize that their success will be determined by how effectively they can link insights and knowledge to impactful narratives. Doing so ensures those stories are brought to life at retail which is critical for survival in today's consumer-driven economy - relying only on operational efficiency won't cut it anymore.
Insights are key in helping businesses remain competitive. Companies must learn to leverage their internal networks and create engaging stories that seamlessly move customers through multiple brands for maximum value.
Writers Block
CPG sales leaders have the same pressing problem: wading through an overwhelming amount of data to identify what's valid and relevant. While it can be a daunting task, having knowledge about their consumers' past behaviors gives them insight into accurately predicting future trends so they can stay ahead as competition intensifies. By honing in on pertinent success stories, these organizations will better equip themselves with the tools needed for success long-term.
“When you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack, don’t add more hay”
When you have so much data to sift through, where do you start? Start with the business objective and connect your data discovery to it. Coupling business context with analytics expertise is the starting point for success. For example:
What is future consumer spending going to look like in our markets?
What brand and marketing strategies are working and why?
How do we optimize trade marketing performance amongst retailers?
What categories are performing best right now and why?
Where can we save costs across our supply chain?
For example, if we know that consumer profiling across channels is going to add the most value, we can deploy data towards that business goal. Or, if we want to understand the consumer through an omni-channel lens or understand their brand choices, then we can stage that discussion in a much more focused and deliberate way.
Sales team of the future
To build a sales culture that is driven by meaningful insights, team-wide collaboration and the right tools are essential. Without these components in place, organizations will struggle to democratize analytics and create stories with true impact. For maximum effect, executives must empower frontline teams so they are connected to the larger center of data insight - something which has been proven time after time to be far more effective than 'top-down' solutions alone.“If you want to empower the frontline, don’t tell them how to interpret their data”
Final Mile: Insight Storytelling
CPG leaders have the chance to tap into a wealth of insights and incorporate them directly in their everyday business decisions - creating tangible value. This is often easier said than done; although data governance, structure, and talent are essential factors for success here, there also needs to be an effort put forth on the frontline of businesses across departments to bridge experience with analytics. By doing so companies can create sustainable ROI from big data investments as well as unlock one its greatest potential opportunities by sharing stories that capture consumer demand amongst functional silos within organizations.
see6 is an AI enabled platform that helps sales teams transform their insights into compelling stories to grow sales