What’s Next in Trade Effectiveness?
Trade promotion best practices are fairly well established across the fast moving consumer goods industry. But looking forward over the next 1 to 3 year horizon, two “next generation” themes stand out:
1. Aligning “top-down” strategic trade planning with “bottom-up” account planning processes on a single technology platform
2. Weaving in the shopper insights dimension to what has traditionally been a brand/category focused planning framework
We are already seeing signs of both development themes taking hold among some of the larger CPG manufacturers. Better technology made more broadly available through SaaS frameworks are fast-tracking theme #1. And many retailers who have come to recognize the importance of more localized, shopper-centric trade planning are helping to drive theme #2 among the vendor community through richer data-sharing policies.
Note: I recently completed this thought-leadership eBook for DemandTec, my employer, to help articulate what’s on the horizon in the trade promotion space. Hope you enjoy thumbing through it, and I look forward to any thoughts you care to share on the concepts. Since the document has some small text, it is best viewed in full-screen mode.
