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SECTION ONE
SECTION TWO
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Loyalty Erosion Hurts Brand Revenues
Loyalty erosion and consumer defection caused top CPG brands to grow only slightly in revenue, says a new study.
New research conducted by Catalina Marketing finds that total revenues of the top 100 brands in its nationwide network of 21,000 grocery, drug and mass merchant stores grew by just 0.7% during a 12-month period ending in early July. The report also demonstrates that brand defections and reduced share among previously highly loyal consumers represent a major drag on individual brand performance.
“The 2011 Mid-Year Performance Review is a strong argument for making loyalty a more significant part of brand strategy,” said Todd Morris, executive vice president, brand development, for Catalina. “Staying close and in touch with the changing needs and purchase behaviors of your brand’s most valuable consumers is the best way to retain loyal customers and grow revenue.”
CPG Gets Nutrition Database
The new Gladson Nutrition Database for Manufacturers is the CPG industry’s largest and most up-to-date repository of nutritional information on more than 200,000 food products. It was launched recently by Gladson, provider of syndicated consumer packaged goods (CPG) product images and information.
The database is being made available in response to the growing responsibility for food makers to track and maintain comprehensive and accurate product information in an increasingly health-conscious society.
“The rise in obesity, food allergies, government-mandated nutrition programs and the enlightened consumer has created an overwhelming need for CPG companies to have product information at their fingertips,” said Susan Sentell, President and CEO of Gladson. “Product information fuels the most essential aspects of a food manufacturer’s business including marketing, research and development, competitive monitoring, and government compliance.”
Electronic Receipts Replacing Paper
Major retailers including Whole Foods, Kmart, Sears and others have begun offering electronic receipts to customers instead of traditional paper receipts. These e-receipts can be emailed to the shopper or accessed on password-protected sites. The retailers report that more customers are choosing to go paperless.
To keep up with the changing times, retailers are interested in e-receipts because they are eco-friendly helps them leverage digital in the physical store. Experts say it also helps them prepare for mobile payment systems like Google Wallet.
Dollar General Debuts eCommerce
Dollar General Corp. is enhancing its position in convenient and value shopping with the launch of its eCommerce channel at www.dollargeneral.com
Dollar General’s web store offers a wide assortment of name brand and private label merchandise, including health and beauty products, cleaning supplies, baby items, toys, holiday merchandise, home décor, stationery, snacks and much more. The assortment is being enhanced by unique items that are only available at dollargeneral.com and won’t be found in stores. Much of the merchandise on the site will be available in single units or by the case.
Rick Dreiling, Dollar General’s chairman and CEO, said, “We have streamlined the online shopping experience, giving customers what they need, as well as what they want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
More ‘Daily Deals’ on Tap
Move over, Groupon. You have another competitor: Amazon. The online giant has launched AmazonLocal in Chicago, the home town of Groupon. Amazon said it also offers “daily deals” in Seattle, Boise, the Los Angeles area and Palm Beach, Fla.
Other outfits offering similar promotions include Yelp, Google and LivingSocial, which Amazon recently invested in. Amazon, which is now using LivingSocial salespeople for its program, said its own sales team is planned for later in the year.
MEI Becomes SSAE 16 Compliant
MEI has completed the SSAE 15 audits for its trade promotion management services. The Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts has recently replaced SAS 70 with SSAE 16 as the new standard for service auditors. While the SAS 70 classification has long been recognized as providing the most rigorous auditing standard, the new SSAE 16 offers better agreement with international standards and also requires a written assertion by management. Like SAS 70, SSAE 16 provides an independent service auditor’s report on controls placed in operation and tests of operating effectiveness.
MEI’s SSAE 16 compliance comes at the heels of the launch of TradeInsight, its newest SaaS solution for trade promotion management. TradeInsight has become increasingly popular as consumer goods manufacturers are outgrowing static spreadsheets and adopting intuitive solutions to plan, execute and analyze their trade spending.
Toys R Us Expands eCommerce
The nation’s largest toy retailer last year launched a service for buying items online and picking them up in the store. Now Toys R Us is expanding this service by allowing shoppers to designate a family member of friend to pick up orders.
Other enhancements to its e-commerce business include opening a new distribution center in McCarran, Nev. exclusively for fulfilling online orders, and a “ship from store” program that calls for using inventory from more than 700 stores to complete online orders.
"This ‘ship from store’ program will not only improve the speed with which customers receive their items, but will also provide an additional option to fulfill online orders, should online inventory for a particular item run low,” said the company in a prepared statement.
Retail Challenge Scholarship Competition
DemandTec, the collaborative optimization network for retailers and consumer products companies, has announced the details of the sixth annual DemandTec Retail Challenge, a
math-oriented scholarship competition for high school seniors.
High school seniors across the United States will compete to win monetary scholarships toward the college of their choice and the opportunity to ring the NASDAQ OMX Stock Market closing bell on January 17, 2012 in New York City. Since the competition’s inception, more than $250,000 in scholarship money has been awarded through the program.
“Target’s continued sponsorship of the DemandTec Retail Challenge is part of our commitment to education. We hope Target’s scholarship grant and team member volunteers will help students get excited about math,” said Tim Livingston, Director of Merchandising Process and System Development at Target Corporation.
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SECTION THREE
| Analytics |
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| Category Management |
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| Channels |
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| Data Warehousing |
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| Digital Solutions |
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| eCommerce |
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| Expert Analysis |
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| Loyalty Marketing |
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| Market Watch |
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| Mobile Marketing |
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| Promotions |
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| Research |
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| Shopper Marketing |
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| Social Media |
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| Trade Promotion |
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