Data Analysis Boosts CPG Companies’ Sales, Market Share

By
Spotfire Blogging Team
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The recent Spotfire on-demand webcast, “Data Science 2.0: Guided and In-line Analytics with Spotfire,” covers how Spotfire and data science are impacting global business across every market and industry.

For example, if you work in the consumer package goods (CPG) industry this may mean using analytics to understand which products are most relevant to consumers to help you better manage advertising campaigns to increase customer awareness.

Here’s a sample clip from the CPG segment of the webcast followed by a post on how CPG companies can benefit from data analysis.


Procter & Gamble CIO Filippo Passerini is leading the CPG behemoth’s march toward using analytics to create a virtual, always-on war room where people get together in person or virtually to analyze data to fix problems as they arise.

“The goal P&G’s working toward is that as soon as data is collected, it’s available for use,” according to InformationWeek. “P&G isn’t after new data types; it still wants to share and analyze point-of-sale, inventory, ad spending, and shipment data. What’s new is the higher frequency and speed at which P&G gets that data, and the finer granularity.”

P&G has the type of data-driven culture than most CPG companies are still aspiring to achieve.

When P&G’s CEO Bob McDonald and his executive committee meet monthly, one data slice they look at is the “top 50” combinations of products and country markets that are the company’s largest. If changes are happening in these combinations, executives are likely to have myriad questions, according to the article, including:

  • Is a sales dip in detergent in France because of one retailer?
  • Is that retailer buying less only in France, or across Europe?
  • Did P&G cut promotions or raise prices, letting a rival grab share, or is the category overall losing sales?

Ninety-six percent of companies – both large and mid-size – view analytics as critical or very important to achieving business objectives, according to a survey of 75 senior-level executives at CPG companies conducted by Accenture. In addition, although they are grappling with budget constraints, 37% of respondents note that their companies will be investing an incremental 10% or more in the next fiscal year.

Still, while 68% of the respondents describe their companies as being analytic leaders, only 12% rate their abilities to execute as “exceptional.”

Accenture notes that while companies acknowledge that the primary value of analytics revolves around obtaining a better view of the shopper to optimize assortment, pricing and promotions, they continue to focus on more “operational” aspects such as historical analysis of the channel.

“Regardless of a company’s analytic capabilities, what is important is extracting analytic insights that allow companies to take action at the shelf,” the survey notes. “Without efficient and effective processes that spur action on analytic insights, the best analytics in the world cannot improve returns on investment or market performance.”

In a separate report, Accenture suggests that CPG companies can benefit by using consumer goods analytics in several areas including:

  • Shopper Analytics. Companies can identify what profitable customers buy and how to increase market share.
  • Brand Marketing Analytics. Organizations can better understand which products are most relevant to consumers to better manage advertising campaigns to increase consumer awareness.
  • Portfolio, Assortment and Space Analytics. “Offering the optimal portfolio depends upon deep understanding of shopper needs and analyzing in-store activity,” the report notes. “This optimization includes retiring products that don’t meet needs and developing products that address gaps.”
  • Price and Promotion Analytics. This would help companies become more efficient in promotional spending, a large expense for CPG organizations.
  • Channel Management. Companies can understand which channel partners provide the best returns on investment.

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