Article

Jean Littolff
Jean Littolff 26 November 2018

“Half the money (CPG companies) spend is wasted; the trouble is…” - Why only CPG companies that adopt AI analytics will thrive?

Few CPG companies may admit that this century-old “Half the money” quote (from John Wanamaker) still depicts their marketing reality. Yet, more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 Chief Marketing Officers cannot quantify the impact of marketing in both the short and long term, despite investing in data and analytics. With CPG companies being the highest marketing spenders from all sectors (24% of their budget, and nearly 11% of their revenue), this is particularly damaging, as: - There is fierce competition and decreasing growth. - Marketing budgets are often a primary target for cost savings. - Their RoI should be significantly higher; and their competitors are implementing more advanced solutions.

More advanced solutions are, specifically, AI-powered analytics and decision-making tools: they are a game changer for marketing, sales, and supply management. They could make or break CPG manufacturers and retailers.

The number of challenges faced by marketing teams is ever increasing, leading to an unprecedented level of complexity:

  • Consumers segments are more fragmented than ever.
     
  • Pricing and promotions, a hugely complex area, are intertwined with all the other marketing decisions, and can’t be considered in isolation.
     
  • Marketing budget allocation is increasingly complex. Where is your overall budget best spend, in which media, which campaigns? Amongst such a large array of fragmented marketing and media channels (traditional ATL media - like TV and radio, traditional BTL touch points – point of sales, and the broad digital media), which are generating more content and campaigns, marketing budget decisions are hardly optimised.
    The shift of budgets are often marginal adjustments to previous budgets allocation, rather than a fresh assessment of optimal decisions that will maximise the expected outcomes (think zero-based budgeting in marketing).

How are companies translating their goals (sales and market share, revenue and profit, client satisfaction, brand equity, etc.) into the most effective commercial decisions?

To maximise the expected outcomes, the challenges lies at many levels:

  • Assessing the marketing budgets level that will maximise outcomes and RoI.
     
  • Allocating this budget in the most effective manner.
     
  • Optimising other commercial decisions, like pricing and promotions (and simultaneously optimising price and promotions with other marketing decisions.
     
  • Choosing the best set of commercial decisions (marketing, pricing and promotions) within a product line or a category.
     
  • Even more complex (and a necessity for companies), making optimised decisions across product lines or categories (or even products portfolio), that will maximise goals achievement? For example, how would you shift budget from high share and low growth to low share but high growth categories?

In an ideal world of Zero-Based Budgeting, to assess the right level of marketing investment, its allocation or reallocation (between categories/products, media, campaigns), every spending should be linked to the set of drivers that triggers and justifies the investment.


In reality, companies are struggling with the analysis and assessment of marketing activities (both overall and specific), and commercial decision-making (both strategic and tactical), which are highly complex. And too inefficient.

Companies are struggling as they face the limits of traditional data analytics and BI systems, which we will expose in our next article. 

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

A company website is crucial for any business's digital marketing strategy. To keep up with the changing trends and customer buying behaviors, it's important to review and make necessary changes regularly...

Digital Doughnut Contributor
Digital Doughnut Contributor 25 March 2024
Read more
The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

Technology has impacted every part of our lives. From household chores to business disciplines and etiquette, there's a gadget or app for it. Marketing has changed dramatically over the years, but what is the...

Alex Lysak
Alex Lysak 3 April 2024
Read more
The IoT-Connected Car of Today—Case Studies

The IoT-Connected Car of Today—Case Studies

Imagine a world where your car not only drives itself, but also says intelligent things. This would look like an impossibility about five years ago, but today the IoT is already breaking fresh ground for tech...

Ronald van Loon
Ronald van Loon 10 March 2017
Read more
10 Factors that Influence Customer Buying Behaviour Online

10 Factors that Influence Customer Buying Behaviour Online

Now is an era where customers take the center stags influencing business strategies across industries. No business can afford to overlook factors that could either break the customer experience or even pose a risk of...

Edward Roesch
Edward Roesch 4 June 2018
Read more
AI-driven Personalisation Dominates the Future of Travel and Hospitality Marketing

AI-driven Personalisation Dominates the Future of Travel and Hospitality Marketing

Travel and hospitality marketing is on the verge of dramatic transformation. Personalisation of marketing communications is moving from dream to necessity, and the change is putting marketers in the driving seat.

Michael Nutley
Michael Nutley 3 December 2024
Read more