I just got back from a fabulous conference: the "Sales and Marketing Summit," sponsored by Consumer Goods Technology magazine. The summit focused on the increasing importance of technology for retail account management and consumer marketing. Now, like you, I attend my fair share of conferences in a year. What made this one so good? Fresh subject matter and some great company stories. I jotted down a few best practices that got my attention:

Better demand planning and trade promotions start with one plan (Welch's Food). Larry Rencken, Director of Customer Support & ERP II at Welch's Foods, shared an impressive stat: Welch's deductions are only 0.35% of revenue, compared with an industry average of 3.7%. Rencken credits this operational accuracy to a cross-functional process in which brand marketing, account management, supply chain, and finance work off the same promotion plan. Sounds simple enough, but this approach requires the right technology (and it's not Excel). So if you're making a decision on your trade promotion apps, be sure to check out my colleague George Lawrie's detailed evaluation of trade promotion vendors like Siebel Systems, MEI Group, and CAS.

Comarketing promotions move the needle (SlimFast and Wal-Mart). Less than half of consumers in a recent Forrester survey say that they trust traditional advertising media like TV, radio, and brand sponsorships. Ouch! With such an advertising backlash, I'm always on the lookout for creative campaigns that cut through the noise. Here's an excellent example: SlimFast achieved a 2:1 return on a cross-channel promotion by combining off-shelf displays and "brand ambassadors" at Wal-Mart stores, promotional content on SlimFast.com, and email newsletters. These comarketing promotions deliver a one-two punch by increasing consumer loyalty with not only the CPG brand but also the participating retailer.

Email newsletters increase campaign effectiveness (Georgia-Pacific). I've caught up with Jeff Shirley, Director of eMarketing at Georgia-Pacific, a few times now, and he has always been a big believer in targeted marketing and measurement. Jeff's team has spearheaded "All Your Rooms," a cross-brand initiative that uses email newsletters to deliver customized content and coupons. What gets these emails read? Subject lines that feature relevant products like Brawny and Quilted Northern. We've unearthed a few more rules -- like recognizable "from" lines -- for distinguishing your email newsletters from spam. Be on the lookout this summer for research from Forrester that applies these rules to three different types of CPG email newsletters.

Clean data saves money (Campbell Soup). Did you know that more than one-third of CPG manufacturers run more than 10 instances of ERP apps? No wonder data fragmentation is such a problem. At the conference, I moderated a panel in which the subject of clean data proved quite popular. Joe Spagnoletti, VP of IT from Campbell Soup, shared that the Campbell Soup data sync team found surprise transportation savings when they discovered and rectified inaccurate weight data on some products. For more best practices on product information management, check out my colleague Erica Rugullies' newest report, Suppliers: Think Beyond Data Synchronization.

That's it for now. As always, I'd love to hear from you with your best practices, research ideas, and questions -- whatever's on your mind.

Have a great summer!


Christine Spivey Overby
Senior Analyst, Consumer Packaged Goods

Research Referenced In This Issue Grading Trade Promotion Solutions (34578) Left Brain Marketing (33961)    Linking RFID And Global Data Sync (34681) New Processes Don't Require New App Suites (34362) Platform Giants Tackle RFID Middleware (34479) Retailers That Win Consumer Loyalty (34647) RFID Reader Incompatibilities Create Hurdles For Adoption (34228) RFID's Influence On Technology Spending (34560) Suppliers: Think Beyond Data Synchronization (34271) The Consumer Advertising Backlash (33834) The State Of Email Marketing 2004 (33959) Wal-Mart Supports Its RFID Mandate (34540)

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