Forrester Research: Forrester Retail Insights Consumer Packaged Goods First Look: Research & Event Highlights From Forrester

 06 Mar. 2003
Ahold's Royal Pains
The CPG industry raised a collective eyebrow at the news that Royal Ahold inflated profits by $500 million due to inaccurate rebate and trade promotion reporting. This auditing scandal will reinvigorate FASB's reform of CPG promotion accounting -- and fuel investments in trade management platforms from providers like CAS and SAP.

Upcoming Research
"Online Couponing Done Right" by Christine Overby
"Building Smarter Grocery Stores" by Jim Crawford
"What Are CPG Web Sites Good For?" by Christine Overby
"CPG Digital Marketing Best Practices" by Christine Overby


Where You Can Find Us
March 31: Grocery Manufacturers of America's 2003 Information Systems and Logistics/Distribution Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida; Christine Overby leads a panel discussion on B2B collaboration.

May 20-21: RFID in Action, London; Christine Overby speaks on the near-term impact of RFID on the supply chain; 20% discount for Forrester clients who mention Forrester when registering.

Learn From The Experts!
Is your Web site effective? Ask one of Forrester's CPG analysts to review your site. We'll provide a comprehensive site evaluation and make recommendations for improvement based on what consumers want online from CPG manufacturers. To learn more, contact Kim Chaskey at kchaskey@forrester.com.

Why do people join grocery loyalty programs?
Why do people join grocery loyalty programs?

Hi everyone! Welcome to CPG First Look, a newsletter designed to highlight our recent and upcoming CPG and grocery research and events. We'll publish CPG First Look quarterly in 2003, and if there are other people in your organization who should receive it, they can subscribe via the link to our email subscriptions page below.



We talk with dozens of CPG manufacturers and retailers in the US and Europe every month, and here's the question we get most often: "What are the smart CPG technology investments for 2003?" A big question indeed, and our CPG team has some ideas. On the supply chain side, Wal-Mart's support of EDI over the Internet and EAN/UCC's endorsement of the UCCnet GLOBALregistry will seed real collaboration -- and trade -- over the Net. Foot-dragging manufacturers will suffer as retailers pass along the higher costs of their manual operations.

Five CPG Technology Predictions On the consumer side, BI -- business intelligence -- is the technology of the year, as CPG firms realize that they must get smarter about using consumer data. The payoff? Data-smart firms like Nestlé Purina and Unilever will deliver more relevant consumer offers over the Internet and at the point of sale.

But CPG firms won't be the only ones using consumer data more strategically. Innovative retailers like Wegmans and CVS already use loyalty card data to boost sales and margins with tantalizing consumer rewards and more relevant product assortments. But with more than 50% of US grocery shoppers participating in more than one program, where's the loyalty?

It's not in the cards! Retailers need to take a cold, hard look at the ROI of their card programs by scoring consumers' loyalty and profitability and overhauling their card strategies. Leaders will offer enhanced card services like multimerchant discounts and dedicated checkout lines to satisfy their best consumers, combat Wal-Mart, and counter the simmering media backlash against card-based price discrimination.

So whether you're a CPG manufacturer or a retailer -- a friend or a foe of Wal-Mart -- there are plenty of technology projects in your future. We look forward to providing you with more insights and advice in the year ahead!


Christine Spivey Overby
CPG Analyst

P.S. We also hear a lot of questions about RFID. To learn more about this hot topic, read "RFID: The Smart Product (R)evolution."


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