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Big CPG Change highlighted at events in the America’s

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time now – the CPG industry needs to stop doing business as usual and immerse itself in our ever-changing, tech-driven world. If the talk at recent industry events, held this month in both the USA and Mexico, is anything to go by that message is finally coming home, and there’s now an accelerated sense of urgency to understand how to transform. From the sessions and workshops to the side-line conversations, how to harness tech to master rapid Big Change was the dominant theme.

Earlier this month, visualfabriq was a proud sponsor and participant at the POI (Promotion Optimisation Institute) 2019 Chicago Summit. The event brought together major US and global CPG companies, retailers and solutions providers; thought-leaders, researchers and analysts to paint, not just the broad strokes of the fast-arising future, but fill in the detail of how to get there and thrive.

Visualfabriq’s Vice-President of Customer Success in the USA, Rahi Khandelwal led a workshop on best practices with tools and services to advance TPM and TPO. He shared straightforward lessons about identifying and applying business processes and new generation tech to drive value, including applied AI, advanced analytics and Joint Business Planning.

Rahi says: “POI Chicago offered immense value to the attendees. Strategic Revenue Growth Management is transforming the ‘art of pricing’ into a data-driven endeavour by placing the shopper at the heart of advanced analytics. Dissecting category performance, purchase dynamics, consumption occasions and the shopper’s trip missions enable thought-provoking analytics to deliver insights that move beyond item and price management.”

“Illuminating this journey that we are all on which is shaping how retailers and manufactures grow together through the next generation tech was very well received by all the attendees and the feedback was great.”

Other highlights of the event included Visualfabriq’s CEO, Jaco Brussé’s visionary ‘Lightening Talk’ where he emphasised that while we are living in a world of AI and ML, the human touch is still important. Jaco made the point that as an industry AI frontrunner and advocate, Visualfabriq has for a solid number of years now been empowering the CPG brave hearts on their exciting journey to achieve end-to-end Strategic Revenue Growth Management.

The idea of being empowered by the machine, not taken over by it, was echoed by Visualfabriq client, Craig Eaton of Ocean Spray, who led an insightful session on balancing the art and science to deliver profitable revenue growth.

Global Sales Manager, Santiago Navarro, who was also part of the Visualfabriq delegation at POI Chicago observed that one of the most valuable outtakes from the event was seeing the big picture of how Strategic Revenue Growth Management is interconnected with TPM, TPO and advanced analytics.

AI has moved to the top of the agenda,” he says. “By now there are clear leaders in this space, such as visualfabriq, because we have more mature AI-driven solutions. Trade Promotion is going through major, necessary transformations. The practice has to grapple with the impacts of e-commerce as well as changing retail environments and consumer habits.”

“POI Chicago highlighted how CPG companies need to know how to achieve greater promotional outcomes through improved collaborative capabilities and to have a clear understanding of how TPO and predictive analytics drives trading partner results. It was clear how pricing and promotion strategies are being effectively refined through better use of data and how AI- based consumption and shopper baselines set the implementation and execution of Joint Business Planning strategies in motion.”

Across the America’s, these dynamic Big CPG Change conversations reverberated in Mexico City, where Visualfabriq and its partner, Strategic Solutions hosted our first Latin American event with the theme – Driving Profit through World Class Revenue Management. According to Manuel Rodriguez, CEO of Strategic Solutions, the interest and drive for change in the huge Latin American markets is high.

CPG companies in the region are looking to the future,” Manuel says. “They are open to learning and understanding. They want affordable, agile, next-generation tech solutions that finally make sense and great use out of their abundance of data.”

“We’ve had a fantastic reception in Latin America,’ adds Visualfabriq’s Global Sales Manager, Santiago Navarro. “Our first event has highlighted the keen interest and the grasp that Latin American CPG companies have that AI-driven solutions that unlock insights they have never had before are integral to the way forward to mastering strategic revenue growth management in a changing retail environment. Apart from the global players, there are large home-grown CPG companies who are focused on strategic revenue growth management and joint business planning.”

“They understand that traditional TPM and TPO need to change, and they are looking for solutions that have a track record in applying AI; that are automated and that put them at the leading edge of today’s tech.”