Sally Martin We hope you aren’t tired of reading about velocity! Velocity and distribution (which go hand in hand, as you’ll see below) are the topics we are asked about most often. We’ve reviewed our reader correspondence and pulled out a few more key points we wanted to share: Question 1: Is Velocity Independent of Distribution? Q. Can you help me understand my brand trends? My volume is up 12%, my distribution is up 20%, but my velocity is down -10%. I’m new to analyzing syndicated CPG data and my boss says that velocity is not “affected” by distribution. So what could be causing my brand’s ..read more

Sally Martin We get a lot of questions from readers. Sometimes our answers touch on things we haven’t fully explored in our articles. We want everyone to benefit from these nuggets of information so decided to post a series of Q&A articles which will highlight some interesting correspondence. Our first post covers three questions on the always popular topic of velocity. Question 1: Using Velocity to Forecast Sales for a New Item Q. What is the best way to determine the value (the $ opportunity) of new item placement in a new market or chain of stores, if item X is in Market REM but not ye ..read more

Guest   We are delighted to have guest contributor Tom Tran, Associate Brand Manager on Pedialyte and big  fan of CPG Data Tip Sheet, provide his perspective on the usage and importance of syndicated data in his marketing job.  Although this article is targeted toward MBAs probably working at larger companies, there is a lot of great advice for anybody new to marketing in the CPG/FMCG space.  Tom’s bio and contact info can be found at the end of this article. Are you a first-year MBA interested in brand management and wondering what the big deal is about Nielsen and IRI da ..read more

Guest We are delighted to have guest contributor Robert Ribciuc, Managing Partner, EBITDA Catalyst introduce a very useful tool for CPG (and other) companies.  His bio and contact information can be found at the end of this article.   Pricing value maps are visualization tools used by marketers and consulting firms to illustrate several linked points: Pricing should ultimately be linked to “value,” as measured by the perception of consumers.  More specifically, a buyer’s willingness-to-pay (WTP) is driven primarily by her perceived value (benefits) from buying and using the pro ..read more

Sally Martin Last month, we were delighted to present a webinar through the Category Management Association. The webinar content was inspired by our inflation post from earlier this year. We wanted to share both the video replay and our slides from the CMA webinar. In addition, in preparing for the webinar, we had a few additional thoughts on inflation: Where Is Inflation Heading? In our last post, we talked about where inflation numbers come from and how to track them. But we didn’t touch on inflation forecasts. There are many forecasts around from a variety of sources so keep your eyes ..read more

Sally Martin After publishing our recent post on inflation, we were asked by the Category Management Association to present a short webinar on the topic. It will be this Wednesday, May 26 at 11am central time. It’s targeted to CMA members but you can also register as a guest. We’d love to see you there!  Description and registration link: CMA Webinar: Inflation Is Back     The post Join us at our upcoming inflation webinar! appeared first on CPG Data Tip Sheet. Copyright © 2021 CPG Data Insights ..read more

Robin Simon “There are a lot of questions about inflation and how it impacts the business.  We would love to hear your thoughts on how we can analyze this topic!”    – Actual reader comment on CPG Data Tip Sheet, 3/22/22 Well, here are some thoughts for you! Background and Context Let’s start with some basic information:  what exactly is inflation and how bad is it right now (March 2022)? As explained in more detail in this article from the International Monetary Fund, inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time.  It’s typically a broad mea ..read more

Robin Simon As you may have noticed from the industry press, LinkedIn or emails received directly from Nielsen, a lot has happened to the Nielsen company in the last few months.  If you’ve seen the above logo on the right then the message has been getting out to industry stakeholders.  Nielsen clients should be familiar with the content in this post but others may still be a bit confused. On November 1, 2020, this announcement came out that Nielsen Holdings Plc was selling its “consumer goods data unit” to a private equity firm.  That deal was completed in early March, 2021.&nb ..read more

Robin Simon Wow – we are now more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted virtually all aspects of life and business.  And analysis. Around this time in 2020 I wrote this post which talks about important things to consider while doing analysis during uncertain, volatile times.  During several weeks in March-April, 2020, sales for many  products were way up as shoppers stocked up or way down as disruption to supply chains caused out-of-stocks.  Now as we are lapping those very unusual periods, here are some things to think about when analyzing business pe ..read more

Sally Martin Many CPG companies purchase individual, Excel-based reports from syndicated data vendors Nielsen, IRI and SPINS. Rather than the six-figure investment required for an ongoing data subscription, individual reports can be obtained for a few thousand dollars. So it’s a great place to start with this data! The vendors are quite flexible in what can be included in these reports but you need to know what to ask for. Here are three common mistakes made by novice syndicated data buyers: 1 Ordering data on “Category X”, only to find key items missing. Take the time up front to make su ..read more