At first blush, spring-cleaning your weekly demand intelligence reports may seem like more work than it's worth. But think again — by eliminating data clutter from your weekly reports you can actually save yourself time, get a better look at the data that's most important to growing your business and get out of the rut that data-by-rote can get you into. After all, a little simplicity goes a long way in making data insights crystal clear....

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Private label isn't going anywhere. It's a successful differentiator that brings value to the consumer and better margins for the retailer. When you add a private label brand to the shelf, another brand is losing that shelf space...

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Maintaining shelf space for your brand is getting more competitive than ever. Private label brands are taking up more shelf space. Retailers are simplifying shelf assortments with less SKUs. And even greater emphasis is being placed upon demand forecasting — retailers look to you for spot-on demand forecasting that ensures products are on the shelf when they should be and not gathering dust (and incurring costs) in inventory....

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It's no secret that during the recession consumers have favored private label brands and discounted SKUs. Yet despite the general consumer perception that Wal-Mart is the "low-cost leader," Target outperformed Wal-Mart in the fourth quarter of 2009 with a 0.6% growth in sales, while Wal-Mart reported a 1.6% drop...

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With more point-of-sale data at hand, retailers are moving beyond target markets and getting wise to buyer personas -a deeper understanding of customers based on characteristics such as gender, occupation, income, marital, parental or employment status...

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As we examined last time, you've started to think beyond your aisle. You're utilizing either independent market research or market basket analysis to garner the shopper's point of view. And you have a new planogram in hand. Now what? How do you convince your retailer to initiate the planogram?

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As category manager, you're charged with growing volume across brands and faced with ever-growing reams of demand data. It's pretty easy to get stuck in a rut, looking at the same data and using "tried and true" planograms. But stagnant planning can mean stagnant sales...

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Inventory management is important to the availability of working capital, maintaining consumer satisfaction, optimizing inventory turnover, and ensuring good margins on sales. However, Aberdeen Research found that 70% of retailers rate themselves average or below average on their inventory management processes...

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Face it, inventory stock issues can make or break you in such a hypersensitive recessionary climate. Underestimate the number of units you need for a promotion and you've lost sales opportunities and disappointed consumers. Overestimate and you're faced with stagnant inventory sitting on a shelf or within a distribution center for weeks or even months...

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One of the challenges to growing your business is convincing retailers to introduce what's new –especially when they're comfortable with what they think "works"... 

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Your recent promotional event was a success—wasn't it? If you're only looking at POS data for the specific items included in that event... 

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Weakening consumer confidence is exacting its toll on retailers and suppliers who must respond to this decrease in sales volume....

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A clear separation is evolving between consumer goods sales teams. Guess who's getting ahead....

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