Confronting Trade Promotion Fragmentation Exceptional Agility Required Study 2016
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Executive Summary... 5 Key Findings... 8 Recommendations... 19 Research Objectives and Methodology... 20 Participants... 21 Acknowledgments... 25 2
Introduction For more than 20 years, we have surveyed manufacturers and retailers about the biggest bucket of manufacturer marketing budgets and the lever retailers consider most important for driving purchases. As we reviewed prior reports, the same challenges seem to persist 20 years on. Like the late Yogi Berra said, It s déjà vu all over again. See if you can guess if the excerpts to the right are from 1996 or 2016. All four are from the earlier study and at first glance it seems little has changed. Many manufacturers still feel they spend too much on trade promotion, especially in an environment of low to no top-line growth and increasing use of zero-based budgeting. Temporary price reductions (TPRs) are still the most common promotion and produce the lowest lift. Both manufacturers and retailers spend considerable resources on trade promotion evaluation, but plenty of questions remain. And the organization pendulum tends to swing every five years or so between centralized and decentralized, effectiveness versus efficiency and highly standardized to largely customized. Is it possible little has changed? This industry study, coupled with extensive trade promotion project work with leading manufacturers and retailers, confirms much in fact has changed. Although opportunities remain, we are optimistic about the state of CPG trade promotion. Manufacturers are quite passionate about developing data-driven promotion strategies, better leveraging shopper insights to make promotions more effective and efficient, and measuring the short- and long-term impact of promotion on brands and categories. Manufacturers feel they overspend on trade promotion, yet dollars allocated to it are increasing. While TPRs are the least productive vehicle, they are the most common. Trade promotion is regarded as an extremely important issue, but it is not well-evaluated by manufacturers. Only a few rate themselves as highly effective. Trade promotion is important to manufacturers, but they are not organizationally aligned for optimum management. There is very little centralized control, responsibility and accountability throughout the trade promotion management cycle. They are organized to fail. 3
Likewise, retailers appreciate manufacturer promotion budgets are finite and seek to leverage those funds to achieve higher in-store conversion, increased shopper loyalty and real category growth. While it can be argued today s marketplace is simply too competitive for anything less, in our experience manufacturers and their retailer trading partners understand even incremental improvements can have outsized effects on business results and are increasingly committed to leveraging data, analytics and technology in combination to improve mutual performance. Familiar challenges may persist, but our industry has spent the last 20 years getting better. Much better in fact. We invite you to read the very latest about those efforts in the pages that follow and hope the findings and implications inspire you to consider your own situation and how you can improve. Please contact us if you wish to discuss the study. Spend smartly, Brad Golden Kathy Weber 4
1 Executive Summary 5
Executive Summary Every few years for the past 20 years, Kantar Retail has surveyed manufacturers and retailers to gain insight into trade promotion spending, strategies and management practices. This is an important topic for several reasons. Trade promotion spending is the second-largest expense for most CPG manufacturers after cost of goods sold. It s clearly material, particularly in today s low-growth environment. Our industry spends considerable time and effort planning, executing and analyzing trade promotions. Yet, many opportunities remain. Aside from the product itself, it is arguably the single biggest driver of sales, or has the potential to be. And that s why we continue to survey, analyze and recommend how to improve trade promotion effectiveness and efficiency. Below is a summary of key findings and recommended actions from our 2016 trade promotion industry study. Trade Spending Still Shifting to Customer-Specific Tactics Total trade spending as a percent of gross sales has remained flat for some years. However, the growth of customer-specific programs and digital promotions has shifted spending considerably from traditional to new media. Manufacturers are increasingly targeting trade promotion funds at growth channels and customers, seeking to better align investment with potential while still complying with federal law. Manufacturers and retailers share the same challenge: finding the right combination of trade promotion strategies, tactics, channels, customers and vehicles to invest in. Recommended Actions 1) Segment customers strategically for better allocation of trade funds and higher potential for growth. 2) Develop customer-specific promotion strategies and tactics. 3) Partner closely with retailers to find the right combination of strategies and tactics to achieve common goals. Digital Growing Quickly, Retailers Leading, Manufacturers Lagging Trade promotion spending and activity is rapidly migrating to digital, yet manufacturer strategies, budgets and organizations have not adapted quickly enough. Just 13% of manufacturers have separate brick-and-mortar and e-commerce budgets and 24% have no e-commerce budget at all. Conversely, 33% of retailers have a separate e-commerce budget and just 8% have no e-commerce budget at all. Clearly, retailers are out in front. Manufacturers and retailers appear to be taking different approaches to digital promotion activity, likely leading to considerable misalignment. Manufacturers are increasingly focused on promoting on retailer websites while retailers have deemphasized their own websites in favor of social media, email and mobile couponing. Recommended Actions 4) Establish separate e-commerce teams, budgets and goals if you haven't already. 5) Manufacturers should better align digital promotion spending and activity to retailer strategies and tactics. 6) Retailers should leverage manufacturer social marketing content in trade offers. Measuring Impact on Longer-Term Shopper Behavior Is Next Frontier Most manufacturers are using trade promotion management systems to support the management and analysis of 6
trade spending. Despite this investment and effort, all parties feel much more should be done including analyzing the impact on categories (as well as brands) and better aligning spending with retailerspecific strategies. The next level of optimization is understanding the longer-term effects of trade promotion on shopper purchase behavior. Perhaps the most important takeaway from this research is the shopper remains boss. In an increasingly omnichannel world, the shopper is expected to continue gaining power. Recommended Actions 7) Measure the impact of trade promotion on categories, not just brands, and longerterm shopper behavior. 8) As you move beyond trade promotion management (funds focus) to calculating ROI (performance focus), carefully consider its many components such as duration, incrementality and fully-loaded costs. 9) Combining trade promotion activity and shopper marketing insights with individual customer strategy is the next frontier for optimization. 7
Struggling with Trade Promotion? Need More Agility? Reach out to Kantar Retail to obtain the full 2016 Trade Promotion Industry Study and learn more about how your organization can become more agile in a rapidly changing environment. Study 2016 To receive the complete 2016 Trade Promotion Industry Study, please contact Brad.Golden@KantarRetail.com. Study Price: US $2,000 8 Study 2016
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