POI Pulse: July 20, 2015

Past Prime – Is Amazon In Danger of Being Disrupted?
Source: (Forbes.com July 16, 2015)

Why? Its current focus on online commerce runs counter to where global commerce is headed – a seamless blending of online, offline, personalized, social shopping. And without massive investments in offline retail that would further prolong profitability, the company risks losing the competitive advantage it has so long enjoyed.

Time will tell if Amazon’s Prime Day, roundly criticized on social media as a bust, will have the intended effect of enveloping more shoppers into the Prime universe. Learn more

General Mills Capturing More of Away-from-Home Market
Source: (Food Bus News July 15, 2015)

General Mills continues to expand its snacks lineup across the convenience store channel. Bethany Quam, VP of Convenience Stores and Foodservice, said the company’s snacks sales in those outlets have been growing at an 8% compound rate. Ms. Quam also said General Mills is ramping up its participation in the $2 billion packaged bakery section in convenience stores. Learn more

Join 300+ of Your Peers at POI Summit in Dallas!
Your next opportunity to learn, network, and advance at the POI Fall Summit is November 4-6 in Dallas, TX. The agenda will once again be advanced, so make your plans now to attend, as the POI April 2015 Summit was sold out!

More than 300 CPG Manufacturers and Retailers will join us —
Teams taking advantage of early registration include:

Borden Dairy, Idahoan, Wrigley, Jack Links, Post Foods, Deli Express, Ruiz Foods, Hershey’s, Lidl, Pernod Ricard, AB Inbev, Tree Top, Storck USA, Bellisio Foods, Bimbo, Kind, Whole Foods, Ahold USA, JBSS, AAFES, DairyPure, Mondelez, Mars, PepsiCo, McCormick, Starbucks, Pinnacle Foods,Coca-Cola, Food Lion, Nestle, Kimberly Clark, Red Gold, DPSG, Johnson & Johnson, Perfetti Van Melle, Kraft Foods, Pictsweet, Hormel, Clorox, Tyson, Kellogg’s, Dannon, 7-Eleven, JM Smucker, Church & Dwight, Busch Bros.,Topco, Keurig Green Mountain, Hillshire Brands, Giant Eagle, Jarden, Musco Family Olive, ConAgra, Windsor Foods, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Del Monte, Rich Products, Mckee Foods, SC Johnson, Novartis, and many others. By now you should have received your invitation. If not, reach me today at mkantor@p-o-i.org

Consumer Reports: Five Grocery Sites that Deliver
Source: Post Gazette July 17, 2015)

Consumer Reports ShopSmart looked at five national companies (Amazon, Netgrocer, MyBrands, ShopFoodEx, Walmart). They all let you browse food categories as you would in store aisles or search by keyword or UPC. The trade-offs: Some sites require a minimum purchase, shipping fees can be steep and most offer only dry goods. Learn more

More CCM Candidates w/ POI SJU
Source: (Orientation is December 10-11, 2015)

CCM graduates and candidates included sales, marketing and merchandising executives from Starbucks, Ahold USA, Walgreens, Norseland, Inc., Pinnacle Foods, 7-Eleven, ESM Ferolie, Hormel, Delhaize America, Keurig Green Mountain, Wakefern, Campbell Soup, Mondelez, Continental Mills, and others. Learn more

UK Supermarkets Warned by CMA on Misleading Price Promotions
Source: (The Drum July 16, 2015)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled after a three-month investigation that there is evidence of supermarkets – including Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado. The only way to compete for attention against the continual low prices of Aldi and Lidl is to discount branded goods. Indeed, combined the ‘Big Four’ have invested over a billion into lowering prices. Today, Which? and the CMA estimate that 40 per cent of grocery spending is on items on promotion. Learn more

There have never been more examples of the need for adaptability than we have experienced in the last 6 years. Manufacturer, and retailer organizations are often counseled to develop strategies or strategic alliances to address changing market, economic, and political environments. But a deep recession, slow growth period, and changing customers has brought about the greatest need for continuous evolution of skills, strategies, partnerships, plus increased use of data and analytics.

Now and for the foreseeable future Retail and CPG will experience fundamental changes (mergers/acquisitions), which, because of its swiftness and permanence, will surpass the tremendous changes that have occurred over the past fifty years. As the structure of retail changes, so will the role and scope of FMCG Manufacturers. In order for organizations to thrive, they will be forced to fundamentally restructure their focus, goals, and perhaps purpose. Consequently, the application of Price/Promotion Optimization (including Trade Promotion Optimization, Predictive Analytics, Integrated Planning, Retail Execution, Collaborative Marketing) concepts will be increasingly more important for these groups over the next decade than at any previous time. The purpose of Collaborative Marketing is to build a strategic (or competitive) advantage which can lead to long-term above-average mutual growth for trading partners and our industry. Whether you employ a low-cost strategy, a differentiation strategy, or a focus strategy, collaborative Marketing drives targeted results. Your best strategy is ultimately a function of sensing and shaping consumer demand and the continuous understanding of product/service attributes, collaborative competencies, and talent/skills of each company.

Join us at the Promotion Optimization Institute as a member, and immerse yourself and your customer team or retail marketing team with continuous skills development, collaborative relationships, and practices via our Global Summits, Research, and our Curriculum/Certification, to achieve profitable growth.

We’re building the next great POI Fall Summit now, and trending towards another record attendance. See the preliminary agenda here, as you’ll identify why you need to join us in Dallas!

Have an outstanding week!

Michael Kantor
CEO & Founder
Promotion Optimization Institute, LLC
mkantor@p-o-i.org

www.POInstitute.com