Inside the 2008 Consumer Goods Sales & Marketing Summit

6/13/2008

By Alliston Ackerman

June 13, 2008 - The 2008 Consumer Goods Sales and Marketing Summit came to a close Wednesday afternoon, leaving the more than 220 consumer goods executives in attendance with a little more insight into the ever-changing and complex sales and marketing landscape. In its fifth year, the event, hosted by CGT in NYC on June 9-11, provided a forum for attendees to network with peers, share ideas and experiences, and learn about important industry trends. Trading partner performance management, sales and operations planning, price optimization, category management, trade promotion management, marketing 2.0, 3.0 and beyond â" you name it, our speakers covered it. Here are a few of the many highlights:

>In an opening keynote presentation titled, "Why Diversity Matters," Campbell Soup Company SVP and CIO Doreen Wright addressed how a diverse and inclusive working environment has helped Campbell to more effectively navigate increasingly complex markets to anticipate and respond to consumer demands. "An inclusive culture is critical to our business success," said Wright, "and our diversity affords us huge economic possibility." In the area of marketing specifically, a diverse culture within Campbell has lead to increased customer focus and more sensitivity to cultural differences; greater diversity in the casting of its advertising; and increased efforts in the area of multi-cultural marketing.

>Next up, Jeff Bornino, manager of Supply Chain Initiatives for The Kroger Company, and Beth Scheid, associate director of Global Business Services for The Procter & Gamble Company, provided an update on the progress of Trade Partner Performance Management (TPPM), a new GS1 standard under development to drive common measures and common measurement for retailer/manufacturer trading relationships. "The big return on investment lies in making sure that everyone is looking at the same sheet of music," affirmed Scheid. The informative session also served as a call to action for attendees, who were invited to give feedback on the measures, definitions, calculations and parameters of the project as well as the technology approach.

>As the Web 3.0 world quickly approaches, most consumer goods companies are still struggling to adapt to a Web 2.0 world. Online marketing visionary and former SVP Marketing Communications for Wal-Mart Julie Roehm discussed, analyzed and interpreted current and future marketing scenarios and offered strategies and examples for companies to adapt and success in this volatile market in a session titled, "Marketing 2.x." She recommends 3M Company and Google as examples to follow.

>AMR Research Director Lora Cecere hosted a panel of consumer goods executives from Kraft, LeapFrog and Valvoline, allowing them the forum to touch upon 2008 Sales & Marketing Report findings -- from CGT and AMR Research -- and share their own strategies. Topics of interest included:
-Product innovation and go-to-market efforts, and supporting technologies
-Strategies for coping with demand variability
-The evolution of demand signal repositories
-The true state of their trade promotion management efforts and solutions

>In a session titled, "Trade Promotion Management," Rich Nichols, director of Sales Strategy and Sales Operations, Del-Monte Foods, affirms, "We want to push our people, processes and technology from 'good' to 'great,' and to do so we had to fill a need for a best-in-class TPM process and system." He shared details of this initiative's status today, tips on handling change management and a roadmap for the future. Click here to read CGT's May 2008 cover story, "Del Monte Foods Optimizes Trade."

Attendees also heard from VTech on S&OP; Sara Lee on price optimization; Newell Rubbermaid on data management; Softsheen-Carson on category management; Acosta Sales & Marketing on sales agency relationships; R.J. Reynolds on marketing and technology; and a Wall Street panel on the wealth and health of the consumer goods industry. Next year's Sales & Marketing Summit will be held once again at The Roosevelt Hotel on June 8 -10, 2009.

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