Blog

How to Excite High-Value Health and Beauty Shoppers

Post Date: 2/02/2015

The vast majority of shoppers make lists before they go shopping to maximize their time and make sure they get what they truly need. Even more compelling is that a quarter of shoppers actually make the extra effort to include specific brands on their lists. Improving shopper t...

Post Date: 1/26/2015

IRI just released its latest Times & Trends report on Private Label & National Brands and the results are enlightening for CPG manufacturers and retailers alike. Even with the recovering economy, four in ten people remain financially challenged and are still seeking va...

Post Date: 1/22/2015

With the Super Bowl just over a week away, many of us are thinking about the television ads, which are expensive, fascinating, and usually remembered by audiences for years. Ad Age tracks Super Bowl ads well before the game and also notes that some companies have already relea...

Post Date: 1/06/2015

Every good marketer knows that packaging is one of the key ingredients of a successful product. It’s at the point of consideration, when a consumer is staring at two similar products in the store and trying to make a decision between them, that packaging can help make or...

Post Date: 12/16/2014

Trends in the marketplace – busier-than-ever shoppers, localized competition, and the impact of digital – are making the retail environment more complex. Deciding which products to have in-store and online continues to be a universal challenge for both manufacturer...

Post Date: 12/12/2014

While innovation is crucial for any company that wants long-term growth, it’s become increasingly difficult to anticipate and meet shopper needs through new product introductions. A massive 80 to 90 percent of new product introductions fail to meet their goals. This mean...

Post Date: 12/10/2014

As the U.S. economic recovery continues, shopper behavior is mixed: some shoppers have continued their frugal ways while others have begun spending again. The $23.3 billion home cleaning business has faced several years of challenges as a result of consumers’ ongoing eff...

Post Date: 12/09/2014

Harnessing the potential of big data in every aspect of a company’s operations is a highly attractive goal, but it’s one that can be difficult to achieve. IRI and Columbia Business School’s Center for Pricing and Revenue Management recently held their second ...

Post Date: 12/05/2014

Whether advertising budgets are large or small, all CPG marketers (and their agencies) want to be more efficient, improve targeting and maximize reach to the people they want to influence. Digital advertising, with its many targeting techniques, has made it easier for marketer...

Post Date: 12/04/2014

Hispanics are now one sixth of the U.S. population and represent $1.3 trillion in purchasing power. That purchasing power is projected to surpass $1.7 trillion by 2017, presenting a tremendous opportunity for CPG growth. For example, a CPG manufacturer with $1 billion in sales...

Post Date: 11/03/2014

When I talk to people about the future of television, I always use digital as an example. When you surf the web, you see different ads than someone else who is visiting the same website. TV is based on a completely different advertising model, with all viewers seeing the same ...

Post Date: 10/27/2014

It’s no surprise that consumers are changing how they shop, where they shop and when they shop. In fact, consumers now have more than 2,500 unique potential paths to purchase.

Post Date: 10/17/2014

With the 2014 holiday season drawing near, marketers should have a lot to feel good about, according to IRI’s Q3 2014 MarketPulse™ survey. Consumer confidence is on an upward trajectory, and shoppers say they’re planning to spend a bit more during this holida...

Post Date: 10/09/2014

On Oct. 28 and 29, IRI and the Center for Pricing and Revenue Management at Columbia Business School will present our second annual executive education program on the Columbia University campus. Titled, “Pricing Analytics: The Art and Science of Profitable Growth,”...

Post Date: 9/18/2014

For any CPG manufacturer operating in three or more countries, global reporting should be a fundamental part of strategy development, execution and measurement. Whether managers use the resultant reports to ensure compliance with centrally generated marketing and sales plans o...

Post Date: 9/09/2014

How can CPG companies best position themselves for digital and e-commerce success? During the next five years, companies need to plan for a “1-5-10” market, in which e-commerce’s current 1 percent penetration will likely expand to 5 percent by 2018 and could ...

Post Date: 8/14/2014

Spending by Hispanic shoppers has increased 207 percent since 2000, and by 2015, the U.S. Hispanic market will be worth $1.5 trillion. During our recent #IRIWebinar, “Winning with the Hispanic Consumer Today,” Latinum Network Vice President Andy Hasselwander and I ...

Post Date: 8/04/2014

Just as the economy has been slow to recover, consumers have been slow to loosen their purse strings. Though consumer confidence rose drastically in Q1 2014, IRI’s Q2 MarketPulse study found consumer confidence leveling off, with 46 percent of consumers stating they feel...

Post Date: 7/29/2014

Creating advertising that resembles news and other editorial content is not new. The concept has been around for years in the form of advertorials and “special advertising sections” laid out to look like regular content. What’s newer is applying the concept i...

Post Date: 7/01/2014

Do you remember that sensation of walking into a childhood friend’s home and being greeted with a waft of a familiar scent that was somehow unique to that particular household? It’s as though every friend’s house had its own distinct smell with its own memori...