CPG Chatter

From organic snack foods to health and beauty brands, CPG companies throughout North America are calling it quits – with static spreadsheets.  After a long-term relationship with spreadsheets, the small to mid-sized players in the CG industry are actively seeking innovative tools and solutions to better manage their trade spend.

MEI, the leader in Trade Promotion Management (TPM) software, offers TradeInsight — an affordable, next generation, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) TPM solution.  As easy to use as Excel^® but infinitely more efficient, TradeInsight provides CPG companies with an effective tool to manage trade promotions and perform sales forecasting all in one place. MEI has already exceeded the number of clients it signed in all of 2010, a year in which, according to Gartner Group, MEI did more new-client TPM deals than its next closest three rivals combined[i].

The latest round of manufacturers to select TradeInsight as their TPM tool of choice include Chobani Greek yogurt, Clover Stornetta Farms dairy products and MaMa Rosa’s, the country’s number one selling refrigerated pizza brand.

The parent company to Chobani, America’s number one Greek yogurt brand, is New York-based Agro Farma.  To meet the growing demand for its Chobani products, Agro Farma chose to implement TradeInsight’s TPM solution to manage the brand’s trade spend.  The conversion from spreadsheets to TradeInsight’s cloud-based solution arms Agro Farma with the tools to enhance sales forecasting and better manage Chobani’s production planning, base volume and deductions.

After years of steady growth and rapid expansion, Clover Stornetta Farms recognized that static spreadsheets couldn’t handle the increasing complexity of its trade spending. For three generations, Clover Stornetta Farms has produced a variety of natural and organic milk and dairy products including yogurt, cottage cheese and ice cream using local California family farms. With the addition of the TradeInsight TPM tool, the dairymen at Clover Stornetta will have the ability to improve promotion planning processes, link forecasts to budgets and lower its deduction balances.

As a category leader with thousands of established distribution channels, MaMa Rosa’s recognized the need to relinquish its spreadsheet tracking method and adopt a state-of-the-art TPM solution. The Sidney, Ohio-based manufacturer sells more than three million cases of pizza annually, distributing its products to more than 10,000 supermarkets, warehouse club retailers, pharmacies and convenience stores throughout the U.S. and in Mexico. With TradeInsight, MaMa Rosa’s will have the ability to manage trade spend and deductions all in one place furthering the company’s ability to enhance inventory management and future promotions.

All three companies moved away from spreadsheets after discovering an innovative, no-risk approach to TPM.  America’s number one brands and category leaders are elevating their game. Should you?

[i] Gartner “MarketScope for Sales Force Automation in the Consumer Goods Industry” by Dale Hagemeyer, March 9, 2011.