An Overview of Trade Promotion Optimization in the Consumer Products Industry

The size of the consumer products or consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry is one that can be underestimated. According to market insights, the global market size will reach USD 825.5 million by 2033, which points to a highly competitive market. There is no doubt, breaking through the array of players in this market is not an easy task, and with tight marketing budgets, trade promotion optimization (TPO) is more important than ever.  

Within the CPG industry, TPO is a fundamental component of the comprehensive Trade Promotion Execution (TPx) strategy. Collaborating closely with Trade Promotion Management (TPM), TPO endeavors to optimize sales and enhance profitability from trade spend invested in promotion plans for retail customers. Given that 55% of trade spending fails to effectively raise consumer brand awareness, the significance of TPO is evident. 

Join us as we explore TPO, the benefits of TPO software, and how vital this activity is in obtaining and maintaining a competitive advantage in the CPG industry. Get ready to unlock the true potential of your promotional strategies.

What is the role of TPO in the consumer products industry?

While TPO in the CPG industry indeed focuses on generating increased sales from trade spend investments, at CPGvision, we believe its significance is greater than just that. We believe TPO is a key component of a comprehensive Revenuie Growth Management (RGM) program, which should include forecasting, price elasticity modeling, target management, AOP, and more. The foundational modeling that all of these activities begin with is AI-generated baselines and uplift factors.

Who typically makes use of TPO

As we mentioned, TPO plays a major role in the operations of CPG companies around the world, but which individuals use this process to shape their trade promotions? TPO is a multidimensional tool that finds utility across various departments, providing strategic insights that benefit various stakeholders. Let's explore how these stakeholders can leverage the power of TPO to drive informed decision-making and achieve their respective objectives.

• Marketing department: Leverage strategic knowledge to enhance and optimize overall strategies and objectives. The focus will be on comprehending the promotional tactics that effectively expand the consumer base, shorten the purchase cycle or increase volume per buyer, thus boosting consumption, and capturing increased market share for the brand. This understanding will enable the team to prioritize investments appropriately.
• Sales: Responsible for achieving a specific sales target and is allocated a budget for trade investment to accomplish this goal. The team's chances of receiving a bonus increase based on the sales they can generate within the given budget. Trade promotions play a crucial role in the collaborative business planning between the company and its important retail partners, requiring the development of mutually beneficial strategies. A TPO solution should always consider both the manufacturer's and retailer's perspectives, providing a comprehensive view that enables the sales team to present win-win plans to their customers.
• Finance and revenue growth management: Have a key stake in TPO, as they are responsible for evaluating the return on investment (ROI) from expenditures. Their primary objective is to determine how the company's limited resources should be allocated and how all investments align with the corporate and brand strategies. Optimizing trade spend is of utmost importance as it enables the reallocation of funds to other areas, considering the significant portion trade occupies within the budget.

What is the impact of TPO on consumer products companies?

When it comes to the CPG industry, TPO has had a major impact. Companies that embrace TPO unlock a wide range of benefits that propel their success to new heights. First and foremost, TPO drives increased sales by fine-tuning promotional activities and identifying the most efficient and effective strategies to capture consumer attention and boost purchase behavior. 

TPO brings about improved ROI and enhances overall profitability by optimizing trade spend allocation, minimizing wasteful investments, and maximizing returns. As a result, consumer products companies experience higher profitability and better financial performance. 

Another benefit of implementing TPO in your CPG company is enhanced customer relationships. TPO enables companies to tailor promotions and offers to meet the preferences and demands of their retail customers. This personalized approach fosters loyalty and strengthens brand affinity. 

TPO empowers companies to more effectively reach the end consumer. By leveraging TPO, companies can optimize their trade promotions in collaboration with retailers, ensuring that the right promotions are executed at the right time and in the right channels. This collaborative approach helps to improve the visibility and availability of products at the retail level, making it easier for consumers to access and purchase them.

Additionally, the predictive nature of TPO will enhance forecast accuracy, helping the demand planning team get the right amount, of the right product, in the right place, at the right time.

What are the key elements of successful TPO in the consumer products industry?

Realizing the full potential of your TPO requires a few key elements. By understanding the fundamentals that make up an effective TPO system, you can guarantee all its advantages. Some key elements include: 

1. Accurate historical data: Comprehensive and precise historical sales data forms the foundation of your TPO operations.
2. Real-time visibility: TPO software consolidates disparate data sources into a unified and reliable information hub, providing real-time visibility for revenue growth, trade marketing, and sales planning professionals.
3. Machine learning and artificial intelligence: These intelligent tools analyze your data sets, identify patterns, and simulate the outcomes of various promotion strategies.
4. Promotion optimization tools: Conducts pre- and post-event analyses, facilitates predictive scenario planning, generates accurate forecasts, and employs advanced analytics to optimize trade spend.
5. Robust reporting tools: Software integrates powerful reporting tools, enabling you to create concise, visual, and interactive reports for you and your team. These reports not only aid in decision-making but also foster buy-in from stakeholders across your organization.
6. Built-in scalability: As your trade promotions expand to accommodate new products and customers, the accompanying workload also grows. 
7. Executive support and buy-in: To ensure long-term success, it is important that the significance of TPO solutions is communicated and demonstrated by executives. 
8. Easy and effective communication and collaboration: Provides powerful and user-friendly tools for seamless collaboration among internal teams, mitigating challenges associated with silos.

What is the future of TPO in the CPG industry?

As the CPG industry continues to evolve, so does TPO. The future of TPO is expected to undergo significant advancements and exciting changes over the next few years. Some of the key trends and developments that can be anticipated include:

1. Incorporation of increasing amounts and complexity of data: TPO will be able to leverage a broader range of data from diverse sources, in greater and greater quantities. 
2. Continued advancement of AI: AI will become even more sophisticated, enhancing the capabilities of TPO systems. 
3. Decentralization and empowering field sales: TPO will increasingly be placed in the hands of field sales users. By decentralizing TPO capabilities, companies can empower their sales teams to make data-driven decisions and optimize promotions at the local level.
4. Personalization based on consumer dynamics: TPO systems will incorporate more consumer dynamic data to drive personalized promotions.
5. Real-time optimization: With access to real-time sales data, customer and consumer feedback, and market insights, TPO systems will enable on-the-fly optimization. 
6. Cross-channel/omni-channel integration: TPO will integrate with analytics and optimization across various channels and touchpoints. 
7. Integration of consumer concerns: TPO will incorporate consumer concerns, such as sustainability, social and ethical considerations, and other consumer attitudes.

What is the impact of technology in TPO?

In the ever-evolving landscape of TPO, technology, in the form of TPO software, plays a pivotal role in driving effective and efficient processes. Traditional methods like spreadsheets and disparate systems are no longer sufficient for comprehensive trade analytics. 

Technology effectively enables CPG manufacturers to analyze, optimize, and collaborate on trade promotions. Traditionally, spreadsheet-based systems and disparate data sources have made it challenging to perform comprehensive trade analytics. However, with advancements in technology, TPO software solutions are evolving to address these limitations and provide more powerful and user-friendly interfaces.

One significant aspect is the need for TPO tools that facilitate cross-functional collaboration within a company and enable in-app collaboration with retail customers. This collaborative approach allows different teams to work together seamlessly, leveraging their expertise and insights to optimize trade promotions. 

The integration of both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce optimizations is another emerging trend. As the retail landscape continues to evolve, it is crucial for TPO solutions to consider both offline and online channels. By incorporating data from various sources, manufacturers can develop holistic optimization strategies that cater to the unique dynamics of each channel.

Optimization algorithms used in TPO tools are also becoming smarter and more sophisticated. These algorithms incorporate complex guardrails, which are constraints or guidelines that guide the optimization process.

While technology plays a pivotal role in TPO, human involvement remains essential. TPO tools should enable smart collaboration between humans and the tools themselves. This means that the tools should not replace human decision-making but rather augment it by providing data-driven recommendations and insights. It is important that TPO software and tools expose the output of data science in a way that users can understand, so that they can interact with it and buy into executing the results.

In the world of trade promotion, CPGvision stands at the forefront, revolutionizing the way CPG companies achieve effective and profitable trade spend. CPGvision provides a powerful and user-friendly RGM solution suite that combines the best of technology and human expertise.

You may also be interested in how Alpha Foods boosted its TPM with CPG.

TPO is essential for CPG companies

At the end of the day, TPO in the CPG industry holds immense potential to drive revenue growth and enhance the effectiveness of trade spend. With the complexity and competitiveness of the market, relying on traditional systems and disjointed processes can hinder success. However, embracing advanced TPO solutions like CPGvision empowers businesses in the CPG industry to navigate these challenges with confidence.

To unlock the true potential of trade promotions, it is essential to strike a balance between human insights and machine-driven optimization. To embark on this transformative journey and revolutionize your trade promotion, contact CPGvision today and unleash the power of trade promotion optimization. Together, let’s redefine success.