Creating value for CPG brands in 2021 starts with optimizing the value of data

The CPG space experiences significant change every year, but for manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, 2020 was one for the record books. At this time last year, industry experts already predicted big changes were coming. Then came the global pandemic, causing the market to shift at an even faster pace. For brands that had taken steps to anticipate and prep for evolving trends and opportunities, the journey was tough but navigable. For others, there were difficult, unexpected challenges.

As manufacturers look back at 2020, they will reflect on the challenges, pivots, wins and new learnings. While many companies accelerated well designed solutions and employed them with success, others created stopgaps that were put in place rapidly to expand into new channels, launch new products and gain digital shelf distribution in new retail customers.

Author’s note: Click here to see my updated post for 2021 and beyond

Making the most of today’s environment requires brands to enhance their data management capabilities with new innovations.

For consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, the only constant is change – especially as it applies to trends impacting the industry. While many of last year’s trends are just as relevant today, the difference is that consumer behavior and market changes are occurring at a much faster rate (approximately 2-3 months instead of 2-3 years). For the most part, CPG companies and their retail partners have made tremendous strides in addressing these trends. In fact, some of the best prepared companies have moved beyond surviving and are actually thriving during these challenging times.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have seen a dramatic shift in consumer shopping. More customers are focused on safety and convenience while price sensitivity has taken a temporary back seat.

Just over a week ago the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a worldwide pandemic, calling on countries around the world to take drastic steps to slow the rapid spread of the virus.

Even though CPG companies and other businesses are in the middle of the busiest time of the year, Thanksgiving and holidays provides us an opportunity to take a moment to be grateful for our companies, colleagues and wonderful customers. But what often gets ignored in this time of gratitude is the richness and value of the data that customers are sharing about the product and their purchase experiences.

Consumer packaged goods are changing faster than ever and master data is increasingly at the center of it all

Editors note: For the latests updates, jump to our coverage of trends impacting CPG in 2021 and prior to that in 2020.

Most industries have felt the winds of change for a while now. Digital commerce strategies, customer-centricity, and product innovation have all made their way to the heart of business. These winds are now blowing across the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space.

How do CPG companies prepare to benefit from these changes, along with the emerging trends and predictions surfacing in the industry right now? A good place to start is reviewing the seven most prominent mega-trends affecting CPG right now, the challenges and opportunities they bring and what CPG manufacturers and brands can do to leverage the synergies existing within them.  

People who want to lose weight study nutrition facts. They want to know the total amount of calories, percentage of calories from fat, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol, allergens and many other facts. The higher the awareness, the more scrutiny of information the consumer will exercise.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are making a digital transformation. With the ease of delivery services today, more consumers purchase grocery and CPG products online than ever before. In fact, according to the Food Marketing Institute, in the U.S. alone 49% of consumers shop primarily online for consumer packaged goods. This is big news for CPG enterprises, which represents one of the largest industries in North America, valued at approximately $2 trillion annually. While packaged goods have traditionally been sold at brick and mortar stores, customer expectations have spurred companies to reach out to consumers across digital channels. In addition, manufacturing and supply chain processes have become data-intensive.

The American food industry is gearing up to make the first changes to the standard nutrition label in more than two decades. The new FDA label requirements include updated daily values, an increased focus on calories per serving, and other significant modifications such as the addition of added sugars, nutrients and updated serving sizes. Manufacturers will need to have the new nutrition facts labels in place to consumers by July 26, 2018.