Consumer Goods Technology - October 2018 - 3

More from Less

MANAGING DIRECTOR
AND PUBLISHER
Albert Guffanti
aguffanti@ensembleiq.com

The more things change, the more budgets stay the same. That
might be the most striking conclusion from CGT's 15th annual
Tech Trends Report (page 4).
Over the course of 2018, we've been covering a lot of
innovative technology initiatives taking place across the consumer
goods industry. Among them:
* The rapidly increasing use of artiﬁcial intelligence/machine learning to dramatically
improve consumer insights gathering and analysis, as well as to expand and enhance
consumer engagement - and, in the best use cases, the development of systems that
can achieve both goals at once.
* The transformation of existing infrastructures to address the new, omnichannel
marketplace, thereby providing the ﬂexibility to continue delivering truckloads of
product cost-eﬀectively and eﬃciently to thousands of stores, while adding the ability
to proﬁtably (some day, at least) directly ship single items to speciﬁc consumers.
* The deployment of cloud architecture to facilitate the cross-functional visibility and
collaboration that has been an unfulﬁlled wish at most companies for a long time.
* The development of IoT-enabled products that greatly enhance the user experience
while also mining data that can inform future rollouts and enhance the user experience
even more.
* The introduction of voice communication to a consumer marketing playbook that
seems to get thicker and more challenging (but also more engaging) by the day.
* The emergence of blockchain as a means of providing visibility and transparency
throughout the supply chain, from original product source to ultimate end user.
But what might be more impressive than any of these eﬀorts is the fact that, in
most cases, they've been accomplished by innovative, industrious professionals who
were required to make substantial changes to their operations without any signiﬁcant
increases to their budgets. They've been asked to change the future with the same
budget as last year, so to speak. We tip our caps.
Elsewhere, while it might be hard to see innovation within survey data, there
certainly seems to be at least a little lurking within the results of this month's other
report, a deep dive into trade promotion management (page 11). It's the ﬁrst time
CGT has ﬁelded a full research study on TPM, and we'd like to thank content partner
Capgemini for structuring the survey and providing their insights about its implications.
"Management" probably isn't the best word to explain how consumer packaged
goods are operating these days. "Optimization" doesn't really work either, since few
companies are merely working to improve the status quo anymore. Instead, they're
seeking more outside data, greater internal transparency and more streamlined
processes that will let them work as close to real time as possible to meet the evolving
needs of consumers.
And the need to keep improving is great: Although survey respondents don't
necessarily expect to see any major increase in spending on the tools of trade promotion,
they do expect a continued rise in allocations.
Like I said at the beginning, the more things change, the more budgets stay the same.
Peter Breen, Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief: Peter Breen
pbreen@ensembleiq.com
Senior Editor: Nicole Gillo
ngillo@ensembleiq.com
Contributing Editors:
Tim Binder, Jamie Grill-Goodman, Patrycja
Malinowska, Charlie Menchaca, Samantha Nelson
SALES
Associate Brand Director: Bill Little
blittle@ensembleiq.com
EVENTS
Vice President, Events: Ed Several
eseveral@ensembleiq.com
Director, Event Planning: Patricia Benkner
pbenkner@ensembleiq.com
Director, Event Content: John Hall
jhall@ensembleiq.com
MARKETING
Marketing Manager: Tina Davis
tdavis@ensembleiq.com
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Director of Audience Engagement: Gail Reboletti
greboletti@ensembleiq.com
Audience Development Manager: Shelley Patton
spatton@ensembleiq.com
ONLINE MEDIA
Director Product Development: Jason Ward
jward@ensembleiq.com
Online Project Manager: Whitney Gregson
wryerson@ensembleiq.com
PROJECT MANAGEMENT/
PRODUCTION/ART
Vice President, Production: Kathryn Homenick
khomenick@ensembleiq.com
Creative Director: Colette Magliaro
cmagliaro@ensembleiq.com
Custom Project Manager: Kathy Colwell
kcolwell@ensembleiq.com
Custom Project Manager: Judi Lam
jlam@ensembleiq.com
Production Manager: Patricia Wisser
pwisser@ensembleiq.com
Subscriptions: 978-671-0449

CORPORATE OFFICERS
Alan Glass
Executive Chairman
David Shanker
Chief Executive Officer
Richard Rivera
Chief Operating Officer
& Chief Financial Officer
Korry Stagnito
Chief Brand Officer
Therese Herbig
President, Enterprise Solutions
Joel Hughes
Chief Digital Officer
Jennifer Turner
Chief Human Resources Officer
Tanner Van Dusen Senior Vice President, Innovation

CORPORATE OFFICE
8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200
Chicago, IL 60631
Phone: +1 773-992-4450
Fax: +1 773-992-4455
www.consumergoods.com

CONSUMERGOODS.COM | OCTOBER 2018 | CGT

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Consumer Goods Technology - October 2018

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