It’s obvious now that the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG) is changing to a “new normal” and there’s no going back. According to McKinsey, the number one disruptive trend in CPG is data ubiquity. The sheer volume and acceleration of data availability has reached nearly immeasurable levels today, leaving many CPG businesses struggling to get accurate insights from this data and improve outcomes based on better business decisions.
The time is now to enable tomorrow’s successful CPG companies with the tools they need to generate true insight at the speed of business.
Data Silos Mean Inaccurate Analyses and Poor Business Decisions
Traditionally, CPG companies tend to run systems, reports and analytics off a data subset, which subsequently tends to inform a subset of portfolio decisions. The issue today is that so many factors outside this “core” subset of data play a role in how consumers behave and how it impacts business, rendering many decisions inaccurate at best.
“Often, we find that a consumer company has the data it needs to unlock business improvement, but the data resides in different business groups within the company,” reported an article in McKinsey’s recent white paper on the topic. “In effect, organizational silos ‘hide’ data from the analysts who can put it to work.”
Not only does the current landscape fall short of realizing the full value of analytical and technological investments for CPG companies, but it is no longer acceptable to operate a business with such a major blind spot. Inevitably, doing so will negatively affect the company’s bottom line.
For example, a paper products CPG business that sells napkins, paper towels, toilet paper and other products may operate 50 percent within the retail market and 50 percent within the institutional market. The latter typically requires distributors that add a layer of complexity in terms of costs compared with basic retail stores. If this CPG business simply analyzes its retail data because it’s “cleaner” to check profitability, it will fail to “see” its more expensive institutional model data set. As a result, business decisions based on those inaccurate reports may not be ideal.
Data Connections Deliver a Comprehensive View
If, however, that CPG paper products business implements a system that unifies its data from all sources across the “front and back of house” it will be able to better and more quickly understand the “why” behind the full set if it’s business results. This allows for a true view of sales, growth and profit that can be used to communicate with Boards, Media, Analysts and the broader People Organization in the company
A unified data system not only provides a true enterprise view and analysis of the business, but will also deliver deeper insights and improve accuracy and impact of management decisions on an ongoing basis.
For example, in the previous scenario, incorporating the profitability of both the retail and institutional side of the CPG business, the company may realize that the institutional side is managing to barely break even. This data can help management prioritize a further study of the institutional distribution channels, seeking a way to increase revenue and decrease costs within that function.
Fulfilling an Underlying Motivation to Grow
Leaders in CPG businesses have an innate desire to grow by introducing new products, discovering fresh channels, and finding and converting additional customers.
Unified data helps those professionals better “see” and measure growth as well as analyze it for those new opportunities. By bringing those opportunities to light through accurate and complete data, CPG business can immediately and confidently invest in them when they arise.
Recommended: Unified Data Boosts Analytic Accuracy
CPG companies can also no longer ignore digital growth, which has been percolating within the industry for years. The global pandemic accelerated its adoption, focusing on the necessity of this transformation. Today, successful ecommerce companies must integrate unified data into every one of their functions.
It’s already clear that successful companies have built capabilities to better understand unified data, captured more than their fair share of that growth, and are using and executing unifying data to understand new opportunities.
AI/ML Accelerates CPG Growth
In recent years, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology has matured, providing the capability to massively improve the speed and accuracy of storing, organizing and retrieving consumer data.
Hypersonix assists customers in finding new ways to grow by better accessing data and discovering complete and correct insights about consumer behavior. Our customers make smarter business decisions as a result. Hypersonix’s high-performance unified data lake builds the basis for enterprise intelligence and advanced analytics. In addition, Hypersonix provides management of the unified data lake for clients, reducing the maintenance, infrastructure and governance burden for CPG companies.
Business professionals from multiple departments can access Jarvix, Hypersonix’s natural language user interface, to obtain easy, rapid access to comprehensive data and automatically charts that data for presentation, which helps our clients make better decisions every day.
Led by advanced AI/ML, Hypersonix generates accurate insights by frequently analyzing business results in real-time. To understand all of the potential opportunities for your brands, Hypersonix can pre-run thousands of simulations in advance to help build confidence users are selecting the best possible business outcome.
See for Yourself
Ready to learn more? Contact our team for a live demo of the Hypersonix product, which uses real data to illustrate how the solution delivers what we promise. We also work with our clients to build an initial pilot project, with limited data and targeted application of our AI and ML tools, so you can generate real results before making a long term commitment.
