The Promote Better Blog

Is Trade Promotion the White Elephant of CPG?

If you’re a brand on retail store shelves, there’s a high likelihood you’re running some sort of trade promotion. The sole purpose of trade promotions is to move the brand’s products off the shelf and into the shopper’s cart. It’s the primary way that brands partner up with retailers to drive more sales to consumers.

Why CloudCherry Recognized our VP of Client Happiness and Success as a CX National Champion

As much as we all love technology, let’s be honest: it has invaded every part of our day. Rarely do we come across a warm, smiling voice over the phone when we need help. Even more rare are the times when our experience is so easy and positive that we sit back and take note.

6 Ways to Convert Samplers to Buyers

Without a doubt, demo day profits are one of the most important metrics of any retail demo program – after all, you only get one chance to maximize this number! So, given the limited time for in-store demos, it’s vital to capitalize on every minute your Brand Ambassadors are in front of shoppers.

The Top 3 Questions You Need to Ask Your BA Candidates

We know that designing a winning demo starts with one single factor: hiring the right Brand Ambassador. The quality of your BA can have the single most important impact to the bottom line on your investment. Therefore, you would be wise to spend some quality time preparing an interview process that will result in only GREAT brand ambassadors representing you.

5 Lessons from a Half-Million In-Store Sampling Events

Young and emerging food and beverage brands are often surprised to find that to get on store shelves, they may need to pledge a certain amount of store support in exchange for that placement. So, as part of the deal, their sales reps and brokers will promise the retail buyer a few in-store demonstrations. No big deal, right?

The New Look of Promomash

A peek “Behind the Scenes” of our new look and feel. WOW. Version 3 looks completely different! I LOVE IT!

The Evolution of Promomash

Introducing Promomash Version 3. What did we do, and why did we do it?

7 Reasons Why Earlier is Better for Demo Coordinators

Remember the old saying, “The early bird catches the worm”? It meant that someone who wakes up early and gets at it before everyone else will get a bigger chunk of life’s rewards. And for demo coordinators, “rewards” means actually taking all the demos that you are authorized to do, and getting them scheduled into stores. No one wants to be asked (or authorized) by management to do a bunch of demos, and then come back a month or two later and say they just couldn’t get them all set up.

But too often, that's what happens.

About this Blog

You are a smart, successful manager or top executive in a consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketing and sales organization. Our goal, with the Promote Better Blog, is to make you even smarter (or at least better informed), and even more successful.

Your Demo Reports are Way More Important than You Think (Part 2)

Demo reports are one of the biggest missed opportunities in field marketing today.

Why?

Demos and in-person field marketing events are a tremendous opportunity to capture consumer reactions and opinions about companies and their products.
The primary feedback mechanism for demos and events is the demo report.
Most companies fail to take full advantage of this feedback opportunity because their reporting process falls short: Report templates usually aren’t based on knowledge of the psychology of consumer surveying, and survey questions are rarely tied directly to specific operational and marketing measurables.

The good news is that these shortcomings are easily remedied. It turns out that consumers actually want to provide their inputs… to a limit. Companies simply need to learn what to ask, and how to ask it – and then be disciplined about asking for answers that will positively impact their bottom lines.

Amazon-Whole Foods Shakeup: Some Will Love It (Others, not so much.)

Amazon announced yesterday that its shakeup of Whole Foods Market will begin this coming Monday, August 28, on its first day as the new owner. Bezos and team understand that with all eyes on them, this is their first, best, and cheapest opportunity to drive home what the new sheriff in town is all about – and as a result they announced 2 major, audacious changes to WFM. The first change confirms what everyone has suspected: Whole Foods will sell groceries via Amazon, and Amazon will deliver groceries via Whole Foods. Not merely “either”, “or”, or “both”, but something synergistically bigger than the sum of the parts. Boom. And the other audacious change is that Whole Foods’ new mission is to make healthy and organic food “affordable for everyone.” Price cuts starting Monday. Double boom. Wow, what a ride.

Whole Foods & Amazon: What CPG Companies Must Know

It’s hard to imagine a bigger, more earth-shaking move in the retail grocery world than Friday’s announcement that Amazon (AMZN) is acquiring Whole Foods Market (WFM) for 13.7B (a 25% premium over its price at the time of the announcement).

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is perhaps the most strategically brilliant businessman of our time. The main thing for the rest of us to do is figure out what he’s doing, what’s next, and how we can survive (or even prosper in the face of) this significant event.

Your Demo Reports are Way More Important than You Think (Part 1)

CEOs are not dumb. You may not understand their madness right now, but with any luck and a bunch of hard work, someday you will. And one thing that will get you there faster is your demo report template.

To Demo or Not to Demo? That is the question...

Demos and events can often be seen as a source of frustration and wasted resources for brands and, to a lesser extent, retailers. But demos and events are also among the most productive marketing options available, for those vendors and retailers who do them well. Much can be done to improve the situation, starting with a more disciplined approach to measuring and managing demo programs.

The #1 Under-Exploited Opportunity in Nutritional Supplement Marketing

It’s a truism because most humans respond more urgently to an active headache than to the prospect of proactively avoiding headaches by staying healthy. But that does nothing to minimize the fact that (according to Zion Market Research) over $130B of vitamins and other health supplements are sold globally every year.

5 Unusual Viewpoints on CPG Marketing in 2017

The digital technology revolution has transformed marketing. Significant opportunities continue to unfold in the consumer marketing space in 2017 for executives focused on the implications of the many changes caused by the digital revolution. Consumers are responding positively and negatively to change, and both create opportunity. The most successful marketing teams will proactively embrace systems and processes that will (a) allow them to quickly and regularly utilize relevant data, both tactically and strategically; and (b) assist them in developing their marketing outreach to result in richer, more authentic, more loyal relationships with consumers.

Powerful Ideas for Progressive Brands