CAGNY 2024 - Unit Volume Growth is Job #1

The Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) held their annual conference last week. In Florida. Not a bad destination. Over the course of the week senior leaders from top consumer goods companies presented their plans to analysts and member of the media. Presumably, they also enjoyed some sun, tennis, golf – perhaps even pickleball. Our Insights and Planning team mined nearly a dozen presentations across multiple food, beverage, personal care, and distributor categories. A common refrain – a renewed focus on unit volume growth. With increased acceptance of private label and deal seeking behavior because of inflationary price increases brands are emphasizing the importance of driving household penetration and building consumer loyalty. ?

Key actions for consideration include:

Innovation: Once a staple of a classic CPG marketing plan, consumer goods leadership teams are looking to R&D and new product development groups to drive brand relevance and household penetration. This includes cross – manufacturer brand collaborations presented as limited time in and outs to drive shelf facings, news, and excitement.

The Perfect Store: A back to basics approach to ensuring tight, productive shelf sets at brick-and-mortar retailers including display building activity to drive velocity. In an e commerce environment this translates to ensuring data is clean and optimized to ensure that products show up first. In both instances, sales and marketing teams are leveraging technology like AI and AR to manage out of stocks, control data flow, envision the ideal set and ultimately drive executional excellence at shelf.

Personalization: As brands work to drive loyalty, they are leveraging tools including AI and customer data platforms to deliver the right message to the right target at the right time. Coupling an understanding of consumer behavior at the cohort and individual level with emerging tools is likely to bring us closer to the decades old promise of going from one-to-many marketing to one-to-one marketing at scale.

None of these actions are possible without a solid understanding of the functional and emotional needs of the target audience. As experts in the food and beverage space, Marriner can quickly get to target audience insights at the retailer, operator and patron/consumer level. Our Clarity Capture brand positioning process and Clarity in Action marketing planning process work to ensure that the right message is delivered to the right target at the right time. Insights allow us to connect the heart of your brand to the heart of your target. For an assessment of your brand marketing and to learn more about how we can help drive topline sales, reach out to David Melnick

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