Tandoori Bytes – CPG & Retail Leaders Confluence
June 20, 2024
Location: New Jersey
Two analytics powerhouses joined forces for an exclusive event for CPG and retail leaders to discuss the importance of analytics.”
LatentView and Decision Point, two analytics powerhouses joined forces for an exclusive event for CPG and retail leaders in Jersey City—welcoming voices from around the tri-state and beyond to discuss the importance of analytics in retail and CPG.
Welcome Notes
Tandoori Bytes - Spicy Insights & Sizzling Conversations
Speaker
Rajan Sethuraman
CEO,
LatentView Analytics
Speaker
Ravi Shankar
Founder & CEO,
Decision Point Analytics
Leaders from both organizations, LatentView CEO, Rajan Sethuraman, and Decision Point Analytics Founder & CEO, Ravi Shankar, kicked off the evening with a few words about the success of their pairing to date.
The event’s theme, Tandoori Bytes, is a nod to the companies’ shared history. Both organizations have roots in Chennai, India—a business and technology hub recognized for its excellence in analytics. Together, both organizations are solutions-focused and committed to addressing and solving pressing business challenges, not just exploring what data can tell us.
The evening’s sessions focused on innovation in three core business areas LatentView and Decision Point believe are primed for change: research and development, supply chain, and Revenue Growth Management (RGM).
Panel discussion
The Analytics Advantage
Gaining a Competitive Edge
Moderator
Vamsi Valluri
Business Head – Retail,
LatentView Analytics
Speaker
Amaresh Sahoo
Global Head of Planning, Analytics & Workforce Management – Wayfair Professional (B2B) & B2C Sales,
Wayfair
Speaker
Parag Shah
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer,
Think Blue
The era of the empowered consumer has been on the rise for years, and 2024 is no exception. Consumer preferences are constantly changing, and brands are finding ways to adapt within the larger macroeconomic and social landscape. We are in an interesting time driven both by post-pandemic resilience, as well as consumer anxiety with ongoing inflation. Both brands and consumers are navigating the trends of fast fashion players such as Shein and the rapid rise of e-commerce challengers such as Temu.
Today, the key to success for retail and CPG brands is staying close to the consumer and the ability to react across the entire customer journey, which is no longer linear. Journeys are a complex web of interconnected interactions and touchpoints – both digital and physical. It’s about knowing and truly understanding customers, their needs, and the problems they are trying to solve. Within the whirlwind of change, data analytics is a north star that can help companies gain a competitive edge, and successful strategies vary for every company.
During the pandemic, online shopping skyrocketed and there was a massive acceleration in retail digital transformation. In fact, there’s an argument that digitalization “saved” retail during the height of COVID-19. Addressing this, Parag Shah talked about how data insights helped guide retail giant Walmart’s strategy for its same-day grocery delivery service Walmart+. Using data, Walmart realized that the annual median income of most of its customers was $50k. The retailer doubled down on its digital offering and found success in maintaining its central brand proposition: value.
There is no reversing the trend of e-commerce and digital that’s taken hold, even as the world has adjusted to the realities set over the past several years. Now, GenAI, zero-click search, conversational commerce, and hyper personalization continue to transform retail and CPG. However, there is also a counterintuitive trend underway with retailers opening more physical stores. Surprisingly, even shopping centers are starting to make a comeback.
Amaresh Sahoo shared that Wayfair is embracing this physical retail trend. Earlier this year, the “destination for all things home,” piloted its first brick and mortar store in the Chicago suburbs. Because ecommerce is only 15-20 percent of its Total Addressable Market (TAM), this was a step Wayfair needed to take to stay competitive. By creating an additional touchpoint with customers, Wayfair can drive traffic and boost customer loyalty.
Regardless of the exact balance between digital and physical channels, the important thing for retail and CPG brands is to adopt and embrace an omnichannel mindset. This means enabling customers to purchase through multiple digital and physical touchpoints with a seamless experience. The key to omnichannel is the ability to stitch together both online data and brick-and-mortar data to get the most complete picture of the customer journey through a “halo effect.”
While omnichannel (delivering seamless experiences across all channels) is important, Parag concluded with an interesting concept and said future success for retail and CPG brands is about OPTIchannel. This means reworking your strategy based on the channel your product will be delivered and maximizing the performance and effectiveness of that channel. Whatever the approach, everyone can agree that data and analytics underpins it all.
Panel Discussion
Beyond Appetizers
RGM's Next Course
Moderator
Ravi Shankar
Founder & CEO,
Decision Point Analytics
Speaker
Mike Nothofer
Director, RGM & Commercial Strategy Analytics and Systems,
Bayer Consumer Health
Speaker
Michael Kantor
Founder & CEO,
Promotion Optimization Institute
Speaker
Joe Enright
SVP Finance, Revenue Growth Management,
Advantage Solutions
Retail and CPG brands have been nibbling on the ‘appetizers’ of Revenue Growth Management (RGM). For many organizations, planning promotions, pricing, marketing mix, and trade spending to drive revenue have all been on the menu a la carte. However, there is a significant opportunity to grow sustainable and profitable sales by using data-driven insights – ultimately moving RGM into a more strategic ‘main course’ item.
Over the past several years, RGM has been ‘easier’ than normal as inflation naturally drove prices up. Today, the combination of shifting consumer behavior, supply chain pressures, and the demand for R&D to innovate faster are changing the way that CPG brands level up their RGM strategies. This involves taking a more integrated approach, especially as RGM sits at the intersection of many other business operations.
For Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), decisions around pricing, promotions, product portfolio management, marketing, and trade spends involve being able to answer three critical questions:
- What’s in it for the consumer?
- What’s in it for your company?
- What’s in it for our retail partners?
It’s only within this context that CPG brands can create and maximize joint value and Return on Sales (ROS). The question on the minds of RGM leaders today: How do companies get better at this? Mike Nothofer stressed the importance of telling a value-focused story as a brand. Joe Enright agrees with this and believes that RGM leaders can earn a seat at the table by enabling sales teams with the information needed to build a strong value story.
Data is the next element. New analytics capabilities have transformed RGM and its ability to play a more crucial role in larger commercial and go-to-market planning. When looking at all the components of RGM under a unified strategy, data analytics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a must. Michael Kantor contends that KPIs – whether net revenue growth, profit margin, or promotion ROI – should center around the customer. One more customer, one more store visit, and one more sale helps drive incremental revenue.
While data analytics is important for RGM, it cannot live in silos. Another important piece of RGM is unifying sales, R&D, marketing, finance, operations, and others. RGM is an organizational capability, not just departmental. Success requires encouraging cross-functional collaboration early on and providing ongoing training and development for everything from macro trends to the use of analytics tools. Without internal education, it’s easy to revert to the path of least resistance.
As with everything, AI has worked its way into the RGM conversation. AI and GenAI are enabling predictive and prescriptive analytics like never before related to supply chain, demand forecasting, as well as pricing and promotion optimization. However, with all the new technology available, keeping humans in the loop is still important. We still need people to translate the data into something actionable and generate that joint value creation. For all its promises and often well-deserved hype, AI, simply put, “helps us do more with less,” shared Michael Kantor with closing thoughts.
Panel discussion
Delivering Business Value with GenAI
Innovate with Curiosity
Moderator
Sunny Yurasek
VP, Client Development,
Decision Point Analytics
Speaker
Deepak Jose
Global Senior Director & Head of One Demand Data & Analytics Solutions,
MARS
Speaker
Dina Zhao
Executive Director, Industry Digital Strategy, Worldwide Retail & Consumer Goods,
Microsoft
Peanuts, caramel, nougat and milk chocolate come together in SNICKERS®, the top selling candy bar in the U.S. Similarly, innovation and collaboration go hand and hand in developing new irresistible products. That’s why MARS and Microsoft are partnering to make the most of their shared technology. The most notable change to come out of this and other similar partnerships is the time-to-market for a quality product that resonates with consumers.
Historically, research and development for new products have taken months, but with the help of AI, brands like MARS are moving products from sketch to shelf in as little as 90 days, according to panelists Dina Zhao and Deepak Jose.
Deepak, Sunny, and Dina discussed how they are fostering learning and innovation in the age of generative AI. A key area of focus was the Mars AI Learning and Innovation Lab, a collaborative effort powered by Microsoft technology and bolstered by innovative solutions like BeagleGPT developed from Decision Point. This lab provides both a physical and digital space for Mars Associates to explore, test, and implement AI-driven solutions. MARS’s GenerativeAI goals are simple, but they offer a roadmap for innovation across the organization.
- Do things, start by automating the manual tasks
- Do things better, leverage custom LLMs to create value
- Do better things, think beyond the first iteration of GenAI capabilities
Technology-fueled innovation is exciting, but both panelists cautioned that growth is not possible without strict responsible AI principles in place and a focus on upskilling. Deepak suspects that in many cases AI will displace people. And he’s right. According to one report from Goldman Sachs, AI is primed to disrupt as many as 300 million jobs.
Part of MARS and Microsoft’s shared mission is to focus on education, not only for its customers but for employees as well. According to Dina, she and her team at Microsoft must educate themselves about AI and its myriad uses and challenges to provide value to the customer. Dina left guests with these final thoughts:
“I urge everyone to think carefully about what they want to do with their GenAI capabilities. The technology is there, it’s critical that you thoughtfully decide what to do with it.”
Fireside Chat
Innovate with Impact
Ingredients for Creating Irresistible Products
Speaker
Kaushik Boruah
Business Head, CPG and Hospitality,
LatentView Analytics
Speaker
Kumar Subramanyan
Senior Director, Modelling & Analytics,
Unilever R&D
Continuing this topic of product innovation, Kaushik Boruah, Business Head, CPG and Hospitality, LatentView Analytics sat down to chat one to one with Kumar Subramanyan, Senior Director, Modelling & Analytics, Unilever R&D. They dove more into the strategies for sourcing the right ingredients for product innovation. Once you have the right recipe, you also have the right ingredients. The age-old, “garbage in, garbage out,” sentiment about data holds in the era of GenAI.
But how do you know you’re starting with the right ingredients? To understand what makes an irresistible product, it is important to understand the consumer, according to Kumar. Innovation has changed drastically over the last two decades, he says. Four key things power this shift:
- Consumers have more data than they used to. E-commerce, social media, and, frankly, the internet allow consumers to do much more diligence upfront.
- Cross-market collaboration is possible. Consumers searching for a product that isn’t available in their market can go to other markets to get what they need. For example, in the beauty industry, we’re seeing a resurgence of consumers gravitating toward Korean beauty products for their general affordability and promises of higher-quality ingredients.
- Consumers have more choices. Like cross-market collaboration, brand categories are simply more saturated than they used to be. Consumers have the freedom to choose between many different competing brands.
- Volatile macroeconomic conditions impact purchasing decisions. Consumers today are more thoughtful about the brands they buy from, especially when it comes to younger generations.
The trick to staying ahead of the research and development game is anticipating where the customer will be and building for that persona. With advanced analytics, brands no longer must guess where the customer is headed.
At Unilever, driving productivity and growth using AI is scientific. The brand analyzes internal and external data related to consumer preferences, market performance, internal R&D, emerging trends, consumer preference drivers, and winning attributes to systematically develop products designed to succeed.
For personal care products, the result of this data ingestion is a specific recommendation about the formulation, sensory experience, pack design and product claim that is expertly tailored to what the consumer is looking for. By automating this research, the brand sees an estimated 30 percent time reduction for R&D.
The right ingredients are formulaic. LatentView and Unilever understand that brands already have the data at their disposal to design products that stick, it’s just about using them in the right recipe to drive revenue and delight customers.
Closing Note
SPEAKER
Krishnan Venkata
Chief Client Officer,
LatentView Analytics
Krishnan concluded the event with a closing note and a thank you to the panelists before inviting attendees to network and partake in delicious Indian fare for dinner. It was the first joint event between LatentView and Decision Point – one of many to come, no doubt. Cross pollination and collaborative learning is something LatentView tries to facilitate at these events and Krishnan encouraged attendees to stay connected as the evening’s program would hopefully spark new ideas for growth and innovation across industries and organizations.
Glimpses from the Event
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LatentView Analytics Networking Event – Shifting Gears
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Location: Detroit
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