To win over consumers at the grocery store level, leading CPGs are arming their field forces with next-generation software solutions.

The synergy of effective communications and execution of business strategy is a critical component of any successful enterprise. From innovative development to proper product placement and promotions, consumer package goods manufacturers (CPGs) must constantly strive to ensure their ideas are brought to fruition at the retail level.

When consumers reach for a product on the shelf, there can only be one winner. All the investments in the market plans, advertising campaigns and trade promotion ends with this one moment of truth. To win in the store, in these last few steps of the sale, leading CPGs are racing to arm their field forces with next-generation software solutions. Small, smart and sharp, these solutions close the loop around planning, execution and outcomes.

Whether manufacturers operate locally, nationally or across varied geographies, there are daunting hurdles in the quest for effective communication. For multi-national ventures, particular care needs to be taken to make certain that an interconnected, centralized system is in place. Otherwise, there is always the risk of clogging individual business units with outdated information and activities that are virtually useless in creating a competitive advantage. 

‘World-Ready’ Solutions
The good news is that today, smart software solutions, enabled by advances in mobile technology, are transforming field execution for the world’s leading CPGs. These solutions are designed to operate across multiple geographies, languages, and cultures, and offer multiple data formats, languages and scripts (including multi-byte characters) built into an easy-to-integrate enterprise platform.

Along with the ability to adapt to multiple geographies, other communication components that add value include the ability to standardize reporting and performance analysis of field operations.

Back at the head office, management has a complete day-to-day picture of field activity, reporting which accounts are driving incremental revenue, which promotions are working, what new opportunities are available, and where the competition is winning or losing. A “world-ready” solution enables companies to run an enterprise-wide field operations system across multiple deployments from the same set of source code, making it possible for a company to standardize reporting and performance analysis of field operations at all levels. 

Strategy and Execution
Although a well-planned go-to-market communication strategy will undoubtedly help an enterprise of any size align their goals, the preparation will not pay off if retail execution is sub par. The time-is-money adage is rarely as true in retail, where planning and strategies establish a platform for brand success – and achieve it only with speedy and smart field execution.

Yet execution has lagged for decades, for many reasons beyond the control of consumer goods suppliers. Despite their best efforts, suppliers send carefully designed brand strategies, category planograms, trade promotions and special events to the field and succeed less than they like.

Several reasons contribute to this. Store merchandisers complete tasks, yet typically lack the insights or authority to immediately take charge and remedy conditions they see at the shelf. Brand representatives usually lack a fast, proven, secure way to communicate shelf issues to headquarters that allows the brand category, promotion, or account managers to help enforce a retailer’s compliance with costly brand programs.

This can devastate ROI on brand spend. Most vulnerable to waste when products aren’t where they ought to be is the 20 percent of sales that food and drink manufacturers or suppliers spend on trade promotions and the massive efforts to innovated brand and capitalize on category opportunities.   

Care should be taken to integrate solutions that make it possible to drill down to the activity at the store level, therefore enabling managers to monitor the effort put forth by individual field employees. This can only result in a far better approach – earning brand command at the shelf.

Brand representatives and distributors should have the ability to observe and report on shelf conditions, store compliance, competitors’ activities, local consumer preferences, and anything else they are taxed to observe. They then can transmit directly and immediately via mobile devices to headquarters.

With these instant-connect views, business managers can intelligently and swiftly reorder field priorities to energize a launch, avoid a supply disaster, magnify an opportunity, or blunt a new product test by a competitor.

Beyond that, representatives themselves readily access each item’s sell-through history in each store on their mobile devices. They use the date to help store managers interpret what’s happening on their own shelves, and show by past performance, trends in their area or in similar demographic areas, why the brands they represent deserve more space.

The exciting news is that whether you are in Florida or France, linking the field sales force with the corporate office delivers a level of productivity previously unattainable in the retail world.

Cutting-edge mobile software solutions can manage the day-to-day activity of field personnel, giving management immediate access to product brand and competitive field information real-time. With streamlined capabilities that allow manufacturers to quickly make business decisions regarding critical issues.

The Bottom Line
The highly competitive nature of today’s marketplace demands all types of enterprises prepare for a situation before it occurs – placing an emphasis on having the right product information, at the right place, at the right time.

Accelerating the speed of information flow and improved visibility of your field activities are just the beginning of the litany of benefits that can be achieved when it comes to streamlining processes across varied geographies.

The end result occurs when managers can get real-time information from the field, ensuring customers are getting the product and services they want, when they want them.

Gary Goff is vice president of marketing and business development for O4 Corp.’s North America organization, a leading provider of mobile solutions for field sales and merchandising operations. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it