Consumer Goods Forum Identifies Two Megatrends
More than 200 executives from leading consumer goods and retail organizations recently worked together to focus on how, through a set of collaborative initiatives, the industry can continue to bring benefits to consumers. The effort was triggered by the significant changes taking place in society, consumer behavior, the environment and technology.
A new report, titled “Future Value Chain 2022", summarizes this meeting of minds and identifies two key megatrends as likely to have the greatest impact on the consumer goods and retail industry in the coming five to 20 years. They are:
Megatrend #1: The Challenge of Today’s Digital World
Megatrend #2: The Ongoing Fight for Resources
“Digitization is changing consumers’ lives and shopping behavior. At the same time, global demand for resources like food, water and energy is rising rapidly with the potential for demand to outstrip supply in the next decade,” said Thomas Storck, member of the management board, merchandising & multi channel retailing officer, Galeria Kaufhof (a subsidiary of Metro Group), and co-chair of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Emerging Trends Steering Committee. “The industry must work together to develop concrete milestones to respond to these megatrends and build an action plan to move these from theory to reality.”
Thus, the collaborative exercise with consumer goods and retail executives led to the selection of three initiatives that address these megatrends and highlight the need for swift action:
“The industry is at a critical tipping point and must ensure its future by implementing these initiatives to drive innovation. Success is hard to quantify but we must focus on collaboration and non-competitive improvements that will protect consumers and the vital components that will create one of the most innovative and forward-thinking sectors,” said Sabine Ritter, executive vice president, strategy, industry initiatives, strategic alliances at The Consumer Goods Forum. “Today, we are also announcing that The Consumer Goods Forum’s Board of Directors has approved the action plans to move the proposed initiatives forward.”
Click here to access the full report.
Related Articles:
10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2013
Key Takeaways from NRF 2013
A new report, titled “Future Value Chain 2022", summarizes this meeting of minds and identifies two key megatrends as likely to have the greatest impact on the consumer goods and retail industry in the coming five to 20 years. They are:
Megatrend #1: The Challenge of Today’s Digital World
Megatrend #2: The Ongoing Fight for Resources
“Digitization is changing consumers’ lives and shopping behavior. At the same time, global demand for resources like food, water and energy is rising rapidly with the potential for demand to outstrip supply in the next decade,” said Thomas Storck, member of the management board, merchandising & multi channel retailing officer, Galeria Kaufhof (a subsidiary of Metro Group), and co-chair of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Emerging Trends Steering Committee. “The industry must work together to develop concrete milestones to respond to these megatrends and build an action plan to move these from theory to reality.”
Thus, the collaborative exercise with consumer goods and retail executives led to the selection of three initiatives that address these megatrends and highlight the need for swift action:
- Consumer Engagement Protocol: This initiative is designed to address the changes being witnessed in consumer behavior. The potential power of user-generated and social media technology platforms to disrupt established institutions and the associated brand equity is undeniable. However, there are opportunities to connect directly with consumers as shoppers look for improved transparency in digital channels. At the same time, there is an inherent need to mitigate risks from privacy invasion. Increasingly, companies recognize the requirement to be proactive vs. being regulated in this area, but currently there is no voluntary global commitment concerning this in the consumer goods and retail industry. The project is focused on establishing guidelines for digital engagement with consumers.
- Next-Generation Product Identification: Today, in a world of rapidly expanding online commerce solutions, barcodes are unable to provide companies and consumers with the rich digital product information they seek. Consumer barcodes do not uniquely identify product or package variations that carry the same product identifier, meaning minor product variations cannot be accurately disclosed. This initiative focuses on connecting the dots to improve supply chain transparency, efficiency and traceability. The goal is to provide the industry and the consumer with accurate product information by using new technology capabilities for product identification to replace the current barcode.
- Sustainable Packaging Coalition: This potential initiative is designed to establish a coalition of companies to work together on non-competitive topics to improve the sustainability of packaging across the different value chain stages. The focus of potential activities will be around the three R’s of packaging and packaging components: Redefine, Reduce and Reuse.
“The industry is at a critical tipping point and must ensure its future by implementing these initiatives to drive innovation. Success is hard to quantify but we must focus on collaboration and non-competitive improvements that will protect consumers and the vital components that will create one of the most innovative and forward-thinking sectors,” said Sabine Ritter, executive vice president, strategy, industry initiatives, strategic alliances at The Consumer Goods Forum. “Today, we are also announcing that The Consumer Goods Forum’s Board of Directors has approved the action plans to move the proposed initiatives forward.”
Click here to access the full report.
Related Articles:
10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2013
Key Takeaways from NRF 2013