Supply Chain Management

While a fickle economy forced many retailers into challenging periods of deep discounting, some top retail brands have stayed above the fray. In a recent survey of Americans about brands across several retail segments, Walgreens emerged as the first ever drugstore brand of the year; Target stores was top-ranked for second straight year; and Woot.com replaced Groupon as the best daily deal web site.

Recently, a CPG social forum asked the question Is Big Data the most dominant theme this year in our industry?If you look at the amount of coverage Big Data is getting, it well may be. However, when browsing through the literature on the topic, I realized that people may be forgetting about the most obvious Big Data opportunity.

Consumer goods companies are turning to analytics to transform masses of "Big Data" into actionable insights. New research identifies how analytics are being used today and where these efforts are most successful.