Trade Promotion Management

For the 13th year in a row, CGT's readers took to the polls to elect their preferred solution and service providers.

CGT's readers rank the top 10 technology companies that provide a solution for trade promotion effectiveness, including trade promotion management (TPM), price management, trade promotion optimization (TPO), etc.

Read this white paper to understand the significance of trade promotion funds to the performance of a consumer products companys business, and the large expense that such an approach places on the P&L.

Members of CGT's TPM Share Group met in Orlando, Fla., during the Consumer Goods Business and Technology Leadership Conference on October 23, 2012. The group moved away from the recent TPO discussions, which are aspirational for most, and focused on more practical aspects of TPM execution. Here is a recap of the discussion.

For more than 30 years, trade promotions have been the "currency of the realm"; the way to get new items on shelves, to encourage retailers to advertise and display existing products and to fund price reductions. Over that same period, the industry has spent millions on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of these investments. While that remains important, we dont see trade promotion optimization as the answer. What we need is a new currency.

When Energizer Personal Care acquired Playtex, it adopted a TPM system to standardize processes. But the task of harmonizing brands while implementing the application came with user adoption issues.

The acquisitions strengthen the company as a leading provider of end-to-end trade promotion optimization and mobile field sales solutions, and expand its reach to over 40 global markets.

SmartTrade is a fit for consumer goods industries that use price and promotion as levers to shape and manage demand, including fast and slow moving consumer goods, consumer durables and consumer electronics.