An article in USA Today reports that as of March 10th, Target will allow customers to take advantage of special mobile-coupon offers on their handsets. In the article, Target.com President Steve Eastman states that Target is one of the first nationwide retailers to start this type of promotion. alqemyiQ is predicting that category managers will need to integrate mobile data analytics into their reporting process and CIOs and their IT departments will need to plan for this huge influx of data that mobile couponing will bring. Read more…

In a recent article from Information Management magazine, the complex, changing world that is data management today was discussed by Robin Bloor, a Hurwitz Group analyst. Bloor’s topic, aptly title “The Semantics of Information Management,” was focused on the way data is labeled in the process of capturing. “Since we started collecting data in files, then in hierarchical databases, relational databases and object databases, we did not store the meaning of the data in any comprehensive way. We were labeling things, and that was all we could say about them. There was no formal statement for what it is.” This lack of a comprehensive, cohesive way of labeling data is a problem for CPG companies both great and small. Often one company’s analysts will work with numerous data feeds and file formats, which can each be very semantically different, whether that refers to the way a product is tagged, the way data feeds refer to a major manufacturer, etc. Bloor put it well when comparing this labeling problem to “a sentence [that] contains all the semantics that provide the context of the sentence, but nothing to explicitly tell you what the sentence means. The interpretation is up to you.” Read more…

Time: January 28, 2010 at 2:00-3:00 PM EST
Registration: http://www.alqemyiqcorp.com/resources/webinars

Overview
Learn how to create insightful presentations from multiple sources of data and data file formats. In 3 easy steps, you can transform complex database files containing valuable product, promotion and pricing information into colorful charts and graphs of segmented data. This transformation will unlock insights from the massive amount of raw data that category managers receive on a regular basis. In this webinar, you will see how to use DataAlchemy to import data, create segments and build presentation templates that can be automatically updated when new data becomes available. Read more…

A recent article in CGT touches base on the top tech trends of 2009 for the consumer goods industry. The article notes that IT spending is being closely monitored and an emphasis on business investments for enterprise solutions is taking priority. As 2010 quickly approaches us, be sure to keep a watchful eye on these issues and look for solutions that can assist in tracking your return on investment. Information related to what applications are being used, by who and how often will be important for measuring ROI and will bring value to your department and company as a whole. The complete article and webinar can be found on the CGT website, at the following link …

The alqemyiQ team has recently posted a new whitepaper on their site at alqemyiQ Resources. This whitepaper is titled “Improve Your Competitive Advantage with Knowledge of New Trends in Intelligent Data Analytics,” and it covers a number of valuable topics. First is the balkanization of demand data feeds in the CPG industry. Balkanization refers to the division of a large entity into smaller, usually ineffectual groups. Historically demand data has come from one, two, maybe three main sources. These sources were large scale content providers – market research companies who specialize in providing clients with consumer, shopper and retail market information. Today it seems all sorts of companies and retailers are producing individual data feeds, leading to a fragmentation of the market. This must be addressed. The second topic discussed is the increase in the use of mobile technology. There are over 4.1 billion active cell phone subscriptions in the world today, far surpassing the number of active credit cards or personal computers. This has already begun to greatly affect the way the world does business, and it will only continue to have a greater effect on the CPG industry. The third challenging topic discussed is the need for companies to implement efficient knowledge management. The more fragmented and differing data coming in from an increasing number of data content providers is lending to an atmosphere in many companies in which data the value of consumer data is greatly diluted. Analysts must work harder to normalize data and get it out to the rest of the company. Even after that, who is utilizing the data that so much money is spent to produce? Does the CIO know the answer to that question? These are problems with knowledge management. The new whitepaper from alqemyiQ addresses in great detail these challenges facing the CPG industry, and it offers viable solutions to each. Visit the website now to check it out.

Today’s companies have all sorts of data that is interpreted by analysts and packaged into great charts and tables. These figures and graphics look impressive in the board room or at a product launch, but how much of this information is benefiting the sales force in the here and now? Field sales representatives are able to bring products to their customers and gain customer loyalty from either the solid product or the strong sales relationship, but think about how much more powerful the sale could be with hands-on information and statistics. Read more…

The advent of mobility is moving interactions between producers and consumers ever closer to the point of happening in real time. This will revolutionize many industries, especially the CPG world. Capturing and understanding demand data in real time is going to become a key competitive advantage for companies. Those that get it right will thrive. Those that do not are going to find themselves in increasingly perilous straits as they deal with competitors who have an informational advantage and start to apply it to grab market share, lower cost and out perform their rivals. 4.1 billion humans are now walking around with a two-way communication device for the first time in history, and that changes the world. It will have an impact on companies that sell in high volume. They will have the ability to capture data from all those transactions and roll that data back into the decision making process.

The top 200 CPG companies spent $50 billion last year in marketing and advertising. Why? To influence consumers at the point of purchase – when they are standing in front of an item deciding whether to buy or not. But with traditional advertising, the advertiser doesn’t really know who saw the billboard or whose eye was caught by the in-store display. Real-time interactions with consumers will allow companies to capture the data of whether their marketing to a consumer worked or not, and it will be on an instant, individual basis.

Throughout a company’s supply chain there is an enormous amount of information. Well-integrated supply chains can tell where every product is on trucks, in a warehouse facility, on store shelves. Companies will be able to pair this information with demand data and streamline supply operations even further, reducing wasted costs in stored inventory, lost sales because of lack of anticipation, etc. Demand data is about to be available in ways that it has not been to date. Combining that data with existing supply chain data will allow companies that do it well to attain a distinct and sustainable competitive advantage.