Brian Cluster

Making the most of today’s environment requires brands to enhance their data management capabilities with new innovations.

For consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, the only constant is change – especially as it applies to trends impacting the industry. While many of last year’s trends are just as relevant today, the difference is that consumer behavior and market changes are occurring at a much faster rate (approximately 2-3 months instead of 2-3 years). For the most part, CPG companies and their retail partners have made tremendous strides in addressing these trends. In fact, some of the best prepared companies have moved beyond surviving and are actually thriving during these challenging times.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have seen a dramatic shift in consumer shopping. More customers are focused on safety and convenience while price sensitivity has taken a temporary back seat.

Just over a week ago the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a worldwide pandemic, calling on countries around the world to take drastic steps to slow the rapid spread of the virus.

Even though CPG companies and other businesses are in the middle of the busiest time of the year, Thanksgiving and holidays provides us an opportunity to take a moment to be grateful for our companies, colleagues and wonderful customers. But what often gets ignored in this time of gratitude is the richness and value of the data that customers are sharing about the product and their purchase experiences.