Durable Growth via Consumer-First Strategy

Situation

The past 24 months have redefined instability & reactionary movement globally & in the CPG landscape. COVID-19, international conflict, inflationary pressure, supply chain disruption & margin compression have altered how businesses operate, plan, and succeed, with CPG being no exception. This rests upon an already overwhelming information environment brands compete for consumer mindshare within. These macro factors leave leaders wrestling with how to navigate the turbulence, break through the clutter, and deliver enduring, profitable growth.

The answer, more than ever, lies in the Consumer.

Defining Your Consumer Market

Understandably, uncomfortable times lead many manufacturers & brand planners to hyper focus on the numbers & metrics. This often means defining initiatives through a category-tracked means (i.e. a market structure, CDT, syndicated data base) or through customer and channel challenges. While these business views are not unimportant, neither is optimal to define growth strategies and unlock durable growth.
By framing your market through the consumer vantage point, demand planning & investment are tightly focused towards tangible steps to unlock outsized impact where value lies. In order to frame your market correctly, first you need to segment your consumer universe. Then you need to identify a target (i.e design target, retain target, recruit target) and finally, you need to plan against them. This will bring clarity and actionable focus, making it easier to translate insight into actions across the organization. Sizing your consumer segment opportunity forces a forward-looking view to understand the barriers and triggers to source the growth and consumer behaviors to change.

Wiring a Consumer-First Growth Strategy

A clearly articulated & sized consumer market, identified design target & according activation tactics focus the demand plan design against the priority consumer goals. Consumer first orientation enables companies to translate their mission & vision more seamlessly – often rooted in the consumer – to be more tightly linked to commercial planning. This ‘wiring’ of a Consumer-First Growth Model (illustrated below) enables brands to synchronize the entire demand plan against the consumer priorities and show up as powerfully as possible to deliver an omni-channel brand experience.

How to Get Started

By fleshing out consumer market, consumer priorities, and size of opportunity we can inform the proper insight towards integrated demand planning. Are you looking to deliver durable, profitable growth? We welcome conversation at [email protected]