We have been big proponents of the concept of “Consistent Complexity” when it comes to CPG manufacturers dealing with the trade.

The premise is while trade spending is complex, that complexity is the same regardless of the size or type of CPG manufacturer. So while you can’t use the same trade promotion approach with every retailer, most CPG manufacturers have to deal with the same retailer the same way.

For example, Publix uses BOGO’s. Therefore, different CPG manufacturers can be helped by trade experts familiar with the different accounts and how they handle trade spending.

However, there is also the fact that while all retailers are looking to take as much of your trade dollars as possible, there is a big difference between how retailers extract those dollars. Therefore, the time and effort spent maximizing the effectiveness with your trade dollars doesn’t always match up with your top sales accounts. For example, Walmart is EDLP. Not much trade promotion management issues there. However, go to the major retailers in the northeast and deal with Wakefern (Shoprite), Stop N Shop, Keyfood, A&P, Pathmark, CNS among others and you deal with a myriad of overlapping trade promotion programs, diverting, double billing for the same promotion etc., that makes the effort, money, and approach extremely complicated to manage, to control and to plan for the future.

Therefore, you need both a TPM solution that can handle all these variants and trade experts with experience to help navigate you to TPE – trade promotion effectiveness.