The Branded Pantry

3 events this week prompt yet another commentary on the risks of using CPG product information in its current state. (more…)

There is a very interesting battle beginning to take shape in the CPG advertising world.   Three evolving advertising approaches are poised to pick apart the traditional advertising providers carcass (and the revenue spent thereon.)  The three camps include: (more…)

In addition to the consumer grocery spending shift to Wal*Mart, commented upon below, both BJ’s and Costco reported strong year over year fourth quarter gains.  Same store sales were up 5.4% in BJ’s and 7% (excluding gas) at Costco!  These gains were driven by perishable and other food items!!

The move must be in part price driven (duh) as the University of Michigan’s Customer Satisfaction Index measured Wal*Mart’s performance in the fourth quarter at its lowest rating ever (68) down 6% from third Quarter.

Ziff Davis Enterprise Researchjust released their survey of IT professionals. Not surprisingly the CIO’s agree on the need to spend feverishly on a number of fronts. Three of the top four business priorities included: providing better service to customers, improving business processes and cutting costs.

The technologies judged to offer the biggest impact included: business intelligence, collaboration and systems/data integration.

Their top technical priorities for implementation? Strategic applications, infrastructure changes and build-out to keep up with business growth and way down at the number 5 of 10 listings was improve the quality of information. (more…)