The Branded Pantry

    Wow!  At the May 28th Chicago,  DisplaySearch conference, DIGITAL SIGNAGE, THE FUTURE IS OUT-OF-HOME, the buzz  was on just how big this vehicle would become and how soon. (more…)

Its encouraging to see the ISI (In-Store Implementation) work group start to talk  about in-store implementation and the need for the CPG industry to improve on execution at the store.  (more…)

by: John Pryslak, Prime Consulting

While current, accurate and complete product information data is the foundation of any Health & Wellness program, any competitive advantage is NOT contained in the data itself, but rather in how the program (Guiding Stars, ONQI etc.) is designed and communicated to the consumer.

That said, a lack of current, accurate and complete product information data will be the Achilles heel for a retailer’s Health & Wellness program.  Imagine a program where individual products are rated against a defined and proprietary set of nutritional criteria and assigned a rating based on how good they are for you (not TOO hard to imagine since several such programs are already in place).  The overall nutritional worth of any item is communicated through a shelf tag that essentially tells the consumer if a product is “safe” to eat, or if they should consult their doctor before ingesting.

The health and wellness effort represents an altruistic endeavor on the part of a retailer to help consumers purchase the most nutritionally dense foods for their money.  Unfortunately, the reality that underlies this system is flawed since most of the available data used for these systems is not designed for Health & Wellness in general much less any single rating scale.

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

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…)