CHICAGO and SAN FRANCISCO – March 1, 2006 – Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), AMR Research, Consumer Goods Technology and Racher Press, Inc., publisher of Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers, announced the winners of the 2006 Global CPG & Retail Excellence Awards, giving top honors to The Campbell Soup Company, CVS, McNeil Consumer Healthcare and The Procter & Gamble Company. The independently-judged, industry-best-practice awards were presented at the IRI Reinventing CPG & Retail Summit 2006 Awards Gala last night in San Francisco.
In keeping with the theme of the industry’s third annual global consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail conference, the awards program pays tribute to the CPG manufacturing and retailing companies that are leveraging new and innovative ways to see market opportunities they were unable to see before, acting faster with greater confidence, and winning at the retail shelf. These companies are successfully transforming their organizations or products through innovative, leading-edge applications of business performance management, consumer and shopper insights or technology.
The winners of the four industry best practice awards are:
- Business Transformation of the Year – Campbell Soup Company for its transformation plan to leverage its brands to meet the changing needs of consumers and customers.
- Consumer or Competitive Insights Reinvention of the Year – McNeil Consumer Healthcare for completely transforming its marketing research function by translating data into competitive insights.
- Manufacturer Innovation of the Year – The Procter & Gamble Company for innovatively creating and measuring the “P&G brandSAVER” program that ties coupon activities across dozens of brands to trade and consumer response.
- Retailer Innovation of the Year – CVS for successfully acquiring and converting 1,000 former Eckerd stores in record-breaking time.
In addition, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, chairman of IRI and Symphony Technology Group, presented the 2006 IRI Chairman’s Awards. The awards, which honor creativity, the willingness to take risks, achievement of measurable results and breakthrough learnings for the entire industry, were presented to the following distinguished recipients:
- ConAgra Foods for its continued work to gain a more complete understanding of how marketing efforts impact usage and purchase behavior and its sponsorship of a unique consumer usage pilot, which explored the link between IRI Consumer Network™ Panel purchase information and in-home product usage trends.
- Costco Wholesale for the successful pilot and subsequent full-scale roll out of the Costco CRX program, which allows Costco’s manufacturer partners to access and utilize Costco’s data in a structured, collaborative platform that reflects Costco’s unique category and geography definitions.
- Diageo for successfully implementing a comprehensive Planning Management solution on the IRI Business Performance Management (BPM) platform for a consistent planning approach across its U.S. market.
- Masterfoods USA for successfully implementing a cross-channel, transaction-level consumer and shopping insights information resource using IRI BPM technology.
“We salute the fine efforts of all the companies that participated in the awards program,” said IRI President and Chief Executive Officer Scott W. Klein. “This year’s winners exemplify true innovation, transformation, and excellence in the CPG and retail industries. These companies understand their consumers, develop new products and empower technologies, and utilize proven best practices to reinvent themselves to bring greater speed to insight and improved return on investment to better meet the needs of their consumers.”
“A common theme among this year’s CPG & Retail Excellence Award winners, which we’ve seen among best-in-class CPG companies, is leveraging new and innovative ways to develop deeper consumer insights that drive organic growth both for manufacturers and retailers,” said Scott Langdoc, vice president and general manager, AMR Research.
Steve Rosenstock, publisher, Consumer Goods Technology magazine added, “The winners exemplify the outstanding corporate commitment to better understand consumer, competitor and brand insights and leverage this knowledge to develop creative methods to new products that meet the demands of today’s marketplace.”
"Campbell’s, CVS, McNeil, and Procter & Gamble have all been successful in translating consumer insights into tangible results,” said Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers Editor David Pinto. “They are at the forefront of transforming their organizations through innovative approaches to understanding consumer insights and developing new technologies.”
About the Industry Best Practice Award Winners
Campbell Soup Company – Business Transformation of the Year
After completing its three-year transformation plan in 2004, Campbell turned its focus to driving quality growth in the condensed soup category by leveraging its brands to meet the changing needs of its consumers in 2005. The results were remarkable. “Campbell’s” condensed soup, the company’s largest and most profitable brand, posted an unprecedented 8 percent sales increase during the 2005 soup season. In addition, total U.S. soup sales grew by 5 percent. Campbell drove these results by focusing on the five “Ps”—product, price, place, promotion and people. To focus on the “place” segment, Campbell leveraged the IQ Maximizer, an innovative, gravity-feeding shelving system that was tested in multiple IRI BehaviorScan® markets. The system drives awareness of products at the shelf that made the confusing soup section in the supermarket much easier to shop. The company also met the consumer demand for convenience with easy-open lids on its condensed and ready-to-serve soups, as well as the demand for portability with an expanded line-up of microwaveable bowls and sippable soups.
McNeil Consumer Healthcare - Consumer or Competitive Insights Reinvention of the Year
During 2005, McNeil Consumer Healthcare completely transformed its marketing research and development (MRD) function into a revitalized organization that drives company strategy and business outcomes to increase return on investment (ROI). The MRD team was re-organized into a new group, called Business Strategy & Insights (BSI), with a new mission and a new mandate to translate insights into organizational action that drives growth. By using information in new and creative ways--including leveraging such IRI products and services as the Consumer Network™ Panel--by discovering real insights, and then acting as change agents to drive company decision making, BSI drives better decisions, faster outcomes, and improved ROI for McNeil Consumer Healthcare.
The Procter & Gamble Company– Manufacturer Innovation of the Year
In the CPG industry, coupons are usually a vehicle that is used to drive trade support, not overall product equity. Procter & Gamble set out to create a win-win situation, where coupons were used to get trade support and consumer response and were also leveraged for building brand equity, trial, and loyalty. Procter & Gamble teamed with IRI to develop a solution to track sales impact on brands and entire portfolios, source of consumers and retailer fair share of support. With the assistance of advanced modeling techniques from IRI, the “P&G brandSAVER” program not only met this challenge, but became the primary vehicle for coupons and has visibility at the highest levels of management. The program ties coupon activities across brands with trade activity that reaches consumers through a timely, robust and holistic measurement system. It not only looks at key brands, but it adjusts for other channels and total portfolio, including both trade and coupon driven sales for brand, consumer and retailer. The “P&G brandSAVER” program provides consistent and standard scorecards, accurate measurements and helps modify coupon programs throughout the year and tests new elements.
CVS – Retailer Innovation of the Year
CVS’ conversion of more than 1,000 former Eckerd stores, completed in 2005, is one the company’s biggest accomplishments since its inception and is a major stepping stone to its ongoing success within the U.S. drug retail industry. The conversion effort required the focus on flawless execution from all levels of CVS management and store personnel. The effort included converting supply chain and computer systems, training more than 30,000 former Eckerd employees, implementing new store prototypes, and entering into new major metropolitan markets. IRI played a role in their integration by providing customized assortment solutions through the IRI Ethnic Workbench™ and shopper insights from the Consumer Network™ Panel. These solutions helped to track CVS’ ongoing business performance from both an acquired and core market perspective. With the successful conversion behind it, CVS has secured the No. 1 spot in the U.S. drug retail channel.
About AMR Research
AMR Research is the No. 1 advisory firm focused on supply chain, enterprise applications, and infrastructure. Founded in 1986, AMR Research provides advisory services and peer networking opportunities to supply chain and technology professionals in the manufacturing and retail sectors. To learn more about our research and services, visit www.amrresearch.com.
About Consumer Goods Technology
Consumer Goods Technology, published by Edgell Communications, is the only source for consumer goods executives to stay a step ahead of the nexus between technology solutions and business performance. Special issues of the monthly magazine, include Retail/Consumer Goods Shared Strategy Study, RFID Special Industry Report, Consumer Goods Technology Trends Study and Annual Sourcebook. Consumer Goods Technology also produces the CG Sales & Marketing Summit, CG Growth & Innovation Forum and CG Fall Conference. For more information, visit www.consumergoods.com.
About Racher Press
For more than a quarter century, Racher Press, Inc. has been an essential source of news for those with a stake in the retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pharmaceutical industries. The company’s publications include Chain Drug Review, the leading newspaper in the drug store channel: MMR – Mass Market Retailers, which covers discount, drug and supermarket chains and their suppliers, and Retail Pharmacy, a monthly in-depth report on all of the factors that impact pharmaceutical care and its delivery. For more information, visit www.chaindrugreview.com and www.massmarketretailers.com.
About Information Resources, Inc.
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services, empowering its clients to grow their business profitably in a complex marketplace. Driving the transformation of the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, only IRI provides a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software, and professional services. The company’s portfolio of services, solutions, and technology enable leading retailers and their suppliers around the globe to see what they are missing, act faster with greater confidence and win at the shelf. Ninety-five percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 in CPG and retail leverage IRI to power their business. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.