Sri Rajagopalan

What does it take to win in #CPG? Circana’s CPG Growth Leaders report measures the omnichannel performance of more than 600 consumer packaged goods companies with sales greater than $100 million. 🚀 Get a copy of the 2023 U.S. CPG Growth Leaders report here 👉https://lnkd.in/g4BBBMfE

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𝗔 𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝟲 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 based on 6 factors; in the final issue of the 2024 Demand Signals* Category Monitor: 💰 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝟮.𝟳% 𝗯𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝟭 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱; COL crisis continues 🥈 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 as demand slows 🌟 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝟱-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 - so brand over-saturating shelves must look to the whole toolbox 🏪 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 despite retailer transformation strategies 🛒 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹 as Supermarkets fight back comprehensively 💡 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 - 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 - to include Media & Promotion Effectiveness & Execution We may have got 6/6 predictions right for 2024. But we are not bringing out the champagne just yet! Happy Holidays to you from Circana

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If you don't have a Quality and Compliance strategy in 2025 for your CPG brand, feel free to steal this one: Foundational Framework -Define how quality and compliance align with the brand's overall goals (e.g., customer trust, market differentiation, regulatory adherence) -Identify applicable regulations (e.g., FDA, USDA, EU requirements) based on the brand’s products and markets. -Ensure executive alignment and commitment to quality and compliance as core business functions, not cost centers. Governance & Oversight -Establish a team or designate roles (not a committee) to oversee implementation and maintenance of systems. -Develop a clear set of SOPs (standard operating procedures) for key processes. -Regularly conduct risk assessments to identify potential quality or compliance failures. System Implementation -Address regulatory requirements (e.g., labeling, claims substantiation, safety assessments). -Include mechanisms for monitoring, documentation, and reporting. -Focus on product quality and continuous improvement. -Establish controls for raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. -Leverage automation and AI tools for document management, audits, and process monitoring. Training & Culture -Regular, role-specific training on regulatory and quality expectations. -Promote a mindset where employees at all levels prioritize quality and compliance. -Ensure alignment across departments (e.g., R&D, marketing, ops). Supply Chain & Vendor Management -Vet and approve suppliers and contract manufacturers based on compliance and quality standards. -Conduct regular audits of key suppliers and contract manufacturers. -Set clear expectations with suppliers for quality, testing, and compliance deliverables. KPIs & Continuous Improvement -Quality: Product defect rates, customer complaints, internal audit findings. -Compliance: Regulatory violations, recall rates, inspection readiness. -Analyze trends and implement corrective/preventive actions (CAPAs) based on data. Documentation & Communication - Maintain clear, accessible documentation of all quality and compliance activities. -Develop a strategy for responding to inquiries with verifiable data. -Ensure timely and accurate submissions (e.g., product registrations, certifications). Crisis Preparedness -Establish a process for managing quality or compliance issues, such as product recalls. -Have pre-drafted templates for stakeholder communication during crises. Audit Readiness -Conduct regular internal and third-party audits to ensure compliance. -Prioritize corrective actions based on audit findings. Optimization Cycle -Quarterly or annual evaluations of the strategy's effectiveness. -Solicit feedback from internal teams, customers, and regulators to refine processes. This is loosely similar to the strategy Qualitas Executive Group deploys across most of our brand clients What's your 2025 Quality and Compliance strategy? #quality #compliance #cpg

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Circana's newest report reveals that Hispanic consumers are driving 16% of total U.S. CPG growth! With 20% of the U.S. population identifying as Hispanic and 71% of national growth between 2022 and 2023 attributed to this group, it’s clear that brands and retailers need to align with their preferences and values to capture future growth opportunities. Explore the significant impact of the Hispanic population on CPG growth: https://bit.ly/4hsdvEv

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An accurate take on the evolution of consumers and brand building strategies… The acceleration of FMCG/CPG startups is definitely changing the landscape and the Legacy brands will be facing a ‘change or die’ juncture! #FMCG #CPG #Consumer #Brand #Homegrown #Change

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Obesity drugs, private-label foods and shifting social patterns are disrupting America’s food landscape. What the Future:Food lays out how stakeholders from food makers to packaging companies to appliance makers can thrive in these changes. https://lnkd.in/gqEKJByE

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Liz Buchanan <> The CPG View On this week's podcast, "Pioneering the Future of CPG Data," on The CPG View featuring Liz Buchanan, President, North America at NielsenIQ. Liz covers the following key points: 🎯 Leadership and Market Evolution: Liz emphasizes her transition to leading Nielsen IQ's North American business and the dynamic changes in the market, highlighting her extensive experience and the company's adaptive strategies. 🎯 Data Activation and Value: A major focus is on making data "activation ready" by ensuring it is comprehensive, granular, and useful for driving business outcomes, particularly in retail environments. 🎯 Customer-Centric Approach: Liz shares the importance of understanding and addressing customer needs through modern data access methods, personalized insights, and maintaining high standards of data stewardship and privacy. Tune in to gain insights on new data strategies, AI tools, and market trends shaping the CPG industry on The CPG View. 🚀🌟 Full Podcast Link (Apple, Spotify, Google, etc): 🎧 https://lnkd.in/eEqXpSB6 #ecommerce #digital #omnichannel #strategy #success #cro #ceo #leadership #cmo #cdo #retailecommerceclub #cpg #privateequity #playtowin #thecpgview

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How to plan for promotions

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"Great Brands, Sufficient Resources, Yet Underwhelming Results? --------------------------------------- You've got a renowned brand, ample resources, and a solid strategy in place. Still, your planned results remain elusive. It's time to investigate the root cause. Often, the missing link is not the resources or the plan, but the people. Specifically, the lack of ownership and engagement among team members. When management fails to create a culture of: - Active listening - Open communication - Empowerment - Trust Team members become disenchanted, losing faith in sharing their concerns, ideas, and feedback. This leads to: - Disengagement - Lack of accountability - Inefficiency - Stagnation To revive your brand's performance, focus on reigniting your team's passion and ownership. Encourage open dialogue, recognize individual contributions, and foster a sense of belonging. Remember, a brand's true strength lies not in its resources, but in its people. #Observation #Listening #Leadership #TeamEngagement #Ownership #Communication #BrandPerformance" #CEO #COO #MD #FMCG #Beverages #CMD #Fairfeedback

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 Exposing the Dark Side of CPG Brokers: Time for Accountability I’ve seen too many small and emerging brands in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) space fall prey to unscrupulous brokers. These self-proclaimed “connectors” promise vast retail distribution, big buyers, and exponential growth—yet, all too often, they deliver nothing but broken promises What Goes Wrong? Lack of Transparency: They withhold critical market insights, limiting your ability to make informed decisions. Limited Effort Post-Contract: After signing, their enthusiasm and support often evaporate, leaving small businesses stranded. No Long-Term Strategy: Instead of building sustainable relationships, these brokers opt for quick wins that rarely benefit the brand. Why It Matters For startups and small businesses, every dollar counts. Wasted resources on poor brokerage services can make or break a fledgling CPG brand. On top of that, unethical practices hurt the broader industry by eroding trust and creating barriers to entry. A Call for Accountability Ask for References: Don’t just rely on a broker’s flashy pitch. Reach out to brands they’ve represented for honest feedback. Require Transparency: Make sure every fee, deliverable, and timeline is spelled out in writing. Build a Support Network: Whether it’s through LinkedIn groups, industry forums, or fellow entrepreneurs, lean on your community to stay informed. Speak Up: If you’ve had a bad experience, share your story. Accountability starts with visibility. Join the Conversation Have you or someone you know dealt with a “bad broker” experience? What red flags do you look out for before signing a deal? Drop your insights below and let’s help each other navigate the CPG landscape more responsibly. Let’s raise our collective voice to ensure that integrity wins out and that deserving small businesses get the representation—and respect—they merit. Share this in your network: Adam Siskin Scott Glassman Russell KohnAlex Bayer Stephen Gaither Scott Lerner Eric Skae Wade Yenny Bert Cohen Chris RobbAlan Murray Maya French Shibani BalujaAdam ButlerKim Oster-HolsteinPete Maldonado

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Change is inevitable, and the #beauty and #skincare industry is poised for disruption. The landscape has evolved; market reach is no longer just about advertising and retail positioning. The rise of influencer marketing heralds a new age of innovative products, concepts, and ideas. Throughout its existence, #ClinicalFx has consistently focused on meeting the needs of the brands we represent, leading us to question the status quo. Why are skincare products typically formulated with only 1-3 active ingredients? A serum containing vitamin C and hyaluronic acid could offer much more by targeting collagen production, providing antioxidants, and enhancing skin hydration. There are numerous other ingredients that could work synergistically to enhance these effects. So, why stop at 1-3 active ingredients? We believe the answer is greed. This approach to product formulation encourages consumers to purchase multiple products, cluttering their bathroom countertops with unnecessary items. In reality, a core set of five products could suffice for an optimal skincare regimen. With product prices ranging from $29 to $499, isn't it time the industry did better?

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☎️Calling all CPG friends☎️ Preparing for a line review can be scary 🫣 Or it can feel tedious and uninspired 😩 That’s why we’re hosting our upcoming webinar: How to Build a Compelling Line Review on May 1st at 1pm CT There will be a focus on durables categories, however, the principles and use cases for panel data will be relevant to any brand or category looking to defend or grow shelf space 💪 Come check it out if you’re curious about Numerator or have an upcoming line review to prep for 🫶 #cpg #linereviews #buyermeetings https://lnkd.in/gPwGJMGJ

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Obesity drugs, private-label foods and shifting social patterns are disrupting America’s food landscape. What the Future:Food lays out how stakeholders from food makers to packaging companies to appliance makers can thrive in these changes. https://lnkd.in/eex2J2nU

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Why do Duopolies tend to dominate in so many aspects of modern business and what does this mean for emerging CPG? The news last week was that The Walt Disney Company and HBO are teaming up to offer a massive streaming bundle to complete with Netflix. It seems like a very predictable cycle unfolded here…After a few years of disruptive innovation, investors started to lose patience with negative EBITDA, which results in waves of consolidation until we have a De Facto Duopoly in streaming media. Nilesh Sharma wrote an interesting article on how this is common across many industries(link in comments)…there are so many examples: Coke/Pepsi, Apple/Android, and in national retail grocery distribution UNFI/KeHE is obvious. If not for antitrust regulations, these duopolies would more often than not eventually merge into monopolies until some disruptive force comes along to change the paradigm. 👉CPG brands: take a look at national market share in the subcategory you operate in. There is a good chance that it is dominated by two brands, and if not, there is at least trend toward this outcome. 👉Is your product different ENOUGH, to break this cycle? 👉Retailers, in any given metro market, who are the dominant two mainline grocery chains in your market by total share? 👉Are you differentiated ENOUGH from them to compel consumers to change their habits? We all have one thing in common as innovators: we’re trying to break the cycle and acquire market share from what tends to be the natural order of things. In order for us to disrupt, we need to think outside the box. Slightly better versions of what already exists won’t get it done. Pod Foods has been able to take so much national share in the past few years, BECAUSE it is so radically different from the inbumbent model…the same thing is true for ANY disruptive brand. I’ll be at Sweets & Snacks Expo this week and looking forward to seeing a lot of you there. What I’ll be looking for is the product that is the MOST different from the status quo and how we can reach early adopters with it. #disruptiveinnovation #Disneymaxbundle #emergingcpg #podfoods Flowspace Total Quality Logistics Green Spoon Sales Melissa Pashko Caroline Grace https://lnkd.in/d7dYis2C

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CPG Marketing & Innovation Leaders,  When you're heads down reacting to the derailers of yesterday or fighting the 🔥of today, looking ahead 🛣 to What’s Next may not top your priority list. It’s true that staying in synch with market trends, and how they visibly manifest in the world around us—takes some effort. But trust me, it’s worth it. Your business results will thank you. A former (and favorite) CEO of mine called this 𝙀𝙭𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙁𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙨, and prioritized it as a key company value. IMHO, the best approach is to keep a baseline level of External Focus and awareness ALL the time, not just when you’re in “future planning mode.”💭 While ideally, you’d reserve regular blocks of time to get out of your building/ home office/own head, it can be as simple as: -being more alert 👀on your commute home -being more curious on your errands or grocery run 🛒 -or just a not-so-mindless, less doom-y scroll session.📱 Being the Trend Obsessed gal I am, I try to always be on the lookout, so it’s not THAT often I come across something Truly NEW. But I think that’s a good thing. I see Trends as similar to People: just like we morph and evolve over time, but maintain our core personality and DNA, Trends follow the same trajectory. 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 5 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥, 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘨𝘢-𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥. Examples:      ⭐ AI, tech, and quantum computing are accelerating at lighting speed⚡ ⭐Brands are striving to integrate Purpose into their operations, and using Storytelling to connect. ⭐Consumers’ definition of Value will continue to evolve, based on both perceptions of the economy, and the reality. It’s pretty fascinating: They don’t disappear, they just keep doing slight wardrobe changes.👗 But I still say, stay aware and attuned, so you’re ready to mobilize at that tipping point moment that can impact YOUR brand and business. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭? #trends #insights #brandstrategy #growth __ I'm Elizabeth, and I help consumer marketing leaders use strategic insights to fuel brand growth and market impact. Let's talk about how to use Trend Insights as a key tool for innovation, messaging and go-to-market excellence.

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The Ready-to-Drink (RTD) alcohol market is witnessing explosive growth, fueled by a shift in consumer preferences towards convenience and premiumization. Modern consumers, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are embracing these easy-to-serve options that offer quality and variety without the need for bartending skills. The surge is also supported by innovative flavors and healthier choices, such as low-calorie and organic options.

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Morning beverages are engrained into our daily routines, and U.S. consumers always find the time to have them. Discover how beverages will impact the morning occasion over the next three years with Circana’s Future of™ Morning: https://bit.ly/4eKJ1vs

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