2013 Readers' Choice: Trade Promotion Management

CGT’s readers rank the top 10 technology companies that provide a solution for trade promotion effectiveness, including trade promotion management (TPM), price management, trade promotion optimization (TPO), etc.

Download the full Trade Promotion Management Report

TPM and TPO continue to be hot topics among sales and marketing executives in consumer goods. But despite the attention it gets, true TPO use cases are sparse. Dale Hagemeyer, managing vice president, Industries Research, Manufacturing, Gartner Inc., tells us why.


Can you comment on the survey results in this category?

Hagemeyer: The list looks like “the usual suspects” and is pretty complete based on what we see primarily in the U.S. market. In looking for a pattern in the rankings, there really isn’t one. The enterprise players and suites seem to float to the top, but even so, the top five include three TPM/TPO and retail suites followed by one TPM provider and one pure-play TPO provider. The fact that the TPM/TPO players are smattered across the list says that consumer goods companies are still pursuing TPM.


How would you characterize TPM business process maturity?

Hagemeyer: Slow and steady, which is typical of this industry. Most important though is that consumer goods companies are moving beyond transactional TPM and becoming more analytical in processes, like post-event analysis. I do believe that consumer goods companies are finally making headway. More first-time TPM deployments happen all the time. And, other companies are deepening their capabilities. Integrating the data necessary to do all the analysis is a challenge. Also change management — not everybody is vested in having better control.


How would you describe TPM and TPO investment activity?

Hagemeyer: [TPM] is still a hot topic because of how much money is involved in the critical promotion process. We are seeing, however, that companies inquiring about TPM also want a pathway to TPO. They often acknowledge that they aren’t ready for TPO, but they recognize that it is necessary for the future.

TPO solution selections are ongoing, but we are not in major roll out mode yet. Every indicator is that they drive significant value. However, because they involve predictive modeling based on lots of clean data, they are not easy projects. Still, considering what is at stake — the escalation of trade spend — they are definitely worth it.

The good news is that probably less than 1 percent of companies have TPO, so there is still time to make an educated choice and to prepare adequately.

BREAKOUT FAVORITES


Customer Experience Leader: IBM

In a move that extends IBM’s Smarter Commerce leadership, IBM acquired DemandTec in 2012. This acquisition advances and extends IBM’s portfolio by enabling companies to use cloud computing services to understand, plan and predict marketing, pricing and trade promotion activities.



SMB Market Leader: SAP

“…We have better pricing control, fewer customer claims and greater visibility into promotions.  The granularity that SAP Trade Promotion Management gives us enables people to make better decisions.”
— Darren Sloan, Project Manager, Premier Foods