Forecasting

The Customer Management Award is presented to a consumer goods firm for the successful execution of a sales and/or marketing effort throughout its entire customer base to achieve superior results.

Technology vendors and consultants have made Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) overly complex and confusing.

Throughout its first decade of doing business as a home canning company, Alltrista Consumer Products Company had little need to track promotional activity and trade promotion spending.

It's an unfortunate fact of consumer goods manufacturing that not every bottle, tube or pack flows through distribution to a retailer's operations and, ultimately, to the consumer's home and stays there, satisfying the customer.

In order to remain competitive, consumer goods firms are faced with the increasing challenge of getting their products developed and to market faster than ever before.

Pernod SA, the French division of Groupe Pernod-Ricard, manufactures the spirits Pastis 51 (the country's third-ranking brand of aperitifs), Pernod, Suze, Soho and Cafe de Paris, and distributes Groupe Pernod-Ricard brands including Seagram's Gin, Martell, Aberlour and Havana Club.

Even though Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. is a world leader in handheld information, having sold more than 32 million electronic books since 1986, the company does not manufacture its own products.

Getting into ship shape