Popchips Streamlines the Snack Aisle Using TPM, BI

On the verge of its 10th anniversary, Popchips still relied on manually compiled spreadsheets to track trade spend analytics for 284 product combinations in over 30,000 retail locations across three countries.

Too often, the snack manufacturer questioned the accuracy of its data and pursued a more standardized process to plan and analyze trade promotions. After the company eliminated manual spreadsheets and implemented a true trade promotion management tool, they were able to streamline processes and commence the journey to optimizing trade spend.

Popchips gained insights within the first six months after implementing CPGToolBox Trade Planner, a Salesforce-based TPM solution with real-time business intelligence based in the cloud, which aims to enable a holistic view of the business, from planning and budgeting, to execution and collections. Sales started entering promotions directly into the new system, which eliminated guesswork and allowed the team to understand exactly how trade spend affects revenue based upon past years and similar events.

The system also saved Popchips from costly double-dipping scenarios when distributors and retailers submitted a deduction multiple times or tried to overclaim on the deduction.

According to Tim Bazley, sales pricing and promotion analyst for Popchips, reports and processes that could take weeks due to endless emails and phone calls validating information were trimmed down to mere clicks. With the majority of Popchips’ data and reports now migrated to the new system, accessing outside financial tools or Sage ERP to pull together a trade promotion analysis is no longer a requirement. Plus, clear, interactive reports let Bazley review projections and compare multiple accounts simultaneously rather than looking at promotions in isolation.

Additionally, Popchips was able to gather key business intelligence surrounding its 2016 Ridges product launch. For the first time, the brand had the tools to measure, analyze and report on every aspect of every account involved in the soft launch. Gathering soft launch insights surrounding trade spend, introductory offer performances, marketing and profitability will arm the company with the data points needed to formulate a well-planned, market-wide rollout.

In an effort to further harmonize company-wide insights and analysis, and encourage cross-functional collaboration, trade promotions can also be reviewed on a global scale within the new system. As a multinational company with retailing partners across the U.K. and Canada, this functionality gives Popchips enhanced visibility of trade spend and improved access to global demand planning and production forecasts in one system.

“Now currency conversion isn’t a problem as CPGToolBox provides us with an opportunity to actualize numbers, compare apples to apples and manage deductions on a truly global platform,” says Bazley. “The wealth of information now at our fingertips has created more traceability and ownership while enabling us to share best practices globally and create worldwide momentum.”