The Pulse -- September 2005

Adidas/Reebok to Gain on Nike?

In its attempts to better compete with industry leader Nike, adidas-Salomon AG will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Reebok International Ltd. for approximately $3.8 billion. The combination of adidas and Reebok accelerates the adidas Group's strategic intent in the global athletic footwear, apparel and hardware markets. So how will the newly combined company handle complexities that accompany operational integration? According to Kevin O'Marah of AMR Research, the good news is that Reebok and adidas share a common business system backbone -- SAP's Apparel and Footwear Solution. The bad news is that the two big-name footwear makers have very different systems for product development. "Mismatching PLM systems is no reason to hold up a deal like this, but consolidating product families and streamlining sourcing will depend on meshing these systems across the new entity," says O'Marah. "Picking a winner may be a necessity."

Tupperware Opens Communication Lines

To better manage and streamline business processes and communications with its sales force, Tupperware, a manufacturer of food storage, preparation and serving products, implements Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle Portal. The Oracle applications are expected to enhance functionality of Tupperware's information portal called MyTupperware.com, which is used by Tupperware's U.S. sales force for sales and marketing information as well as to access order entry information in one central repository. The Oracle implementation enables Tupperware to produce better-managed and streamlined communications with its sales force and internal lines of business. Both are now able to independently access and manage specific information on the Web site and therefore reduce their dependence on the information technology department. "We believe that enabling rich collaboration and communication across all levels of our sales force is critical to Tupperware's continued leadership," says Donna Tesmer, director of IT, Tupperware. "The Oracle products have enabled us to reduce overall costs with the ability to push portal updates to employees, resulting in improved response rates and reduced IT support for maintenance."

Forrester UnVeils Consumer Technology Trends

Using survey data from more than 68,000 North American households, a study from Forrester Research titled, "The State of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2005," shows that the adoption of consumer electronics and Internet access will continue to see significant growth through the end of the decade. By 2010, 62 percent of U.S. households will have broadband access to the Internet, 53 percent will own a laptop and 37 percent will use a digital video recorder (DVR) to gain control over how and when they watch TV. "The rise of consumers' adoption of personal devices, home networking and broadband, combined with the increasing importance of the Internet in media, retail, banking and healthcare, means that every consumer-facing industry must better understand the intricacies of technology adoption and use," says Forrester Research Vice President Ted Schadler.

AMR Says RFID Budgets to Average $548K in 2005

In an assessment of the RFID market from 2005 to 2007, AMR Research finds 69 percent of 500 respondents plan to evaluate, pilot or implement RFID in 2005 with the average budget for RFID topping $548K and increasing to $771K by 2007. Compliance remains the key driver for most respondents. Also, AMR's survey results reveal that RFID market technology leadership is wide open, with no one vendor taking the lead just yet. "RFID is still in its formative years," says Dennis Gaughan, research director, AMR Research. "The market will be hotly contested across all technology segments from tags and readers through middleware and enterprise applications."

Coors Kicks Off Football Season with NFL Package

The official NFL beer sponsor, Coors Light, is introducing a series of new football cans, bottles, kegs and coolers that give consumers new ways to enjoy the cold refreshment, plus a chance to win NFL prizes. "With new packaging and promotions that run from NFL Kickoff in August all the way to Super Bowl XL in February, Coors Light will deliver cold refreshment and unique NFL opportunities to our consumers for more than six months," says Jim Sabia, vice president of Marketing for Coors Brewing Company. New NFL packaging includes: Coors Light NFL 18-pack plastic bottle cooler box with football-themed bottles (pictured); Coors Light five-liter Commemorative NFL Kickoff Mini Keg; Coors Light Commemorative NFL Kickoff Can; and a Coors Commemorative Monday Night Football Can.

What business challenge does category management technology address at your organization?

"Category management technologies are particularly useful in accumulating relevant consumer, customer, market and category information, and converting it into thoughtful analytics that directly support the four P's of category management:  Product, Pricing, Promotion and Positioning," says Paul Shultz, managing VP - Consumer Business, Hitachi Consulting. "Notably absent was Pricing, an area where some forward thinking CPG's are focusing technology resources to improve the analytics and science of Pricing. As well, collaboration via category management technologies can motivate the enterprise to devote greater attention to creating remarkable' differentiators in the eyes of their most important retail customers."