Trade Fund Spending
10/24/2007
Consumer goods (CG) manufacturers spend millions of dollars on marketing, with a large portion of that going to trade funds. It is generally accepted that on average, 20 percent of revenues go to trade funds, and unfortunately, most companies do not have a good handle on their return for that investment. Oftentimes, companies run the same promotions year after year without understanding success or failure for individual programs. This is one area where technology could absolutely help in tracking those dollars and analyzing profitability and effectiveness of spend, but the majority or companies, particularly SMB firms, run trade programs with spreadsheets.