Digital: The Cornerstone Of Modern Pricing
By Srini Rajamani, Wipro Ltd.
Pricing products can be challenging in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Mitigating pricing enables retailers to maximize profits, but that may not always be the goal. This is especially true in a world where retailers and CPG companies depend on each other to find and exploit “win-win” business opportunities out of competitive necessity.
A real-life example serves to appreciate competitive necessities. Retailers are aware that their limited shelf space is the most precious real estate. Retailers want to stock their shelves with products that yield the highest margins. Inversely, CPG companies may want to build higher sales volumes to build brand loyalty or quickly rotate their inventory to prepare for new products. Retailers and their CPG partners need to find a balance between these diverse needs.
A digital world changes this balance. It is a world of endless retail aisles. This provides online platforms that aggregate CPG products the freedom to let the CPG partner determine pricing directly.
Amidst this, one factor remains constant for large and small players alike: regardless of their sales strategy or business goals, they need to use customer data to arrive at better pricing decisions. A U.S.-based leader in the proprietary coffee machines and coffee pods segment is revolutionizing how CPG companies are using data for pricing products and improving relations with retail partners. Every coffee machine generates data, helping the company develop customer profiles, understand product usage patterns and track changes in taste and brewing styles. These insights provide accurate guidance in pricing services and products. The information is shared with retail partners who can use the information to improve sales. It is a win-win situation for the manufacturer and its retail partners.
Today, it has become easier to identify, acquire and connect transactional and behavioral data. Chances are the data is already being used by sales and marketing teams to drive customer engagement. In reality, the data can also be used to derive better pricing decisions in conjunction with pricing models and frameworks.
The ability of large CPG companies to act with the down-to-earth sensibilities of a corner store is possible when data and analytics are moved to the center of operations. Data and analytics allow large companies to provide direct-to-consumer promotions over mobile devices, making the interaction warm, personal and immediate. This is more easily said than done, especially in tradition-bound CPG companies that have honed their pricing based on sourcing, manufacturing efficiency, product demand, periodic surveys, customer feedback and market conditions.
The solution lies in making the case for senior executive sponsorship of data and analytics. When senior leadership appreciates, initiates and encourages the use of data and analytics, only then can it become the cornerstone of modern pricing.
Srini Rajamani is Vice President & Global Head for Consumer Packaged Goods Industries (CPG) at Wipro, with end-to-end P&L responsibility including Delivery, Sales, Solutions, and New Markets. This includes Food, Beverage, Retail Apparel & Footwear, Home and Personal Care, Agriculture, and Tobacco industries across all service lines in Wipro. Prior to taking over this role, Rajamani was responsible for incubating and growing some of Wipro’s largest accounts in the Financial Services space — including leading the P&L of one of Wipro’s largest banking accounts. He has presented in several industry forums on topics such as cognitive AI and its applicability in critical business functions, and has also presented at Wipro strategy events on new digital technologies and how it is transforming the service provider market.