Webinar recap
Hosted by: Prevedere & Twelve Consulting Group
The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry is a dynamic landscape constantly evolving with consumer preferences, economic fluctuations, and market disruptions. Staying ahead of these trends and planning accurately for the future is crucial for sustained growth. The "Achieving Growth in CPG Webinar," hosted by Prevedere and Twelve Consulting Group, offered valuable insights into how advanced predictive planning technology and macroeconomic intelligence can empower CPG companies to navigate these challenges and optimize their planning processes.
This blog post recaps the key takeaways from the webinar and demonstrates how leveraging these tools can transform CPG planning and forecasting.
Revolutionizing CPG Planning with Predictive Power
Prevedere, a leading force in predictive planning technology, was introduced in the webinar. It goes beyond traditional forecasting by incorporating macroeconomic insights to drive business outlooks. The platform excels at identifying key factors impacting business forecasts, proving invaluable for CPG companies. The webinar showcased its capabilities through the lens of a beverage company. Prevedere's technology pinpointed leading indicators that drive the food and beverage (F&B) industry as a whole, allowing for both category-level and product-specific analysis.
Understanding the Headwinds: A Case for Food & Beverage
The webinar presented a compelling case study on the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry. It revealed that total consumption faces several headwinds, influenced by variables like housing starts (3-month lead time) and consumer sentiment (3-5 month lead). These insights underscore the industry's challenges, including budget cuts and slow housing starts. Additionally, the session highlighted the impact of the 30-year breakeven inflation rate on F&B consumption, further emphasizing the complex factors CPG companies must consider.
Avoiding Planning Pitfalls: Lessons from the Trenches
The webinar emphasized the importance of avoiding common planning pitfalls. Industry expert, Blake Gauer, shared valuable insights into challenges faced by beverage companies, such as navigating complex US regulations and the intricate 3-tiered distribution model.
By optimizing planning processes and embracing a connected planning approach, companies can achieve significant operational efficiencies and improve forecast accuracy.
The Power of External Data: Integrating the Bigger Picture
A critical takeaway from the webinar was the need to integrate external macroeconomic data with internal forecasting practices. Prevedere's AI-powered platform bridges this gap by augmenting traditional forecasting with economic models based on external factors. This approach helps companies identify and quantify the impact of external forces on their business, offering a more comprehensive view of future trends.
Transforming Insights into Action: The Competitive Edge
The discussion delved into how companies can leverage these insights to gain a competitive advantage. By understanding econometric trends and incorporating them into strategic planning, CPG companies can achieve several benefits:
Improved Forecast Accuracy: Data-driven insights refine forecasts, leading to more accurate predictions.
Enhanced Inventory Management: Better forecasting enables companies to optimize inventory levels, reducing carrying costs and stockouts.
Informed Decision-Making: Macroeconomic understanding empowers CPG companies to make proactive decisions when navigating market shifts.
Demonstrating the Power of Integration: Prevedere + Anaplan
The live demonstration showcased the power of integrating Prevedere's insights with Anaplan for demand planning. This practical example illustrated how combining total market data with company-specific data can inform a more accurate and comprehensive planning process.
By identifying external factors and integrating them into planning tools like Anaplan and PlanIQ, companies can significantly enhance their forecasting and planning capabilities.
Demo Overview:
Here is a step-by-step example outlined in the webinar to forecast demand for a fictitious company called Crafty Cocktails:
Start with broad data: Begin by looking at total alcoholic beverage mixers sold across the United States.
Identify leading indicators: Prevedere can identify external factors that influence these sales using millions of data sets.
Account for seasonality: Prevedere can remove seasonality from the data to reveal underlying trends.
Build a model: Prevedere uses a workbench to create a model that incorporates the most relevant external factors.
Forecast future trends: The model can then be used to forecast future sales based on the identified trends.
Compare with internal data: Integrate the Prevedere forecast with your internal data in Anaplan for a more comprehensive view.
Disaggregate the forecast: You can use PlanIQ to get a more granular forecast at the product and region level.
Use your judgment: Combine the Prevedere forecast with your own business knowledge to create a final demand plan.
By following these steps and using a combination of Prevedere, Anaplan, and PlanIQ, CPG to can gain a more accurate understanding of future demand and make better planning decisions.
Conclusion: A Data-Driven Future for CPG
The "Achieving Growth in CPG Webinar" underscored the importance of predictive planning and macroeconomic insights in navigating the complex landscape of the CPG industry. By leveraging technologies like Prevedere and integrating external data into planning processes, companies can overcome industry headwinds, avoid common pitfalls, and position themselves for sustained growth.
As the CPG industry continues to face volatility, adopting a data-driven approach to planning and forecasting will be key to achieving competitive advantage and operational excellence.