Excel is all-prevailing. A 2022 survey by Microbizmag estimates that Microsoft Productivity Services, which includes Excel, are used by 1.1 billion people on the planet. That’s approximately 1 in every 8 people alive. Launched in 1985, Excel is still the ultimate number-crunching tool today, with little competition. Capture data, mix-and-match, collaborate with colleagues on complex issues – Excel does it all.
But there’s another part to it
People do face some problems using Excel. It is tedious to delve into the seemingly never-ending maze of rows and columns, day in and day out. Many have to make do with that, but for Brand Managers, things can be simplified.
There are solutions in the market that can help ease the daily operations of Brand Managers who use Excel to explore data and arrive at decisions. The proposal here is a data exploration platform that allows Brand Managers to mitigate Excel’s shortcomings, without having to completely revolutionize the way they work currently.
Let’s approach this on an assumption that a Brand Manager is interested in such a tool, and naturally has certain expectations of it. Can the tool fulfill these expectations?
After speaking with many Brand Managers..
From top firms like Unilever, Abbott, SC Johnson, Asian Paints, and many others, we found the following 4 common expectations that Brand Managers have from such a data exploration platform if they are to consider using it:
1 – Brand Managers want data exploration on integrated datasets
The planning and strategizing components are strenuous enough, in addition to the many other responsibilities BMs shoulder. They don’t need another tool to come in and create a mess; if they do go for a tool, it ought to simplify their routine activities.
Solution – A method of simplifying data exploration that tools like Explorazor offer is the integration of multiple data sources under a single roof. Brand Managers would then no longer have to scour through multiple Excel sheets to find a singular piece of data. Simply hop on a platform that unifies all datasets, and extract the desired responses from it.
2 – Brand Managers want the data exploration tool to respond quickly
A fair question that BMs would ask now is ‘How long will it take me to extract the right data points to obtain a response?’
The basis for such a question is that Excel typically hosts enormous volumes of data, and the whole process from data uploading to insights extraction is very slow.
Solution – Explorazor’s simple search function yields real-time responses. Ask for any specific data cut simply by posing a question to the system, and a relevant chart/graph/table is readily presented. Since the whole dataset is integrated, one is already at the right place – there is no need to spend time finding the right sheet.
One can download these data cuts as CSV files too if needed
3 – Brand Managers want pivot tables
Not much needs to be said regarding pivot’s importance, and it’s perfectly safe to say that no tool would be worth its value if it doesn’t support pivots.
Solution –Create pivots on Explorazor by simply mentioning the column names you want a pivot on. Additionally, Explorazor’s pivot feature empowers Brand Managers to obtain cross-sectional data tables by using metrics from multiple data sources at a time.
4 – Brand Managers want a data exploration tool! (hidden expectation)
Brand Managers are incredibly busy, resourceful individuals who would love to have technology ease their daily tasks.
Solution – Explorazor does not require a radical shift in the current working method of Brand Managers. It is just a unifying platform that brings together diverse data and analytics that drive value for an organization and seeks to simplify a Brand Manager’s data exploration journey as well.
Let’s Connect
Why not take some time to see Explorazor in action yourself?
The aim of this blog is to help readers understand and appreciate the various challenges that Brand Managers in the FMCG industry tackle on a daily basis when marketing and/or selling FMCG products. Let’s start with a quick introduction, followed by a swift overview of the challenges:
Investopedia defines FMCG as follows: “Fast-moving consumer goods are products that sell quickly at relatively low cost. These goods are also called consumer packaged goods. FMCGs have a short shelf life because of – High consumer demand (e.g., soft drinks and confections) or – Because they are perishable (e.g., meat, dairy products, and baked goods) These goods are purchased frequently, consumed rapidly, priced low, and sold in large quantities. They also have a high turnover when they’re on the shelf at the store.”
6 Common Challenges Brand Managers Face When Marketing and/or Selling FMCG Branded Products
How to Create Brand Architecture and Establish Brand Awareness
Brand awareness choices are hard, and each carries its own pros and cons. An example of an initial decision to be made is to either go for an umbrella branding (think LG) or brand each product separately. The Brand Architecture (the science of how brands and sub-brands in a company’s portfolio are related to each other) of P&G pits Tide and Ariel against each other in the market, while both are in-house brands. The advantage of umbrella branding is that the brand credibility overflows from one product to the other – if you trust an LG refrigerator, why not go for an LG air conditioner. The con applies in the same way; if you didn’t like the fridge, you’ll wave the AC goodbye as well.
Branding each product separately involves more capital raising each brand off the ground. There is no parent brand to fire them up and boost their brand reputation. However, one is open to exploring new target markets and experimenting with the price range – there is no need to stick to any previous approach since the connection between the brand and the parent company is not established in the minds of the masses.
The challenges go much, much deeper than this, and there are many other ways to create a brand architecture, but we hope you got an overview of the tough Brand Architecture choice that Brand Managers make even before proceeding with multi-channel online and offline promotion for Brand Awareness.
How to Establish Reach
Reach simply means if the product is available everywhere, at all times. Building great brands has to be complemented with a robust logistical infrastructure if the product is to contribute significantly to company revenue consistently.
Brand Managers work on huge datasets, conducting complex data analysis to set up the distribution flow while managing costs, and optimizing them wherever possible. A BM in a food-producing company will look at
The total number of warehouses
The total area of each warehouse
The number of trucks available to carry the goods to the destination
The holding capacity of each truck and its expected fuel usage
The wages of the drivers and the cost of fuel
Truck maintenance cost
Other factors such as optimal routes and seasonality also come into play. Bear in mind that most of these calculations are derived through exhaustive data exploration; only some are readily available
Once the numerical values are achieved, Brand Managers proceed to identify cost and process inefficiencies and look at ways to plug them.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States of America, underlining the importance of reach, once said, “You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.”
3. How to Manage Price
Pricing is a sensitive issue. Underprice, and bottom lines go for a toss. Set too high a margin for the product, and you won’t be able to penetrate into new markets or sustain in the existing ones.
Pricing in FMCG depends on multiple factors, some of which are explained:
a) The demand for the product in the market and the customer’s willingness to pay for a particular product. The demand/willingness-to-pay price curve helps locate the optimal price peak w.r.t to quantity and w.r.t revenue generation as well. The customer’s willingness to pay is usually based on the price perception a customer has of the product
b) Existing market price – that of competition. This is one of the safest approaches to take when launching a new product in the market, for obvious reasons
c) The approach of the company also plays a part. Apple uses a price skimming strategy where it initially charges high but adopts lower prices as competition, say Samsung Galaxy, begins to enter the market. Conversely, we see streaming platforms adopt a price penetration strategy in the Indian market over the past few years, where they charged super-low prices for a wide library of content, and built upwards from there.
d) Managing price across channels is yet another challenge for Brand Managers today. The same product competes against different competitors on different channels, with customer behavior and expectation varying channel-wise too. Determining channel markups and avoiding price conflicts are subject to deep data analysis and exploration.
4. How to Manage Customer Experience and Promotional Strategies across Channels
Just like pricing, channel-wise CX and strategy management are heavily impacted by channels. Retail stores offer a completely different experience to the same customer as compared to a D-Mart or Reliance Smart. Smart cross-channel strategies are important to create a consistent brand experience for the customer, no matter where s/he chooses to interact with the product. Brand Managers create a budget and undertake a marketing campaign covering social media, website, paid ads, and more. It’s the whole marketing exercise that Brand Managers are responsible for.
Such cross-channel strategies go beyond simple brand awareness and product value communication; there are multiple upselling and cross-selling opportunities that need to be exploited.
5. How to Manage Product Life Cycle
Product Life Cycle is understood as the series of stages that a product goes through, right from being introduced to the consumer till it is discontinued. These stages are broadly classified as Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. Various models such as the Product Life Cycle curve and the BCG Matrix Model are used for product planning and control. Especially in FMCG where products are sold quickly and at lower costs, with limited and continuous distribution, is it very important to understand the stage at which the product lies in its life cycle, and devise a value-creation model for consumers that simultaneously generates revenue for the brand/s.
6. How (and whether) to Diversify Existing Brands
Capsule Case Study: In 2001, ITC found itself in a precarious position when the Government of India introduced stringent measures to curb the usage of cigarettes among the masses. This included the prohibition of the sale of tobacco products to individuals below 18 years and a ban on media advertising. Even surrogate advertising was banned. To diversify from cigarettes, ITC invested a whopping Rs. 5 billion in non-tobacco-related businesses in 2001, including Branded Packaged Food, Greeting Cards & Gifts, and Lifestyle Retailing.
A point to note is that ITC’s diversification strategies were operational since the 1970s, and the events in 2001 proved to be an immediate catalyst for ITC’s diversification approach. As the case stands, ITC’s revenue in Q1 2023 in the non-cigarette FMCG segment was Rs. 4,458.71 crore, a sharp rise from Rs. 3,731.40 crores just a year ago.
Brand Managers play an instrumental role in such change management strategies. This comes from exhaustive data exploration, analyses, hypotheses testing, and an understanding of ground-level realities. From primarily cigarettes to juice, biscuits, noodles and what-have-you, Brand Managers at ITC made sure that diversification strategies led ITC to not just survive, but thrive against many odds.
Conclusion
There are many other challenges faced by Brand Managers, like managing seasonal demands, improving the efficiency of marketing activities, handling Target Audience lifecycle, looking for ways to spread beyond original Target Groups, and more. Each of these activities demands that Brand Managers have a pragmatic outlook and well-honed data analytical skills.
We at Explorazor are making the lives of Brand Managers easy by allowing them to obtain one-stop access to their data. On Explorazor, Brand Managers can work on an integrated and standardized dataset that helps extract data cuts in seconds, allowing hypotheses testing at a much faster rate than what BMs are currently accustomed to. The time spent switching between tabs, sheets, and pivots is effectively eliminated, laptops process data much faster, and what’s more, everything is downloadable as CSV for further analysis. There are many other advantages for Brand Managers and Insights teams as well.
The relationship between Brand Managers and data analysis is a two-way street. The abundance of incoming and present data necessitates the use of software, mostly Excel, to make important decisions backed by data. And it does yield benefits – Excel holds multiple datasets that can be exhaustively explored. Multiple datasets can be put together in a single file for analysis.
On the other end, though, there are some aspects of Excel we all prefer not to deal with. It can prove to be cumbersome, for one. As a former Brand Manager at P&G told us, “It’s great, but slow”. And not just him, almost every Brand Manager we interviewed from voiced the same sentiment.
To summarize quickly
Excel is great for many reasons – conducting data analysis, making educated decisions, etc
Excel can pose a number of issues for Brand Managers, such as being time-consuming and overly manual
Moving away from Excel? No.
Even contemplating a move to a tool other than Excel seems impossible. And we’re not proposing that either. However, is it possible that there is a way to avoid the disadvantages of Excel while retaining its benefits? If such a solution does exist, what does it look like? Will that solution come with its own set of cons that would have to be dealt with?
To even consider these questions, one must be open to the idea of exploring other options. If you have browsed through a few of Harvard Business Review’s articles on change and change management, you would be well aware that resistance to change is one of the biggest impediments to executing a successful change strategy.
Now while HBR’s articles talk about change on a grand, org-level, it is equally applicable to every single activity within the overarching strategy blueprint. So before we even begin to speak about using anything other than Excel for data analysis, we must be open to the idea of it.
Circling back to the topic,
Is there an easier way for Brand Managers to conduct data exploration and analysis, without leaving Excel entirely?
Yes, and it involves moving away partly from Excel onto a much simpler platform that retains Excel’s advantages, eliminates its drawbacks, and remains in sync with Excel throughout.
Let’s understand the BI platform in question, Explorazor, through the benefits and value additions it provides Brand Managers who currently use Excel for data exploration:
One-view access to the data – Brand Managers deal with fragmented data on Excel. The data is spread so vast, it’s tiring to know where to look at. What Explorazor does is marry all internal and external data sources and create a single-view screen for Brand Managers
Obtaining data cuts easily – On the integrated data platform, Brand Managers can obtain specific, cross-sectional data cuts. Where Excel requires to-and-fro between various data sets, Explorazor will give Brand Managers, say data cuts on market share, primary sales, distribution sales, sales by zone/states/brand, etc. in an instant, simply by keywords insertion
Potential for deeper exploration – On Explorazor, a query is responded to within seconds, so BMs are encouraged to ask more questions and conduct deeper data exploration and analyses. One is inclined to create and test out more hypotheses than before, leading to a better understanding of where issues lie and how they can be fixed
What’s more, Explorazor can be used to create pivot tables, and everything on Explorazor is downloadable as Excel files, so should you want to take a particular data table to Excel for further analysis, you can do so.
What does the process look like?
The Explorazor adoption process looks like this
The company datasets would be collated, remodeled/structured and uploaded onto Explorazor
A few hours of training will be undertaken by Brand Managers to understand how to query the system and extract insights optimally
Brand Managers start exploring data on Explorazor
Ready to start your data exploration journey with Explorazor?
We’re not here to undermine Microsoft Excel. In so many ways, Excel is the central nervous system of businesses. But there’s no harm in exploring tools that complement Excel, either.
