The Consumer

Packaged Goods
Industry in a Pandemic
7 Ways brands can adapt, overcome, and win.
 “ Understanding that transformation
is not an ideas problem, but a
resource allocations problem is key
to being successful at it.”

The impact of COVID-19 on the CPG industry

especially in the retail end is expected to continue
producing winners and losers across the industry
for some time to come.

90% of experts expect this disruption to last up to 5 years before

any semblance of normality returns.

The real dilemma then is in knowing what kind of

transformation to drive, which part of the business
to transform, when, and how to initiate this
transformation.

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; We identified some of the key areas where CPG
It is to act in yesterday’s logic ~ Peter Drucker businesses can safely start the transformation
journey.
1. Knowing who they are, what they do, their spending habits
and patterns increases the likelihood of earning and
retaining their loyalty and upselling them

Invest in knowing
A robust KYC dataset can be mined for insight, repeatedly
used to inform design, developing promotions, improve
brand communications, and all kinds of forecasts.
your customer (KYC) Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry
solved this problem light years ago.
 2.

Explore Online
Distribution
Channels
(E-commerce)
The online channel guarantees an infinite share of shelve, and
with great ratings, it holds an uncapped potential for growth.
Repeat purchase is 22% more likely with
consecutive digital shops.
- Jess Smith ( Strategy Dir. at Grey London)
3.

Leverage data
locked in Customer
Loyalty programs.
No point in
giving all
customers the
10% of customers spend almost 3 times more per
transaction than the lower 90% of customers.
same offers
when not all of
them will
deliver the
same return.
 4.

Embrace Technology
and Data Analytics Embracing technology has helped numerous CPG
businesses cut waste, reduce Operational Expenses
(OPEX ), improve visibility, accountability, and provide
the insight needed for informed management decision
making.
PAST: What Happened?
Reactive reporting

PRESENT: What is Happening?

KPI’s , ROI Concepts & Streaming analytics

FUTURE: What will Happen?

Predict based on trends and external data

“Recent research by McKinsey and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that companies that inject big data and analytics into their operations outperform their peers by 5% in productivity
and 6% in profitability,” - Breuer
5.

Move towards
Just In Time (JIT)
manufacturing model

“The ability to manufacture ‘just enough’ stock to cover

orders and deliver ‘just enough’ product to every retailer is
the optimal supply chain scenario in the Fast-Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry.”— Andrew Dawson
6.

Pivoting to high
demand products
Retailers are upgrading their product assortments to meet consumer's emerging needs. CPG companies should
follow suit. Allocate limited resource to high yield, high turnover products.
7. Recalibrate your
Route to Market
Strategy

Asia and Africa host almost two-thirds of the world’s rural

population, 2.2 billion inhabitants

Explore the opportunities to win at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP).

Strive to understand consumer clusters better especially the unexplored.

How can flanking (same product sold in different volumes and/or packaging) help deepen
penetrations?

Could multi-branding and brand extensions drive new consumption?

 The Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) industry as we
know it is going through an unprecedented
transformation both on the consumer side and on
the supply chain side, a situation that was forced on
us by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Historically, a situation like this produces its winners

and losers. However, we exist in interesting times
where we now have access to an ever-increasing
pool of resources especially technologies that are
advantageous for getting through these times.

“Our real discoveries come from chaos,

from going to the place that looks wrong
and stupid and foolish.”

Chuck Palahniuk the veteran American novelist in his book

‘The Invisible Monster’,
The Author:
Godson Nkeokelonye is a solutions architect and
current Director of Business development at
Excite Panacea with close to 10 years’ experience
managing technology implementation for
emerging market business especially in the CPG
industry.

Twitter: @godsonmadu

Mail: nkeokelonyegodson[at]gmail.com

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