CPG Marketing

Consumer packaged goods marketing is a dynamic and multifaceted discipline that revolves around the strategic promotion and distribution of everyday products, including food, beverages, household items, and personal care products. This specialised field is dedicated to understanding and influencing consumer behaviour, often employing a combination of market research, branding, advertising, and retail strategies to create compelling campaigns that resonate with target audiences.

In an ever-evolving marketplace characterized by fierce competition and shifting consumer preferences, effective consumer packaged goods marketing plays a pivotal role in driving brand awareness, fostering customer loyalty, and, ultimately, maximizing sales and market share for companies operating in this sector.

What are consumer packaged goods?

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are products households typically purchase and consume regularly, such as food, beverages, personal care products, and household cleaning products. The CPG industry is large and complex, with various products and brands competing for consumers’ attention and money.

The A-Z of consumer packaged goods marketing

As advancements in the channels and the sector arise, the CPG industry’s lexicon always evolves. Learn more about the important phrases used in the industry and what they mean.

Assortment: The variety of products offered by a brand or retailer.
Availability: The percentage of stores where a product is in stock.
Brand: A name, design, term, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct.
Category: A group of related products, such as beverages, snacks, or personal care products.
Channel: The distribution of a product or service to consumers occurs through various routes, including retail stores, e-commerce, or direct-to-consumer channels.
Consumer packaged goods (CPG): Goods typically purchased and consumed by households regularly, such as food, beverages, personal care products, and household cleaning products.
CPG (Consumer packaged goods) marketing: CPG marketing involves the promotion and sale of everyday products like food, beverages, and household items. It focuses on understanding consumer behaviour, creating effective advertising, and ensuring products reach the right audience. The goal is to build brand awareness and drive sales in a competitive market.
Cost of goods sold (COGS): The direct costs associated with producing or acquiring a product, such as the cost of raw materials, labour, and packaging.
Customer relationship management (CRM): A software businesses use to manage customer interactions.
Demand: The quantity of a product or service consumers can buy at a given price.
Distribution: The process of getting products from the manufacturer to the retailer.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC): A business model where a company sells its products directly to consumers without using retailers.
E-commerce: The sale of goods or services online.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP): A software system that businesses use manage their core business processes, such as accounting, manufacturing, and supply chain management.
Everyday low price (EDLP): A pricing strategy offering products at a consistently low price.
Freight: The cost of transporting goods from one location to another.
Front-end promotion: A promotion designed to attract customers to a store or website, such as a coupon or a sale.
Full-price equivalent (FPE): The average selling price of a product if it were not on promotion.
Gross margin: The difference between a product’s selling price and its cost of goods sold.
Growth: The increase in sales or market share over time.
High-low pricing: A pricing strategy where a product is offered at a high price for most of the year and then discounted for a short period.
Household penetration: The percentage of households that have purchased a particular product in a given period.
Inventory: The stock of goods that a company has on hand.
Invoice: A document sent to a customer by a seller listing the goods or services purchased and the amount due.
Just-in-time (JIT): A production strategy where a company only produces or acquires the goods it needs to meet current demand.
Key account manager: A salesperson responsible for managing a company’s largest and most important customers.
Lead time: The time it takes to produce or acquire a product and get it to the customer.
Loyalty program: A program that rewards customers for making repeat purchases.
Market share: The percentage of a market’s total sales that a particular company or brand holds.
Marketing mix: The combination of marketing strategies and tactics a company uses to promote and sell its products.
Merchandising: The process of selecting, displaying, and pricing products in a store or online.
Net promoter score (NPS): A metric that measures customer satisfaction and loyalty.
New product development (NPD): The process of developing new products to meet the needs of consumers.
On-time in full (OTIF): A measure of how often a company delivers products to its customers on time and in full.
Order fulfilment: The process of processing and shipping customer orders.
Packaging: The materials used to protect and contain products.
Point-of-sale (POS): The system used to process customer transactions at a store or online.
Pricing: The process of setting prices for products or services.
Promotion: A marketing activity designed to increase sales or brand awareness.
Quality: The level of excellence or worth of a product or service.
Retailer: A business that sells products to consumers.
Revenue: The total amount of money a company generates from sales.
Salesforce: A team of salespeople selling a company’s products or services.
Sales forecasting: The process of estimating future sales.
Shelf space: The amount of space given to a product on a store shelf.
Supply chain: The network of businesses producing and distributing a product.
Trade promotion: A promotion designed to increase sales to retailers.
Unit sales: The number of product units sold in a given period.
Vendor: A company that sells products or services to other businesses.
Wholesale: The sale of goods in large quantities to retailers.
X-factor: A term used to describe a product or service that is unique or distinctive in some way.
Yield: The percentage of raw materials converted into finished products.
Zero-based budgeting: A process where all expenses are justified each year instead of based on the previous year’s budget.

Potential of CPG marketing

The potential of Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) marketing is vast and dynamic, with opportunities for companies to maximize their reach and impact. Infosys BPM, a leading provider in CPG outsourcing, offers comprehensive solutions such as Master Data Management,Trade Promotions Management, Logistics Control Tower, and Advanced Analytics.

By prioritizing ESG principles, Infosys BPM further strengthens client practices, aiding in the reduction of environmental footprints, improvement of social performance, and enhancement of governance practices. Their tailored solutions have proven instrumental in achieving cost reduction, improved performance, and increased sales for companies within the CPG sector.