The sales and marketing organizations at consumer goods companies are facing an unprecedentedly challenging macro environment today.

• Margins are being squeezed due to rising commodity costs, coupled with pricing pressure resulting from a sluggish economy and increased competition
• Channel dynamics are shifting due to increased retailer power resulting from industry consolidation, coupled with an increase in private labeled products
• Consumer preferences are changing rapidly due to a plethora of choices and the increasing pace of introduction of niche products
• Marketing techniques are changing as traditional media effectiveness is eroded and being replaced by an explosion of new media options

Sales and marketing executives are responding to these issues by seeking to get the most leverage from their marketing and trade investments.   As a result, they are striving to create the right media mix for the most impact from their marketing dollars, implement trade spend strategies that deliver the best possible sales lift, and ensure right pricing strategies to maximize their revenue. Analysis of past results delivers clear insights and provides the starting point to forecast or optimize future plans.

However, a mountain of data from multiple sources makes it extremely challenging to use spreadsheets to manually perform this analysis.  In addition, with spreadsheet-based models it is extremely difficult to factor in side-effects such as cannibalization or incorporate a non-linear impact of marketing inputs on sales uplift.  M-Factor has solved this problem through its offerings based on an enterprise-class technology platform.  M-Factor’s solutions include:

• M4 Marketing Investment Management enables marketing teams to continually track and optimize marketing and in-store promotional investments.
• T4 Trade Spending Effectiveness helps sales executives and trade-focused brand managers reallocate trade spend to beat financial targets.
• P4 Portfolio Pricing Optimization allows marketing and sales managers to price strategically across regions, channels, and products in a changing world.