Tag: brand managers

3 Data-Related Challenges Brand Managers Face and How to Solve Them

by adminin Brand Manager, data analysis, data cuts, Data Exploration, data-related challenge, Excel, Explorazor, pivot

Tell us a better love story than Brand Managers and data.

Brand Managers possess some of the strongest number-crunching skills in the industry. Everything’s solved and managed in Excel; sales, logistics, marketing; development, execution, evaluation. Operations and decisions are dependent purely on data, and these invite data-related challenges as well.

Let’s look at 3 data-related challenges Brand Managers face, and the possible solution to each:

Data-Related Challenge 1 – Data Fragmentation

The swiftness of strategic decisions suffers the most when data is fragmented across files and sheets. The data currently residing in Excel is stored under different column headers and cannot be combined. Internal and external data reside separately, and pivots have to be repetitively extracted from each individual dataset to move further with the analysis.

Fragmented, unsynchronized datasets also affect the quality of insights derived. One reason we can think of is the sheer (and avoidable, as you will see in the solution) manual effort BMs put in, in bringing the data at one place to perform analysis on it.

Solution

We have a tailored method to organize your data. Explorazor by vPhrase Analytics is a data exploration platform built specifically for Brand Managers to query their data better and extract instant data cuts from it. What Explorazor does is combine all the datasets currently residing in Excel, and provide unified, single-view access for Brand Managers to explore. Examples of such datasets would be primary sales, secondary sales, Kantar, IQVIA, and more. 

Explorazor relieves Brand Managers from having to constantly switch between files and sheets to find relevant data cuts. Correlating reasons for market loss, estimating the right media budget spend, gauging discounting effectiveness, finding best-performing regions, etc. become much easier. We imagine that a seamless experience will encourage Brand Managers to explore further and deeper into event root causes, key focus areas, and other ad-hoc analyses.

Data-Related Challenge 2 – Data Standardization

Metric definition is the first hurdle in the data standardization process. What Nielsen defines as an Urban area and a Rural area and what internal company definitions for the same terms are, are mostly dissimilar. Information capturing done by field sales personnel contains numerous kinds of errors. The spellings are different, the name of a state is mentioned in a shorter form, capitalization issues, etc etc. 

Raw data standardization is a necessary prerequisite for efficient data analysis, and right now it is a task that Brand Managers would love to sweep off their table.

Solution

Our team at Explorazor ensures that all your data is modeled and standardized so data analysis can be conducted without having to worry about missing data points.

Redundant, duplicate, inaccurate, and irrelevant data is expelled, leaving a de-cluttered dataset that serves as a base for higher-quality analysis and insights extraction.

A clean dataset is also helpful when creating routine dashboards and presentations for senior management.     

Data-Related Challenge 3 – Large (and Clumsy) Data Dumps

The data dumps that Brand Managers work on are too large – Excel cannot output results fast on our laptops, as one would like. Loading – and ensuring that the data is saved – takes excessive time. An abundance of formula insertion slows the workbook down. 

Thinking about quick pivots? Think again. Then again, and then again, because your laptop is slow and you have lots of time on your hands…

Solution

Loading huge Excel files is no joke. To create pivots, and to create them now, is one of the prime reasons we believe a solution like Explorazor will go a long way in assisting Brand Managers save time. All data resides on servers and is accessible via a browser, so laptops breathe freely again. Brand Managers, using a simple search interface on Explorazor, can conduct ad-hoc analysis and test out hypotheses at accelerated speeds. 

If you want to take the pivots to Excel – permission granted. All pivots are downloadable as CSV files. Convert pivots into charts using simple customization options and pin them to pinboards. Each project within Explorazor allows its separate pinboard creation.

Explorazor is built for Brand Managers

Explorazor alleviates data-related challenges which Brand Managers face, as well as: 

  • Saves their time by taking the processing load off their laptops
  • Eases their data exploration journey by providing unified access to all their datasets
  • Enhances the quality of their insights by standardizing all current and incoming data
  • Increases their independence by letting them conduct ad-hoc analyses on their own, without over-reliance on BI/Insights teams 

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Modeling Basic FMCG KPIs in Excel

by adminin Brand Managers, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor, FMCG

This blog will introduce you to how Brand Managers model basic FMCG KPIs in Excel.

There are a lot of articles that touch upon the life of a Brand Manager and the various responsibilities they shoulder. Here we will put a microscope on just one of the numerous calculations that Brand Managers undertake, and learn how they find business improvement areas through data analysis.

If you are a Brand Manager, we recommend you skip to the end of this blog to ‘Basic FMCG Modeling Made Easy’ or read ‘Complementing Excel – How Brand Managers can Simplify Data Exploration and Analysis’.

Let us understand how to obtain Gross Margin, Net Margin, and Operational Profit. Arriving at these numbers helps Brand Managers analyze where they are losing their margin – is it at the production level, is it the cost of sales and marketing, or is it the head office costs? Brand Managers thus have a sense of direction to initiate further data exploration and make optimal, data-driven decisions.

Let’s begin:

Part 1 – Obtaining Net Margin

  1. Unit Gross Margin 

Unit Gross Margin Depends on two things – 

  1. The average price we are getting from the middlemen, or if we are directly selling to the customers, from them 
  2. Subtracting the unit production cost from this average price 

So Unit Gross Margin = Avg product price (say Rs. 70) minus its production cost (say Rs. 40) = Rs. 30

Note: The unit production cost is again dependent on two things – 

a. The total fixed cost divided by the total quantity produced, plus 

b. The unit variable cost

There are further sub-calculations in each component. For example, Total Fixed Cost (FC) includes salaries to be paid, which is typically generated as: taking the number of full-time employees or full-time equivalents (FTE), setting an average salary per FTE, and assuming some social securities as a percentage of the salary. The salary excludes the bonus earned by the employee.

  1. Gross Margin 

Once we have the unit gross margin and the total number of products sold, we get the Gross Margin easily enough.

Gross Margin = Unit Gross Margin x Total Products Sold

The Gross Margin will be calculated for various channels we are selling through, and a year-on-year, or month-on-month record will be maintained too.

As you can see, such calculations require Brand Managers to be detail-oriented, organized, knowledgeable and possess a deft hand at Excel.  

  1. Sales and Marketing Costs 

Obtaining the Gross Margin has covered the Production Cost. We have yet to factor in the sales and marketing costs, so let’s do that. Sales and marketing costs depend on the size of a brand’s market share. A bigger market share means we are selling more, which means that the costs attached to sales and marketing per unit is lesser. 

Marketing elements would include –

  • Social Media
  • TV ads (computed as the number of campaigns multiplied by the cost of 1 campaign)
  • Outdoor campaigns
  • Loyalty programs
  • Market research
  • Mailing

Components of cost of sales would be –

  • Salaries
  • External services (cars, phones, fuel, etc)
  • Materials & Energy
  • Other related services

These would be calculated for both retail chains where we supply directly as well as for the traditional stores that we reach via wholesalers.

  1. Net Margin

Part 2 – Obtaining Operational Profit

Deducting Head Office costs from the Net Margin gives us the Operational Profit. Head Office costs include –

  • Salaries
  • Material and Utilities
  • Maintenance
  • Rent (for offices and warehouses)
  • Depreciation and amortization of assets

Part 3 – Zooming Out

Converting all numbers into percentages for easier visual view, the final output would be like this:

Basic FMCG Modeling Made Easy

The above KPI modeling and profit calculation require a Brand Manager to continuously switch between multiple tabs and insert various formulae to get the figures. The same process can be augmented through Explorazor, our data exploration tool. 

Explorazor combines and hosts all datasets, for example, market research, internal sales, Nielsen data, etc. in an integrated manner. Brand Managers thus obtain a single view of the entire dataset. From there, they can extract data cuts instantly through a simple search function of using column names as keywords.  

Explorazor also allows 

  • Visualizing pivots as charts
  • Pinning the charts to a pinboard, and 
  • Downloading them as CSV files

Moreover, all data resides on servers and is accessible via a browser. Laptops are thus relieved from the burden of processing huge datasets. Brand Managers are further liberated when their reliance on BI teams is reduced. The acceleration of ad-hoc exploration is experienced immediately with Explorazor.

Explorazor is built for large enterprises, with single sign-on, row and column level security, data encryption, and on-cloud and on-premise availability.

Do you want to see other features added to Explorazor? Write to us at sales@vphrase.com. If you want to see the product in action, take an interactive Product Tour.

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4 Common Expectations that Brand Managers Have from A Data Exploration Tool

by adminin Brand Managers, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor, pivot

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? 

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6 Challenges Faced by Brand Managers when Marketing and Selling FMCG Products

by adminin Brand Managers, Explorazor, FMCG

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

  1. 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. 

  1. 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 

  1. The total number of warehouses
  2. The total area of each warehouse 
  3. The number of trucks available to carry the goods to the destination
  4. The holding capacity of each truck and its expected fuel usage
  5. The wages of the drivers and the cost of fuel 
  6. Truck maintenance cost 
  7. 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.

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