Delivering the Goods Technology Investments that Boost Consumer Packaged Goods' (CPG) Performance

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This Accenture Point of View explores three specific technology investments that can help consumer goods companies satisfy today’s discerning, demanding and always-connected consumer:

I. Building on advanced analytics to address all dimensions of data (quality, security, semantics, integration, etc.) so that data is viewed as a platform to improve market performance and increase enterprise operating efficiency.

II. Deepening digital marketing capabilities that provide faster, more cost effective ways for companies to provide differentiated, more personalized experiences to engage,

acquire and retain customers than traditional marketing channels.

III. Adopting more open, flexible enterprise architecture to more easily integrate innovations in consumer technology (e.g., mobile, social media) and enable more efficient multi-channel commerce to improve organization responsiveness and market impact.

These investments may require a new kind of collaboration among business executives, marketing and technology, a partnership forged from a shared understanding that the right technology investment can yield strategic advantage and help companies achieve a higher level of performance.

Having weathered the downturn by streamlining operations and reducing costs, most consumer goods companies are only too happy to shift their focus to growth strategies. This re-orientation includes a fresh look at how technology can enable sales and marketing capabilities that contribute to top-line growth. More specifically, companies are evaluating investments in consumer-facing and enterprise technology capabilities that can help them connect with, understand and provide what consumers need when and where they need it.

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I. Build on advanced data analytics and address all dimensions of data to improve market performance and enterprise operating efficiencyIt is a universal truth that data can be a consumer goods company’s most strategic asset. Indeed, the past decade saw many companies invest in data quality and analytic efforts focused on evaluating trade promotions, segmenting customers more narrowly, or dissecting aspects of functions such as inventory management or supply chains in order to identify the source of problems.

Yet, even the best ex post facto analysis by definition generates limited value for the enterprise. Accenture believes that companies need to extend these initial efforts to execute enterprise data management strategies as well as deepen analytic capability. A coherent data strategy that includes

cross-functional analytics will provide managers with one, integrated, secure, credible version of the truth, rather than fragmented scenarios. With that vision in hand, sophisticated modeling and extrapolations can help companies evolve from relying on descriptive analytics to figure out what happened and why, to more predictive analytics that generate insights that can both guide future growth strategies and avoid costly product or process experiments supported by "gut" instinct rather than data.

Indeed, Accenture’s research and client experience identified several benefits of moving up the analytic curve, the most salient of which is that companies that rely on data analysis outperform those who do not (see sidebar, The Analytics-High Performance Connection). How? Because they are better able to:

•Drive growth by identifying untapped opportunities in markets or consumer segments, and transforming processes such as new product development and marketing.

•Enhance cost and cash advantage by increasing balance sheet efficiency, better management of working capital, and higher returns on investment.

•Know what really works to improve operations through reengineering key processes to be more effective.

•Restructure the business at scale by higher impact M&A, divestitures, alliances and value chain restructuring.

•Manage risk by using more precise metrics and models to monitor changing business.

Accenture has helped diverse consumer-oriented companies capture the benefits of customer and marketing analytics.

•For a health and beauty manufacturer, a portfolio optimization analysis identified correlations between purchasing behavior and product attributes related to 150,000 SKUs. Through simulations and modeling, the company was able to rationalize products and eliminate more than 30,000 items, resulting in incremental sales gains as well as a far more simplified supply chain.

The Connection between Analytics and High Performance

Accenture’s research of high-performance businesses found that high performers—those companies that consistently outperform their competitors on a variety of dimensions across business cycles—are five times more likely to make extensive use of analytics than their lower-performing competitors. Not surprisingly, the importance of business analytics has spawned a healthy, data-centric industry all of its own, with analytic software posting with a compound annual growth rate topping 20 percent for the last four years.1

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Figure 1. Analytics framework and potential allocation of responsibilities

•A consumer electronics and entertainment chain used transaction analytics to study what customers bought after making a major product purchase in order to improve product assortment and in-store placement, create unique bundles and increase replenishment and in-stock levels. The result: customers were offered more of what they are likely to need upfront, decreasing returns.

•A world renowned theater group used customer segmentation and marketing analytics to devise a growth strategy focused on both deepening "core" customer attendance and broadening its overall reach. The results informed more targeted mailings and initiatives, ultimately increasing the company’s core audience base by 30 percent, and a critical customer segment by more than 50 percent.

Achieving growth is a primary concern, yet so too are operational efficiency, process excellence and cost control. In these areas also industrial-strength

analytic capability combined with a coherent enterprise data strategy proves a smart investment. For example, analytics conducted across multiple legacy data warehouses helped beverage leader Diageo identify and extract the most relevant data and expedite its use by executives, enabling faster, more informed decisions. Similarly, Unilever used analytics to identify the behaviors, methods and tools used by its best sales team members, then designed a capability development program around them—one that boosted sales within three months and improved morale among sales representatives.

Both these examples show the power of analytics to improve processes, whether in the hard-wired area of IT or less technical functions such as staff capability-building. Yet, despite top-line and operational benefits of using analytics, many companies face hurdles in deploying analytic capabilities. A fundamental challenge: many companies’ analytics capabilities are

stretched to the breaking point trying to handle masses of non-transactional data that actually feed enterprise insight. The "data explosion" ushered in with the YouTube and social media era has greatly expanded both the types and quantity of relevant data; one estimate is that business-related data doubles every 1.2 years. Thus, achieving enterprise-wide or cross-functional data analysis is just the beginning; companies will need to integrate that internal data with all types of external data—unstructured, visual, voice, geospatial—in order to gain the insights that will lead to competitive advantage. Such value creating data integration implies a data strategy that addresses data quality, security, semantics and governance issues. A solid analytics capability must take all these sources into account (see Figure 1), and allow companies to distill insights with enough granularity to make improvements at the function or process level.

External Data Integration

Business Functions(Sales, Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Finance, RQT)

Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics Tools

Consumer Insight

Customer Insight

Operational Insight

CompetitionInsightData Analysis

Services

Reporting and Analytics Services

Data Integration Services

Data Governance

Consumer Data

Syndicated Data

RetailData

Enterprise Consumer and Demand Data Repository

ShipmentData

Line depletion

Invoice

OperationalData

ERP

WMS

Legacy

BusinessWarehouseTransactional Data

Internal Data Integration

Loyalty Data

Segmentation

POS

Transaction Log

MRO

I

C28

TPO

Accenture Manufacturer Third Party TBD

IRI

Nielsen

Source: Accenture

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Can all this disparate data be harnessed and understood with emerging technology to result in improved performance? It can, as analytic-powered leading companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix show. Traditional consumer products companies, however, may face additional challenges; some will need to acquire and expand analytic and data strategy talent and capabilities. To do so, companies could consider:

•Augmenting internal and partner communications to emphasize that accurate, timely, consistent data is a strategic priority and a strategic asset. Many companies struggle to develop master data management approaches that reflect the complexity of today’s data landscape and, more important, ensure a consistently high level of data utility, as opposed to just management or quality.

• Identifying and integrating the analytic initiatives going on across the enterprise. Some clients we have assisted are surprised at the number of efforts underway that are not well integrated. This fragmentation can result in the company buying or accessing the same data (or subsets of it) multiple times—duplicating time and effort.

•Assessing options to acquire capability, including hiring personnel with more advanced analytics expertise, renting short-term from a third-party, or outsourcing to a trusted vendor many of which, including Accenture, offer industry- and function-specific tested analytic engines. Eli Lilly & Co. took the rental route to analyze large data sets related to a new drug. The bill for using Amazon’s EC2 platform: $89, compared to the estimated $1 billion cost of delaying the drug to get company servers up and running (estimated to require 6 to 8 weeks).2

However acquired, advanced analytics give executives insight into the dynamics of their business and how shifts could influence both enterprise and market performance so that they can make better decisions, faster. Indeed, some commentators see analytics as the driver of a third industrial revolution, increasing productivity in a way that railroads, electricity and internal combustion engines did previously.3 Revolutionary or evolutionary, it is clear that analytics is and will continue to be a major differentiator and value creator for companies in the consumer goods industry.

For further reading:Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, T. Davenport, J. Harris, and R. Morison (Harvard Business Press, 2010)

The analytics advantage, by B. Duganier and M.J. Salvino, Outlook, October 2010.

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II. Digital marketing allows companies to optimize both new and traditional marketing channels

“Think digital at the inception, not as an afterthought.”

- Alexis Nasard, Chief Commercial Officer, Heineken International

It could be a game played on a dedicated product website, a mobile e-coupon or recipe idea delivered to a smartphone when a consumer nears a retailer or product display, or a location-based sweepstakes facilitated by social media. Whatever the platform, there is no denying that digital channels have injected tremendous innovation and enhanced the impact of marketing in a few short years. Not surprisingly, global companies from AB InBev to Zappos have substantially increased their investments in digital marketing and assets even as budgets for traditional marketing initiatives have shrunk.

Yet, despite the hype and attention showered on innovative tactics, digital marketing should be judged on the same criteria companies use to evaluate traditional marketing channels: Does the spend justify the return? Has our market share or mindshare increased? How do we know? How many more consumers are converted or more motivated to buy as a result of our digital efforts? To answer these questions, companies first need clarity on the advantages of evolving their marketing mix to include digital, as well as the capabilities they need to support a productive digital effort.

The Digital Advantage: A Direct, Dynamic Relationship with ConsumersIn our experience, the market and operational benefits from digital marketing are real and accelerating, and frequently form the foundation of campaigns rather than an add-on. For example, Heineken launched a global effort online months before related advertising hit TVs. The Web videos at the core of the campaign debuted on YouTube and Facebook, introduced characters written to appeal to a younger digital consumer base, and allowed visitors to customize video clips.4 In general, digital marketing provides companies with a more flexible and efficient means to engage, acquire, retain and grow customers than many traditional channels. Significant advantages include:

•The ability to gather and deploy analytic insights to respond directly to consumers with personalized experiences

•More scientific and faster measurement of campaign impact

•Creation of more agile, yet cost effective marketing assets by re-using proven vehicles and approaches

• Increased speed of automation and standardization to support global marketing initiatives in real-time

•The ongoing innovation possible in the more dynamic digital marketplace

An end-to-end digital platform includes a broad range of capabilities, beginning with a full-scale digital strategy, and including underlying architecture application development, advanced media auditing and Web analytics (e.g., SEO), and robust data management capabilities (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Integrated Digital Marketing Capabilities

Digital Marketing Strategy and Management

WebDevelopment

iMediaSolutions(SEO/SEM/ Display)

Marketing & Retail Analytics

Industry & Economic Modeling

Application Management

Web Migration Services

Data Mgmt & Data Warehousing

Media Auditing

Intelligent Digital

SEO / SEM Agile Marketing Analytics

Portfolio Optimization

Partnerships (e.g., comScore)

Agile Intelligent Marketing

Source: Accenture

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With these in place, companies are able target and engage consumers in a fundamentally different way—continuously, dynamically and directly. Company-sponsored websites, brand or product fan pages on social networks, and mobile communications can all launch and sustain dialogues with consumers, generating data and gathering insights continuously not just offering information passively. Insights can be gleaned directly from a digital platform such as online focus groups for example, or by detecting latent consumer demand by synthesizing transactional data and consumer information gleaned from "SoMoLo" (social/mobile/local) digital channels with advanced Web analytics. Companies are able to develop a concrete picture of the digital consumer and interact with each in a more personal way rather than rely on more general segmentation.

Many companies are combining truly digital components—not just digital versions of traditional campaigns or collateral—to deliver a multi-layered, interactive, personalized experience to consumers. These frequently launch with a Web-based ad campaign (echoed offline), with online-only video shorts that introduce characters, themes and, of course, new products or in market products in a new way. The next layer might offer a contest of some sort, or perhaps an opportunity to collaborate on new products, such as Starbucks did with its mystarbucks.com blog and Ford Motor Company’s offer of Web-based tools to customers to design products. A further layer could offer prizes or premiums for purchases or in-store visits. The 7-Eleven chain adopted a location-based game played on the SCVNGR mobile platform tied to the opening of "The Hangover, Part 2".5 Although launched to promote new drinks, it accomplished the more general objective of driving traffic to stores because participants were required to check-in using their phone to qualify for prizes—perfect synergy between the target consumer (young males), the tools they use, the products they consume and the movies they are likely to watch.

As the Heineken and 7-eleven campaigns demonstrate, digital channels are uniquely engaging, tapping into consumers’ simultaneous desires to be entertained, contribute their own ideas and design the product they want. Of course, consumers leave a digital trail or fingerprint that can be analyzed to finetune marketing efforts further—so the effort is mutually beneficial.

In fact, our research shows that creating active user experiences, particularly if they invite ideas for new products, is a clear trend in digital marketing, one that may sound the death knell for conference room-based focus groups. For consumer goods companies, launching collaborative product development initiatives, or "crowdsourcing" input on products, are more important than ever given the lack of breakthrough products in recent years.

These multi-dimensional efforts deliver a number of unique benefits for companies:

•The agility of the digital marketing platform allows for easier distribution and consumption of a wider variety of marketing messages and collateral, increasing awareness and eventual purchases.

•The digital fingerprint left by Web access, mobile phone use, etc. provides accurate and immediate data on consumer engagement levels, the analysis of which can help companies better predict what will resonate with consumers.

•The data extracted from such engagement can be easily shared across brands, thus reducing duplicative research efforts, increasing consistency and quality of consumer data to develop a more precise picture of consumers, and driving down the overall cost of marketing.

Our work with clients shows that companies may not undertake all the upfront planning and strategizing necessary to ensure efficient execution and impact of digital marketing and their integration with non-digital channels. The following handful of leading practices will lay a solid foundation for digital efforts:

Accenture Research Aims to Identify Cross Channel Links for CPG Manufacturers

In 2010 Accenture, comScore and dunnhumby launched an initiative to evaluate if consumer goods manufacturers brand websites and consumers’ online activities drive purchases in stores. The cross-channel research draws upon participating manufacturers’ sales data, as well as comScore’s panel of nearly two million consumers as well as dunnhumby’s loyalty card scanner data from sixty million household. Taken together, this allows the research team to draw conclusions about correlations among brand websites, in-store behavior and purchases for 300,000 households. Preliminary findings are expected in late 2011.

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1. Develop a digital vision that anticipates using a range of digital assets and channels, including Web publishing, mobile, social media, location-based screens and signage, search, analytics and eCommerce/mCommerce. While companies may not use all of these channels and capabilities all the time, the platform should be open and flexible enough to support innovation.

2. Focus on assessing Web presence first. Many companies no longer recognize the power that their websites have, and give this mature digital channel short shrift. Yet Web landing pages are among a prospect’s first encounter with many companies, and it takes only eight seconds of viewing a page (on average) for someone to decide to stay on or move off a site. In our experience, conversions from consumer to buyer can increase by 200 percent by optimizing and personalizing the landing page experience, making these tasks critical. (See sidebar)

3. Make sure the digital strategy is governed globally to ensure consistency and efficient leverage of assets, but includes localization and regional strategies to ensure targeted, relevant consumer experiences (see Figure 3).

4. Tightly integrate online and offline marketing channels, data, measurement and metrics. Only with a consistent approach and comprehensive view of results can companies make rational allocation decisions that optimize the traditional and digital media mix.

5. Finally, streamline the number of people involved in setting, developing and executing digital strategy. A "too many cooks" problem can lead to fragmented, inconsistent, delayed creative and delivery. Assessing the contributions of and streamlining personnel in lead digital agencies, niche technical and creative agencies, and (yes) even traditional IT consulting firms can clarify creative development

and speed execution—speed and relevance being primary drivers of digital marketing success.

Executing a digital strategy that reflects these best practices will require many companies to enhance core enterprise technology and analytics capabilities, as well as acquire more specialized capabilities. As shown in Figure 3, a range of capabilities and alliances needs to be brought together to develop, deliver, measure and evolve digital strategies and manage digital channels to best effect. Many companies mix internal and outsourced capabilities throughout their journey toward the agile, intelligent marketing digital represents.

Figure 3: Driving digital strategy with global governance and local control

Constituent-ready Assets

Optimization

Content and Functionality

Global Content RepositoryGlobal teams produce core product content and functionality

Global Repository

RegionsRegional teams produce tailored/adapted content relevant to local segments

ConstituentsPersonalized experience

LocalLocal teams manage interactions

Global Teams

Global Teams

Local Teams

Continuous automated feedback and learning system to improve content quality and targeting

Regional Repositories

Constituent-ready assets

User generated contentGlobally relevant local content

Constituents

Constituents

Constituents

and channels

Regional Teams

Regional Teams

Source: Accenture

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Laying a solid foundation for digital strategies requires companies to think holistically about their entire marketing strategy and incorporate digital solutions and capabilities to enhance overall returns on marketing investments. While digital channels have the ability to offer a wide variety of creative and rich consumer experiences, companies need to ensure that every touchpoint—digital or not—has a purpose and adds value. A holistic marketing strategy that integrates all platforms from conception through the end of campaigns will allow companies to extract the most from each platform.

For further reading: Are you ready for the digital revolution?, Tim Breene and Brian Whipple, Outlook, No. 1, 2011

Engagement to Go: Using Digital out of home to drive customer relevance, Accenture Interactive Point of View Series, 2011

Achieving High Performance in the Digital World, Accenture Interactive: Insight Enabled Interactions, 2010 http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-achieving-high-performance-in-the-digital-world-summary.aspx

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III.Evolve enterprise architecture to efficiently integrate and support mobile and multi-channel capabilities The ever-expanding universe of consumer technology, mobile solutions (such as e-coupons) and sales channels (e.g., vending) bodes well for consumer goods companies and delivers both enterprise and market advantages. Indeed, consumers have come to expect that companies will leverage the latest technology and facilitate Web access in cars, appliances and other products such as wearable health monitors. The ubiquity, convergence and integration of technology and channels will make consumers’ lives easier (such as the washing machine that reports its own status and schedules servicing, or auto systems such as SYNC and OnStar that incorporate diagnostic, location and communication features.

Nonetheless integrating and supporting a more complex array of technology solutions and channels—and keeping both the infrastructure supporting them and the data captured by them secure—can tax enterprise systems built on rigid, mostly closed backbones. What’s more incorporating consumer-oriented technologies also means planning for their eventual disposal or obsolescence given the pace of innovation; the replacement or obsolescence rate are factors to consider in designing, manufacturing and implementing these options.

To gain the advantages of integrating consumer technology, mobile solutions and multi-channel networks without breaking the bank, companies need more flexibility in their enterprise systems. We are already seeing many gravitate toward a more open architecture capable of seamlessly integrating new applications and providing sufficient support for new channels, solutions, or partners.

Enabling an expanding multi-channel universe. Taking advantage of new channels, particularly digital channels, will place new demands on many companies’ systems. Adding more channels multiplies touchpoints and complexity, even as they deliver convenience to consumers. With some industry experts projecting that revenues from digital or virtual channels will surpass club store sales by 2015, companies will have to integrate fulfillment, as well as pricing and payment, from eCommerce portals that include click-to-buy applications on existing brand sites, aggregator marketplaces such as Amazon’s, daily deal sites, as well as a company-sponsored online marketplaces dedicated to specific product lines or customer segments.

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Making the most of these channel opportunities will require companies to synchronize aspects of finance and supply chain with a broader network of partners. This may mean adopting more open architectures that make efficient cross channel commerce easier. In the supply chain area, for example, companies can anticipate changes in demand management as traditional demand cycles fade, inventory management to better respond to direct sales, and distribution, particularly in emerging markets where distribution is frequently a barrier to entry in less developed areas.

Mobile solutions will move across the enterprise. Companies quickly repurposed personal mobile technology for enterprise use as employees craved the same convenience for work that they had in their personal lives. Accordingly, mobile solutions are proliferating to support a wide range of enterprise functions and operations. Like multichannel expansion, the availability of more mobile solutions demand careful rationalization and integration in order to avoid leaving companies with an expensive mix of multi-platform mobile devices and application.

Initial mobile solutions were business-to-employee applications, with many companies using standardized, transaction-oriented products (such as salesforce.com’s suite). However mobile solutions now exist to support business-to-customer, business-to-partner and even machine-to-machine relationships (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Evolution of mobility solution capabilities

Business-to-Employee (B2E)

Enable Enterprise Applications to the field where they are needed

� Sales Force Tools� Executive Dashboard

Reporting

Business-to-Business(B2B)

Improve business functions with wholesale distributors

� Distributor delivery� In-retail surveys� Third parties� Supply chain� Factory� Franchised/licensed

shops

Business-to-Customer (B2C)

Improve consumer interaction with our brands

� Coupons� Marketing� Vouchers� Payments/credit

Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

Automate intelligent processes for improved efficiencies

� Plant process control� In-plant sensor

networks� Smart devices� Telematics� Manufacturing floor� Fleet management� Security

Consequently, companies will need to develop a coherent mobile strategy that avoids mobile chaos even as they seek to leverage more mobile applications to increase sales, improve services and increase process efficiency.

Mobile solutions definitely lift the bottom line, improving a range of enterprise functions from strategic planning to sales effectiveness to lean manufacturing and inventory management. For example, DIRECTV reported a 30 percent increase in the number of accounts that can be visited in a week by its dealer reps when most adopted mobile solutions. Costs can also be reduced by streamlining workflows through automation. A medical equipment manufacturing company decreased inventory write-offs by almost $2 million, an improvement of 2,680 percent, and a telecom service provider reduced its billing cycle from a labor

Source: Accenture

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Figure 5: Implications of Mobile Services Models

Integration of Tactical Applications to Core

Services (Invoicing, Order to Cash, etc.)

Platform Services

Add Support for Multiple Device

Types

Heavily CustomizedMultiple Service Vendors

High TCOLittle / No Integration to ERP

Security Risk

Awareness to Harvest Tactical Business

Capabilities to Scale

Custom ApplicationsData Sync

Device ManagementNative Development

Thick ClientTactical

Stand Alone Apps

Provide SDKs,Development Guidelines,Developer Workstations,Centralized Dev Teams

Improved Security Models for Mobile Access

Tactical

Global Interest

Device Independent

Device D

ependant

Capability Enabling Timeline

Integrated – Managed

Business Driving Service Enabling

Stand Alone – Unmanaged

Reac

h

and paper-intensive 15-20 days to a mere three to five days by deploying a mobile solution. Finally, mobile solutions can increase productivity and minimize downtime in companies just as they have in individuals’ personal lives. Consider that the field service organization of a business machine provider improved response times by 16 percent, saving service reps 60-90 minutes per day on average. As new regulations take hold in the US and elsewhere, consumer products companies can deploy digital and mobile capabilities to accurately trace and track ingredient sources and the ultimate disposition of finished product, allowing them to comply with safety regulations and manage risk.

The expansion of mobile solutions and channels are opportunities that consumer goods companies can exploit to improve enterprise operations

and market performance, though they require advanced integration planning and skills to maintain operating efficiency and optimize scale effectively (Figure 5). To meet these twin goals, companies should:

1. Initiate and maintain a dialogue internally that lays the groundwork for more open architecture and use of cloud-based applications to achieve enterprise flexibility and accommodate future innovations in mobile.

2. Refine IT security strategy to balance risk mitigation and business goals. Infrastructure and data security should remain unassailable and companies need to ensure partners that this is possible.

3. Evaluate commercial mobility providers for industry-specific, off-the-shelf products to avoid the costs and time sink of building mobile apps themselves.

4. Assess enterprise capabilities to integrate mobile solutions and, if necessary, identify experts with consumer goods experience who can help choose the right applications and solutions for a mobile platform designed to meet business goals.

Integration and solution experts can assist in the provisioning and maintenance of mobile services that allow companies to test, launch, refine and scale their mobile environment relatively quickly. Given the pace of innovation in mobile, companies that need to close their gap in mobile capabilities may find this is the quickest route to seizing the opportunity that mobile presents.

For further reading:On the edge: IT 2015, by Kishore S. Swaminathan, Outlook June 2010

Unplugged and Exposed: Rethinking Cyber Security for a Mobile World, Accenture April 2011

Source: Accenture

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Consumers are more choosy and disciplined than ever, both in purchasing staples and in their discretionary spending. Consumer goods companies are also judicious in their spending and understandably focus their resources on areas that have proven effective in understanding and delivering what consumers want. Our experience is that investments in technology-enabled capabilities play a critical role in meeting these important goals. Capabilities such as enterprise-wide analytics that sense and predict market shifts and opportunities more accurately, a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that augments traditional channels, and enterprise architecture that supports efficient cross channel commerce from the store floor to mobile devices can all play roles in identifying and serving new consumers and markets cost effectively.

Fortunately many consumer goods companies have at least basic capabilities in each of these areas already, so extending them further is more a matter of refining, expanding, and better integrating and leveraging what is already there, rather than launching new, full-scale technology initiatives. Deepening these and other technology-enabled business capabilities can help consumer goods companies establish more timely and more targeted connections to consumers, efforts that will create more value for both consumers and companies alike.

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References 1. IDC, 2009

2. Informationweek.com, Q&A: Eli Lilly on Cloud Computing Reality, Nov. 10, 2010 and accessed July 8, 2011. http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/data_centers/228200755?pgno=2

3. New York Times, April 24, 2011, When There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Information.

4. New York Times, May 26, 2011, Heineken Aims its Ads at Young Digital Devotees

5. See http://corp.7-eleven.com/Newsroom/2011NewsReleases/7ElevenTheHangoverPartII/tabid/469/Default.aspx

Copyright © 2011 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

For more information about this point of view and Accenture’s Consumer Products practice, please contact:

Jeff Hartigan Global Industry Offering Director, Consumer Goods & Services jeffrey.a.hartigan@accenture.com

Bob Hersch Industry Technology Officer, Products Operating Group dale.r.hersch@accenture.com

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 236,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.