Nine companies from B4P client base participated (identities kept confidential) Some benchmarks used a larger sample, including companies from other B4P studies 8-15 managers (qualitative phases) interviewed per company 27-section quantitative data collected – 4,500 data points in this study Results are blind to protect confidentiality – companies are identified using identifiers rather than their […]

The situation audit phase answers the question: where are we now? However, this is a big over-simplification. In fact, in a best-practice plan, the situation audit asks: Where are our opportunities to defend and grow this part of the business? Situation audits occur in all five of the functional plans in FMCG Sales and Marketing: […]

At a recent benchmarking debrief, a client was offended when they scored low in knowledge management. Their defence was: “So if I just wrote down my plans and put them on the server, then I would be best-in-class?!” Obviously, B4P didn’t do a great job selling the idea of knowledge management and what good looks […]

“FIFO” (an acronym which we’re not going to explain here) is often applied to Regional Heads of Trade, Regional Directors of Insight, and Regional Brand Directors. In some of our clients these roles are often disliked and more labels than “FIFO” are sometimes applied to these roles/managers. Why? A recent survey of eight FMCG firms […]

B4P’s 2013 trans-Tasman benchmarking research looked at Sales and Marketing strategy and resources shared between Australia and New Zealand. Many resources were in Australia, and New Zealand was wholly dependent upon them in some of the companies in the sample. These companies had some very unhappy Kiwis, in cases where New Zealand managers could not […]

Some FMCG companies use internal benchmarking of particular functions, such as customer management, across different markets in a region and globally. This internal benchmarking is looking for best-practice in Sales and Marketing. Benchmarking tools are used by internal managers, on a project basis without Consultants. However, when companies need to learn what good looks like […]