BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 4, 2007) - The recent research report "Plan, Spend, and
Prosper: Making the Most of Trade Promotion," published by Aberdeen, a
Harte-Hanks company (
NYSE:
HHS), surveyed more than 250 companies to reveal
that 61% of companies have reported overspending on trade promotions when
compared to the trade budget allocations.
Aberdeen data revealed that one of the chief reasons for the overspend is
the fact that 70% of consumer product and food service companies are still
using fragmented spreadsheets, assumption-based trade plans, and legacy
systems to develop trade promotion plans. These practices are leading poor
forecast accuracy across different retail channel formats and high trade
overspends.
"As a solution to the trade promotion problems of these companies, Aberdeen
data indicates that companies want to integrate and upgrade their trade
promotion solutions as a way out," says report co-author and retail
analyst, Sahir Anand. "Specifically, 51% of companies want to transition
towards the integrated TPM solutions as the top strategic action to improve
trade promotions," says Anand.
According to report co-author and supply chain research director, Nari
Viswanathan, "More than half of companies are striving to build enterprise
and best-of-breed multi-tenant solution capabilities to improve the
cross-enterprise visibility, data utilization, and internal-external
collaboration around trade promotions."
Aberdeen research shows that trade spending efficiency is a huge hot button
for consumer goods, food service, and the retail industry. In order to
excel in this area, they must realize where they are in the maturity level
with respect to their IT capabilities. Companies must succeed in the
previous stage before going to a more advanced stage -- for instance
companies that do not have a strong transaction backbone should not attempt
to deploy predictive analytics solutions.
This report is made available due in part by the following underwriters:
Hitachi Consulting, SAP, and CAS. To obtain a complimentary copy of the
report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4166
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
260 Franklin Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Sahir Anand
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5271
Sahir.Anand@aberdeen.com