Retain Customers with Idea Management System
In the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) or Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, customers have a wide array of choices to select from. Every day a new product is launched that joins millions of other products occupying space in the retail stores. These products vie for customers’ attention, but customers being pressed for time, do not have time to peruse each product. Hence, in order to make the products find their way into the baskets of the customers, the product manufacturers make use of empty gimmicks such as attractive packaging, competitive rates, and innovative marketing. The time-pressured customers fall for this initially but not always. The empty gimmicks fizzle out quickly and the customers stop buying those products as what customers value at the end of the day is the value proposition.
As Peter Drucker, the management consultant, has rightly said, ““The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” and “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Hence, the CPG or FMCG companies must be always on their toes in order to retain their customers. However, the fact of the matter is to retain customers what is needed is not empty gimmicks but new and innovative products. And for innovative products, what is required is innovative thinking and ideas. Instead of a few people coming up with ideas and suggestions, what is required is an idea management system that makes it possible for the people in the supply chain to contribute cost, time and process improvement related ideas.
It is when more minds work actively together for a common objective that better ideas happen. Take for instance, ITC, food, and Hotel Corporation, found an innovative way to boost its food processing and export operations by tapping an untapped sector- Agriculture. It started an initiative of providing ITC-designed, Hindi-language Web pages that provided district specific weather reports, the market price of soybeans and wheat and tips on modern growing methods for farmers to increase their yields and along the way they hoped to push products ranging from tractors to hair oil to increasingly prosperous farmers. ITC succeeded thanks to the collective effort of its employees, customers, and suppliers.
Similarly, the CPG or FMCG companies must encourage employees, clients and customers to suggest ideas and suggestions for improving customer satisfaction. Since it is very difficult to gather ideas and suggestions from those concerned individually, enterprises must invest in ideation software to ease idea management implementation. Let’s see how.
Ideation software helps to
* Record total number of ideas generated
* Categorize the ideas into unique categories
* Assign and assess the viability and relevance of an idea
* Give credit to contributor of original as well as effective ideas
This brings in healthy competition among the people in the supply chain as people compete to come up with new and innovative ways to retain customers. Hence, in today’s volatile business environment, the CPG or FMCG companies must deploy idea management system to come out with new and innovative products on a regular basis, thereby retaining customers, and ensuring customer loyalty.
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