A consumer research panel is a representative collection of individuals whose consumption habits are continually monitored by a marketing research company. It is designed to study the behaviour rather than the attitudes of consumers in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The analysed and interpreted reports help the retailer and manufacturing clients to better understand their markets and the changing dynamics within markets which are largely overseen by retail studies. It is shown that consumer research panels have a very high per panellist cost due to the nature of the data collection methodologies currently used being either very labour-intensive with the in-home interviewer visits, or due to the cost of the technology needed when using an in-home audit terminal to scan the barcode of items. The ubiquitous use of the mobile phone begs the question whether this technology, already in the hands of people, could be used as a data collection device. In 2007, Robert Adelmann demonstrated that it is possible to recognise linear barcodes using a mobile phone equipped with a camera and a barcode recognition algorithm. Three requirements are set for a mobile phone to be used as a data collection device in a consumer panel and are indicated by various studies researching each, focused on Gauteng, South Africa. The technology is shown to be quick and accurate enough to be used in everyday barcode scanning albeit not very prevalent among the responding sample. The data communication infrastructure needed to communicate the audited data was found to be 100% present although few of the respondents displayed their interest in joining a research panel based on mobile phones. It is, therefore, recommended that a phone-based consumer panel be used to supplement existing consumer panels to extend in hard-to-reach demographics like the upper-LSM households, and that the privacy and usage concerns raised by the respondents be addressed. It is also recommended that similar studies be conducted in developed economies where required mobile phone technology could be more prevalent. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

This thesis analyzes co-creation, a modern trend in marketing, and guides companies how to use co-creation to increase efficiency of their marketing practices. Co-creation is placed in the framework of digitalization, which is current megatrend in marketing influencing the traditional marketing methods. After deep analysis of current trends in marketing with focus on digitalization, the thesis emphases co-creation, describes the process of co-creation and applies it to an example of co-creation project of the brand Fa. It presents that co-creation project needs to be well planned and well executed as it can otherwise lead into brand dilution or the results would be different from company's objectives. In the end of the thesis, recommendations are deduced based on the concluded survey showing the further steps in Fa co-creation project as well as co-creation in general.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse past and present development of market of private labels in the Czech republic. Pursuant to this purpose of possible future trends with recommendation for individual market subjects. The first theoretical part is based on introduction to retail management. There are defined important concepts related to private labels. The next part is dedicated to summary of market of private labels in the world. This part is followed by analysis of past and present development of market of private labels in the Czech republic. Based on this statement it is proposed own consumer research. Research is focused on students behaviour. The final part is summary of research and recommendation for retail practise.

Bakgrund: Detaljhandelns utveckling har lett till en mer kundorienterad marknad. Samtidigt innehåller livsmedelsindustrin FMCG som kännetecknas av kort produktlivslängd och ledtid. Det innebär att företagen måste vara beredda på variationer i efterfrågan. Dessa efterfrågevariationer försvårar arbetet mot jämna materialflöden. För att hantera dessa måste företagen framställa pricksäkra prognoser som ligger till grund för den kapacitetsplanering som görs. På Mejeriproducenten AB upplevs efterfrågevariationer orsaka kapacitetsbrist i transporter vilket resulterar i ökade kostnader.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att fylla forskningsgapet mellan efterfrågevariationer och transporter genom att identifiera bakomliggande orsaker till varför dessa variationer uppstår samt föreslå hur de kan minimeras och åtgärdas. Detta genom att skapa ett generellt ramverk som kan användas av flera producerande företag inom samma och liknande branscher.  Metod: Denna fallstudie har använt sig av en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi. Datainsamling skedde dels genom semistrukturerade intervjuer, enkätstudie och dels data från Qlikview. Detta har skett med ett bekvämlighetsurval med relevanta respondenter som varit tillgängliga till forskarna. Dataanalys har gjorts genom en mönsterjämförelse. Vid forskningsetiskt övervägande har anonymisering varit av extra stor vikt genom arbetets gång.  Slutsats: Kommunikationsbrister är två av de orsaker bakom efterfrågevariation som identifieras. Genom ett ökat samarbete i försörjningskedjan kan kommunikationen förbättras vilket leder till mer pricksäkra prognoser som tar hänsyn till efterfrågevariationer. Resultatet blir att transportplaneringen underlättas då kapaciteten kan planeras efter variationer i efterfrågan. Vidare undersöks fyllnadsgraden i de transportslingor som den här studien tar i beaktning. Det visade sig att den upplevda kapacitetsbristen endast existerar i ett fåtal av slingorna medan resterande slingor innehåller en stor andel tillgänglig kapacitet. Vidare visas effekten av vad en ruttoptimering hade kunnat uppnå genom att jämna ut belastningen på alla slingor vilket hade minskat risken för att överlass uppstår vid en efterfrågevariation. Om Mejeriproducenten AB lyckas med att prognostisera efterfrågevariationer kan fyllnadsgraden ökas i varje slinga vilket innebär ett minskat behov av transport kapacitet.

Background: In today's fast-paced and highly competitive marketplace, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands must create a strong competitive advantage in one way to achieve this is to understand and cater to the needs, preferences and behaviors of their target consumers.In case of apparel FMCG brands, young women are an important demographic group as they make up a large portion of the consumer market. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the consumer behavior of young women in the apparel FMCG market and to identify the key factors that influence their purchase decisions. Methods: This paper uses a form of deductive reasoning that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods. Primary data were collected in the form of focus group interviews. Qualitative interview data were categorized and analyzed through classification and coding. The study explored online purchasing behavior, including purchase behavior and perceptions of product marketing online, as well as offline purchasing behavior, which addressed the impact of product quality and price on their purchase intentions. Conclusion: The findings show that the format of online shopping and social media marketing content are the most influential factors in young female consumers' purchase decisions, followed by decisions based on the information they receive, which includes product word-of-mouth and brand image. The study further explores the feasibility of digital transformation and category expansion for apparel FMCG brands to reach a broader market. The results of this study could help FMCG brands create a competitive advantage in the marketplace by developing strategies that align with young women's consumer behavior and preferences.

This is a focus group study to explore the marketing process for a start-up company about to develop and launch a sustainable razor. In this process, understanding what the customers value in a sustainable product for daily use, such as razors, and how to apply this in the marketing process is of great importance. Sustainable fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are essential for this study, together with customer values and behavioral change. A literature study was conducted concerning strategic marketing, sustainability marketing, value development, social marketing & behavioral change, and the consumer buying process & purchase decision to analyze this area. A theoretical framework was then developed with three important steps for the marketing process: Identify customer values, Identify barriers and benefits for behavioral change, and Influence the customers. This theoretical framework was then applied when analyzing qualitative data gathered through interviews with different focus groups. The findings showed that the most critical customer values are convenience and comfort as well as information and transparency. Convenience was also found to be the most significant barrier to behavioral change while good offerings, transparency, and the desire to be more sustainable were identified as benefits. To influence the customers and change their behaviors for a sustainable FMCG product, the barriers should be overcome and the benefits promoted by using different strategic tools. This study found that the most successful tools are convenience followed by incentives and then prompts. As part of a potential marketing strategy, the most important identified customer values and strategic tools should be prioritized in the offering of the product and the value proposition more-for-more should be considered - when customers receive a sustainable, high-quality product, they are willing to compromise on price if the product has clear information about its sustainability. / Detta är en fokusgruppsstudie för att utforska marknadsföringsprocessen för ett nystartat företag på väg att utveckla och lansera en hållbar rakhyvel. I denna process är det av stor vikt att förstå vad kunderna värdesätter i en hållbar produkt för dagligt bruk, såsom rakhyvlar, och hur man tillämpar detta i marknadsföringsprocessen. Hållbara snabbrörliga konsumentvaror (FMCG) är grundläggande för denna studie, tillsammans med kundvärderingar och beteendeförändringar. En litteraturstudie genomfördes angående strategisk marknadsföring, hållbarhetsmarknadsföring, värdeutveckling, social marknadsföring & beteendeförändring samt konsumentköpprocessen & köpbeslut för att analysera detta område. Ett teoretiskt ramverk togs sedan fram med tre viktiga steg för marknadsföringsprocessen: Identifiera kundvärderingar, Identifiera hinder och fördelar för beteendeförändring samt Influera kunderna. Detta teoretiska ramverk tillämpades sedan vid analys av kvalitativ data som samlats in genom intervjuer av olika fokusgrupper. Resultaten visade att de mest kritiska kundvärderingarna är bekvämlighet och komfort samt information och transparens. Bekvämlighet visade sig också vara det viktigaste hindret för beteendeförändring medan bra erbjudanden, transparens och önskan att vara mer hållbar identifierades som fördelar. För att påverka kunderna och förändra deras beteenden för en hållbar “FMCG”-produkt bör barriärerna övervinnas och fördelarna främjas genom användning av olika strategiska verktyg. Denna studie fann att de mest framgångsrika verktygen är bekvämlighet följt av incitament och uppmaningar. Som en del av en potentiell marknadsföringsstrategi bör de viktigaste identifierade kundvärderingarna prioriteras i erbjudandet av produkten och värdepropositionen mer-för-mer bör övervägas - när kunderna erhåller en hållbar produkt av hög kvalitet är de villiga att kompromissa med priset om produkten har tydlig information om sin hållbarhet.

This case study is investigating the challenge of managing product scarcity in the supply chain by allocating scarce products to customers while maintaining customer relationships in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. Previous solutions on how to manage the situation of allocating scarce products have been inadequate, highly manual, and timeconsumingwork for all stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of achieving an effective supply chain during scarce and uncertain conditions and delivering a developed Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to cope with these challenges, by answering the research question: How should a Business Continuity Plan be set up to handle the allocation of scarce products to remain relevant and keep customers satisfied? A thematic literature review combined with unstructured and semi-structured interviews provided data showing that product scarcity is extra critical in categories such as electronics with highly seasonal demand combined with longer lead times and higher profitability. The most important factors to handle product allocation toward customer is the need for a more structured process, a high level of automation, and increased visibility. To make sure that the new process is anchored in the organization, raising awareness, having extensive onboarding sessions, and having good documentation on the processes were highlighted. The developed solution is a highly automated process in KNIME generating the allocation and visualizing it combined with other data in a Power BI report, increasing visibility and enhancing communication, answering the needs explained in the interviews which are highly aligned with the literature. / Denna studie undersöker utmaningen med att hantera produktbrist i leveranskedjan genom att allokera knappa produkter till kunder samtidigt som kundrelationer upprätthålls inom sektorn för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror (FMCG). Tidigare lösningar på hur man hanterar situationen med att tilldela knappa produkter har varit otillräckligt, manuellt och tidskrävande arbete för alla inblandade. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka utmaningarna med att uppnå en effektiv försörjningskedja under knappa och osäkra förhållanden och att leverera en utvecklad Business Continuity Plan (BCP) för att klara av dessa utmaningar, genom att svara på forskningsfrågan: Hur ska en Business Continuity Plan konstrueras för att hantera tilldelning av knappa produkter för att förbli relevanta och hålla kunderna nöjda? En tematisk litteraturgenomgång i kombination med ostrukturerade och semistrukturerade intervjuer gav data som visade att produktbrist är extra kritiskt för kategorier inom elektronik med säsongsbetonad efterfrågan i kombination med längre ledtider och högre lönsamhet. De viktigaste faktorerna för att hantera produktallokering mot kund är behovet av en mer strukturerad process, hög grad av automatisering och ökad transparens. För att säkerställa att den nya processen förankras i organisationen lyftes kunskap, omfattande onboarding-sessioner och bra dokumentation om processerna fram. Den utvecklade lösningen är en automatiserad process i KNIME som genererar allokeringen och visualiserar den i kombination med annan data i en Power BI-rapport, vilket ökar synligheten och förbättrar kommunikationen, och svarar på de behov som lyfts fram i intervjuerna, i linje med den presenterade litteraturen.

An organization must manage its resource consumption and material flows in order to satisfy the demand of its products as efficiently as possible. Managing of the aforementioned requires a balance between the organizations resources (such as the capability of distribution and production) and the market demand. According to Gardner (1990), an estimation of future demand is a necessity for maintaining the balance. An instrument that is used frequently to estimate future demand is demand forecasting. The demand forecasting practice has been thoroughly studied and a plethora of academic contributions exist on the topic. However, a best practice demand forecasting method does not exist for every kind of product. The purpose of this paper is to identify which time series forecasting method that will result in the lowest error rate on fast moving consumer goods. The methods are based on sales data of 18 articles from the company Coca-Cola Enterprises Sverige AB which predominantly sells soft drinks. The majority of the theoretical framework is time series models presented by the authors Stig-Arne Mattsson, Patrik Jonsson and Steven Nahmias. The paper identifies Exponential smoothing with individual input variables as the forecasting method with the lowest error rate. The method gave the lowest possible error rate on over 55 percent of the articles. In addition, the combined error rate of the articles using Exponential smoothing with individual input variables gave the lowest overall error.

In the increasingly frequent distribution of the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, there is an evident need of improving supply chain operations to ensure sustainability. As part of the supply chain, the distribution of goods often accounts for a major part of costs and resources. Therefore, focus needs to be directed toward ensuring a continuously functional distribution network. Performance measures of high asset utilization and high customer service level are often contradictory to some extent, making the improvement work even more complex. One way of increasing the performance of distribution operations is to take part in an interorganizational collaboration. The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how the distribution operations of a FMCG company connected to a collaborative distribution network could be improved. Through a single case study, the researchers identify shortcomings in the distribution operations of a cross-docking network with a focus on a specific customer segment flow. By using concepts of demand management, supply chain collaboration, and customer satisfaction, the findings are analysed to highlight shortcomings in the distribution. Researchers discuss how distribution performance consequences could be related to certain managerial actions by presenting three different scenarios. The scenarios show a distinct effect on the number of shipments conducted towards cross-dock. As the number of shipments are reduced, economic benefits could be realized. However, these benefits must be carefully compared with the potential reduction in the level of customer service. The conclusion of this study suggests that managerial action is necessary to increase the economic sustainability of the distribution. / Med den allt mer ökande distributionsfrekvensen inom dagligvaruhandeln finns det ett tydligt behov av att av att förbättra värdekedjeoperationerna för att säkerhetsställa hållbarhet. Distribution av det fysiska varuflödet är en viktig del av värdekedjan och står för en stor del av de totala kostnaderna och resursanvändningen. Det är därför väsentligt att fokusera på att säkerhetsställa ett funktionellt distributionsnätverk som presterar kontinuerligt. Hög nyttjandegrad samt hög kundnöjdhet är två prestationsgrundade objekt som är svåra att uppnå parallellt vilket försvårar ett förbättringsarbete. En metod för förbättring är att flera dagligvaruhandelsbolag går in i ett distributionssamarbete. Syftet med denna masteruppsats är att undersöka hur distributionsverksamheten i ett dagligvaruhandelsbolag som är kopplat till ett kollaborationsdistributionsnätverk kan förbättras. Genom en fallstudie identifierades flera tillkortakommanden i distributionsverksamheten i en del av varuflödet kopplat till en kundgrupp. Resultaten analyserades med hjälp av koncept från kundnöjdhet, kollaborationsvärdekedjor samt hantering av efterfrågan för att belysa tillkortakommanden inom distributionsverksamheten. Genom tre olika scenarion diskuteras olika konsekvenser på distributionsverksamheten som kan kopplas till olika åtgärder. Scenarierna visar att antalet genomförda leveranser till mellanlager har en stor inverkan på hur väl distributionsverksamheten presterar ekonomiskt. Studien föreslår sammanfattningsvis att olika beslutsåtgärder är nödvändiga för att öka den ekonomiska hållbarheten i distributionen.

Research report presented to SBL, Unisa, Midrand. / The subject on the role of branding in delivering financial growth has been a debate for most marketers and financial managers. This is because the marketing subject by its nature is intangible and therefore difficult to measure. This misunderstanding has resulted in many authors calling for marketing to be accountable and focus on marketing investments that will deliver long term value for the shareholders. This study explores the role of branding in the South African FMCG industry and three main areas are explored namely whether marketing strategies are focused on increasing sales or future business growth. The second area is whether the inclusion of brand equity measures as part of the financial company reports, will give them the focus that they deserve. Thirdly it explores whether there is a link between brand building initiatives and financial measures. A qualitative research method was used as it gave the researcher an in depth understanding of the role of brand management within the FMCG industry and its impact on financial measures. A total of fifteen employees were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that companies still focus on measures that drive short term gains instead of long term growth and that brand building activities are compromised by brand harming activities such as regular price cutting. Future research to evaluate the impact of marketing activities that drive short term sales on brand equity and subsequently shareholder value is recommended.