Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Playbook for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Companies

Companies, and specifically brands, that are able to establish direct and meaningful relationships with their target consumers can maximize their opportunity to gain a competitive advantage against companies who are not able to establish these types of relationships. Some industries rely heavily on product branding, create products that are frequently utilized in the daily lives of consumers, and compete in categories with fixed growth. These companies are particularly susceptible to being impacted, both positively and negatively, by building relationships with their consumers. Categories with fixed growth, or narrow categories, present challenges for marketers in terms of redefining the concept of market share and competing for a piece of a much smaller pie. Doug Anderson, Nielsen Senior Vice President (SVP), research & development said “Growth will only come from increasing share against competition”. (“Nielsen: Marketing \u27Gravy Train\u27 to Derail by 2020”) One such industry is Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). CPG companies often spend a significant amount of time and resources collecting information about their consumers, but they have a need to develop meaningful ways to utilize the information to both provide value to these consumers, and provide the company with a positive business impact. Depending on the product’s life cycle stage, companies can potentially use consumer data to drive awareness, trial, conversion, loyalty, and/or advocacy of the brand or company. Over time, consumers have also shown a proactive desire to establish relationships with the brands that they are interested in, or already use, by exhibiting behaviors that include visiting company and brand web sites, joining user groups and forums, completing registration forms with personal contact information, and opting in to receive future communications from the brand or company. Web 2.0 is also influencing how companies build relationships with consumers. Consumers also engage with brands by: interacting with brands on social network sites such as Facebook fan pages and providing ratings and /or reviews about products on sites like Amazon.com. The consumer incentives for providing his/her information and agreeing to receive communications from these companies and brands can include: information relevant to the consumer based on past historical information, and free or discounted products or services based on follow up actions taken by the consumers. These follow up actions could be: redeeming a coupon, submitting a rebate, and/or earning points by purchasing products that can be redeemed for something of value at a later time. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), also known as Consumer Relationship Management (CRM), in the CPG industry, is an area that can be investigated to bridge the gap between companies and consumers, who both have a stake in the relationship. “CRM is a business strategy aimed at understanding, anticipating and responding to the needs of a company\u27s current and potential consumers in order to grow the relationship value”. (“CRM Defined and Understood”) This project will investigate the ways in which CRM can achieve business benefits using people, processes, and technology in a changing landscape using communication vehicles or touch points, such as e-mail, direct mail and text messages, to consumers across the offline, online, and mobile spaces. This project will focus on how CRM has been, and will continue to be, impacted by Web 2.0. The deliverable of this project will be a customizable CRM playbook for CPG companies to utilize. This toolkit will contain best practices, processes, and software that can be applied in a combination of ways to meet various CPG companies’ and brands’ needs. The best practices section of the playbook will include how to define appropriate CRM-specific objectives, goals, strategies, tactics, and measures for CPG companies and brands. Strategies and tactics include extending relationships with consumers in the social media and mobile spaces. The playbook will define the governance of consumer data based on business rules defined by the company and the standard processes. E-mail deployment software is an example of how technology will be highlighted in the toolkit. Success will be measured in various ways. As a strategic goal, companies should strive to maximize the utilization of data as a company asset and drive toward a higher degree of consumer segmentation and personalized communications. At a tactical level, companies can measure CRM program success though key performance indicators (KPIs) such as open rates, click through rates, and click-to-open rates of outbound e-mail communications. These are some of many vehicles used to build relationships with consumers

Diagnosing Non-HFE Hereditary Hemochromatosis

A 63-year-old Caucasian female presented for evaluation of abnormal bile duct appearance on ERCP after being diagnosed with gallstone pancreatitis, duodenal ulcers and gastritis at another hospital

Helpful or Harmful? A Case Report of Nutritional Supplements Causing Drug-Induced Liver Injury

Herbal supplement-induced liver injury represents a growing concern in the body of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) literature, with recent studies in mainland China, Iceland, and the United States reporting estimated rates of herb/dietary supplement-induced liver injury (HILI) between 1.16-6.38 per 100,000 (Björnsson et al., 2013; Shen et al., 2019; Vega et al., 2017). Notably, a recent 2020 study demonstrated an increasing prevalence of hepatotoxicity secondary to herbal and dietary supplements in the US and worldwide (Zheng et al., 2020). Recognizing the hepatotoxicity of various supplements is crucial, given the increasing usage of dietary and herbal supplements and the lack of regulation of herbal supplements in the United States. HRP-AID is marketed as a twice-daily immune system booster to reduce the intensity and frequency of cold sore outbreaks. The product ingredients include 200 mg ascorbic acid, 20 mcg cholecalciferol, 20 mg a-tocopherol, 10 mg pyridoxine HCl, 50 mcg methylcobalamin, 25 mg zinc citrate, 70 mcg selenium, 250 mg L-lysine, 50 mg Astralagus extract (Astragalus membranaceus), 50 mg Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea), 50 mg garlic powder (Allium salivum), 50 mg natural caffeine (coffee arabica), 50 mg olive leaf extract Oleuropin 20% (Olea Europaea), 50 mg oregano powder (Thymus captatus), 50 mg of elderberry extract (Sambucus nigra) and 50 mg Red Panax ginseng extract (Panax ginseng). A literature review demonstrates that this is the first reported case of DILI secondary to HRP-AID supplementation

Role of Probiotics in Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Does Gut Microbiota Matter?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the hepatic consequence of metabolic syndrome, which often also includes obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. The connection between gut microbiota (GM) and NAFLD has attracted significant attention in recent years. Data has shown that GM affects hepatic lipid metabolism and influences the balance between pro/anti-inflammatory effectors in the liver. Although studies reveal the association between GM dysbiosis and NAFLD, decoding the mechanisms of gut dysbiosis resulting in NAFLD remains challenging. The potential pathophysiology that links GM dysbiosis to NAFLD can be summarized as: (1) disrupting the balance between energy harvest and expenditure, (2) promoting hepatic inflammation (impairing intestinal integrity, facilitating endotoxemia, and initiating inflammatory cascades with cytokines releasing), and (3) altered biochemistry metabolism and GM-related metabolites (i.e., bile acid, short-chain fatty acids, aromatic amino acid derivatives, branched-chain amino acids, choline, ethanol). Due to the hypothesis that probiotics/synbiotics could normalize GM and reverse dysbiosis, there have been efforts to investigate the therapeutic effect of probiotics/synbiotics in patients with NAFLD. Recent randomized clinical trials suggest that probiotics/synbiotics could improve transaminases, hepatic steatosis, and reduce hepatic inflammation. Despite these promising results, future studies are necessary to understand the full role GM plays in NAFLD development and progression. Additionally, further data is needed to unravel probiotics/synbiotics efficacy, safety, and sustainability as a novel pharmacologic approaches to NAFLD