Pain Points 2: Execution and Launch Excellence

Pain Points 2: Execution and Launch Excellence

Time. Money. Creative Investment. Months of collaboration between departments. Planning the successful execution of a new product in CPG can feel more like herding cats than sticking to the product roadmap. So, with the financial and time investment needed to bring a new product to market, how can brands monitor and pivot for success? Moreover, how do brands prove to the retailers that an execution strategy is driving mutual revenue?
The answer? A shared source of reliable retail visibility.

Without a shared source of truth, retailers rely heavily on flawed data sources, and CPG brands are tasked with justifying their hard work of launch. Historically, CPG brands have needed to take matters into their own hands, attempting internal field team reports and then convincing buyers of their findings. This is difficult. Analysis is often subjective, biased, and lacks the necessary scale to sway major retailers. On the other hand, when brands rely solely on syndicated sales data, there’s a missing link. The spreadsheet numbers don’t offer visual evidence of performance factors.

We’ve heard it time and time again, Category Managers are left to argue for shelf space and strategy changes with only spreadsheets and anecdotal evidence. This approach forces CPG teams into a position where they cannot effectively justify their strategic recommendations, especially during make-or-break product launches. Recently we had Marc Yount, COO of Storesight, help identify struggles that CPG professionals face, including this execution blind spot.

Eliminating the Blind Spot: Combining Shipping and POS Data with Visual Proof

The Storesight team recently sat down with the team at Evolution of Smooth (EOS), a lean and innovative personal care company, and the woes of blindness after a product launch into the haircare and body wash categories, were a major concern of the team. Success of a secondary product for an emerging brand was essential, so the team built a foundation around two pillars. Retail data, and in-store visibility.

As Nicole Mueller, Vice President of Sales at EoS, put it, “The data is the what, but the Storesight is the how, like it shows how it comes to life in person... You can't have one without the other, you need the visual and the data to go with it. So they go hand in hand.

The Symptoms of the Execution Blind Spot

The Failed Launch Trap: Initial execution is everything. If planogram compliance, display setup, or pricing fails during the critical launch window, the product often fails to gain traction and secure long-term shelf space. The inability to quickly identify and correct these errors results in immediate, unrecoverable losses.

The Negotiation Deadlock: Retail buyers are sophisticated. When a Category Manager requests a change—like more facings or premium display space—the buyer demands concrete proof of performance. Without objective, scaled visual evidence linking perfect execution to higher sales, the request is easily dismissed, creating a zero-sum negotiation.

The Unquantifiable Spend: Teams pour millions into execution initiatives (field teams, brokers, displays). However, the delay and lack of visual linkage between the action taken and the sales result means the CPG company cannot accurately measure the ROI of that spend. If you can’t prove the financial return, you can't justify the investment.

What Needs to Change? Moving from Execution Cost to Execution Value

Adapting to the modern market means category managers are expected to justify every inch of shelf space and every dollar of execution spend. That’s what Storesight truly brings to the table: indisputable visual proof that transforms Category Management into a data-driven partnership. With over 6 million photos analyzed annually, Storesight is bringing the next wave of retail insights, giving CPG brands the ability to link perfect execution (the shelf condition) directly with sales lift (the outcome) in near real-time.

The integration of Storesight’s AI-powered analytics and unbiased data allows CPG professionals to leverage massive, daily image captures from the field. This objective data source, captured by an independent network and analyzed by lightning-fast Image Recognition algorithms, provides the clear evidence needed to compare performance, validate strategies, and compete with clarity.

Book a 20 minute demo to see how it works.