Consumer product manufacturers invest millions of dollars into channel partnerships to influence the way consumers experience their product at the point of sale. These trade investments take many forms, ranging from standard rebates and cash payments to strategic collaboration programs. For many manufacturers in recent years, trade investment levels have increased faster than the sales they are designed to influence, contributing to eroded profit margins. In this article, part of the Monitor Perspectives white paper series, Christine Delivanis and Martin Zimmermann outline the challenges to sound trade investment and present four steps to maximizing manufacturers’ trade investment returns.

Fundamental changes in the health care system are transforming how key stakeholders value, obtain, and process information. While biopharmaceutical companies are experimenting with different solutions, they are not going far enough and fast enough to address new realities. In this article, part of the Monitor Perspectives white paper series, Jeff Wordham and Sheryl L. Jacobson outline how companies can succeed by fundamentally rethinking their approaches to customers, offering and channels.

In these video clips, Monitor thought leaders explain why pharmaceutical companies need to think differently about their commercial models—their approaches to customers, offerings, and channels—to make important changes to their strategies and adapt to the new shape of the pharmaceutical industry.

Voted Marketer of the Year for 2010 by Advertising Age magazine, Ford Motor Company’s marketing team has a reputation for being innovative and stunningly successful. In these video clips, Monitor’s Steven Goldbach interviews John Felice, General Manager of Ford and Lincoln Marketing, about the company’s journey to become a market leader through game-changing marketing initiatives.

In this webcast, Monitor’s thought leaders discuss the latest research into the psychology behind decision-making and memory formation, using this framework to identify a practical approach for getting customers to remember your company’s messages and assessing the quality of your customer engagement strategy.

In this animated video, Monitor partner Steven Goldbach explains that integrated marketing teams should be modeled more like hockey teams than football teams—they should be composed of quick-thinking and fast-acting team members instead of specialized, inflexible individual players.

Many companies experience cycles in which revenue growth and cost cutting alternate in focus. While these cycles are understandable, they often damage long-term profitability. In this article, Monitor's Robert Browne, Josh Lee, Mike Standing and Lisa S. Thompson present the Delivering Measurable Results approach, which helps firms escape these cycles of revenue growth and cost cutting by developing programs that can sustainably improve their margins.

In these videos from Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, Monitor partners Sandra Pocharski and Steven Goldbach discuss the importance of integrated marketing, as well as structural barriers organizations often confront when trying to achieve it.

For this report, Microsoft asked Monitor Group to look specifically at what it takes for value-added resellers (VARs) in the information technology industry to excel with cloud offerings, particularly with one of Microsoft’s newest cloud services, Office 365.

Monitor's Cameron McClearn discusses Washington State's initiative to examine the economic value of medical treatments when determining health care coverage decisions—a growing national trend which reinforces the importance for pharmaceutical companies to effectively communicate the cost effectiveness of their products. A version of this blog appeared on the website of Pharmaceutical Executive.