CASE STUDY: NESTLE WATERS

Transforming its supply chain from a push system to a “sell then make” model pays big dividends for Nestle Water.

Challenge:

Nestle Waters North America, the continent’s largest bottled water company, was struggling with a problem close to the heart of many consumer packaged goods marketers. Nestle was producing and shipping a tremendous amount of in-store advertising that was simply not being used at the retail level. Additionally, more often than not, the materials the company did see at retail were “enhanced” with things like pink starbursts and other local artwork that rendered the materials inconsistent with Nestle Waters’ branding guidelines.

Centiv Solution:

Nestle Waters partnered with Centiv to deploy Centiv’s proprietary marketing automation platform, Instant Impact™, as its primary source for creating and producing its in-store advertising. Instead of large runs of generic material that quickly became obsolete (or dumped in the trash), Nestle salespeople would now be able to order their material as they needed it, and in the quantities that made sense for the time and place. Additionally, any customization they needed to include for special offers, regional product distinctions, and retailer-specific pricing and logos, could be done professionally in accordance with brand standards—and be ready to ship within 48 hours.

Results:

By partnering with Centiv, Nestle Waters changed its supply chain from a push system where salespeople used what they could and threw away the rest, to a pull system of selling in a program and ordering the right materials to support it.

This ‘sell then make’ supply chain has saved Nestle Waters hundreds of thousands of dollars to date and will continue to pay dividends into the future.