Demantra, Consumer Goods Technology Survey Shows Consumer Goods Companies Keenly Interested in Improving TPM, but Still Unsure How to Gain Needed Traction

Demantra, providers of a powerful trade promotion management solution that is fully integrated with sales and account planning, today announced results of a blind survey the company sponsored in partnership with Consumer Goods Technology magazine. The survey, conducted among a target audience of more than 2,600 Consumer Goods magazine subscribers, gauged the perspectives of industry insiders towards trade promotion management and asked how consumer goods (CG) companies are leveraging TPM as a strategic tool in their business arsenal.

The survey showed the majority of CG companies are keenly interested in TPM as a method to help them improve the return on investment of their significant trade promotion investment, but are still unsure how to achieve those objectives.

Key survey results included:

--  The majority of respondents (56 percent) indicated their trade funds
    budgets are a significant portion of overall company revenues, ranging from
    10-20 percent of revenues.  However, most respondents are relying on an
    ineffective, home-built solution of ERP/CRM systems, home grown systems and
    spreadsheets to help them meet their TPM needs.
--  When asked about the primary objectives of a TPM solution, nearly 60
    percent of respondents indicated improved trade spending return on
    investment.  Other popular responses included revenue growth (17 percent)
    and the ability to integrate marketing and sales planning with supply chain
    planning (16 percent).
--  Considering current TPM solutions, respondents (61 percent)
    overwhelmingly pointed to the ability to evaluate post-promotion
    effectiveness as the area in which they would like to see most improvement.
    Respondents also cited the ability to predict promotion volume (23 percent)
    as a key improvement area.
--  More than 35 percent of respondents indicated their typical out-of-
    stock rate for a promoted item ranged from an unacceptable two to 10
    percent, resulting in a significant negative impact on corporate
    profitability.

"It's clear that increasing numbers of CG companies are interested in tapping the power of trade promotion management solutions to help them achieve category leadership, but many are still unsure of the best way of moving TPM beyond a mere transactional function to achieve those objectives," remarked John Bermudez, vice president of product marketing and management, Demantra. "Demantra has anticipated and responded to market demand and developed a best-of-breed solution that integrates TPM with account-sales planning as well as demand planning to provide a rich tool that, for the first time, takes TPM to a new level."

About Demantra TPM

Demantra TPM enables marketing, sales and supply chain to create and execute to a single, collaborative plan so manufacturers can be proactive in strategy setting and tactical execution, and have better insight into business operations. Features of Demantra's TPM solution include: funds management, volume forecasting, promotion modeling and optimization, deduction management, integrated reporting and analytics, and collaboration. With these powerful capabilities, Demantra TPM provides manufacturers with a significant competitive advantage by:

--  automating, standardizing and integrating numerous complex processes;
--  ensuring regulatory compliance with regards to promotional allowances;
--  aligning communication and initiatives across the enterprise;
--  supplying keen insight into business operations;
--  improving communication with trading partners; and
--  providing a real-time method of measurement to monitor progress.

About Demantra

Demantra provides consumer goods manufacturers with a powerful trade promotion management solution that is fully integrated with sales, account and brand planning, promotion execution and demand planning. It is built on a best-in-class analytical platform that ensures maximum ROI from every trade dollar spent. Advanced analytics and optimization capabilities are provided that, for the first time, move TPM beyond mere transactional capabilities to address the strategic enterprise planning and analytics needs of consumer goods leaders. By providing a one number, collaborative plan, manufacturers can deliver the right product, on the right shelf, at the right time -- profitably -- to compete for category leadership and 'win at the shelf.' Demantra has provided proven results -- 100 to 500 percent ROI -- to global brands including: Unilever, Welch's, Reckitt Benckiser, McCain Foods, Wendy's International, Pharmavite, and VTech. For more information, please visit www.demantra.com or contact 1.866.DEMANTRA. For bi-monthly updates on Demantra, please register for our e-newsletter at: http://www.demantra.com/newsletter/newsletter.shtml.

Demantra and Demantra Spectrum® are registered trademarks of Demantra, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts: Meira Primes 781-810-1700 meira.primes@demantra.com Kathy Wilson 781-862-9937 kjwcomm@aol.com