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Sally Martin

About Sally Martin

We all know that data isn’t worth anything unless it leads to better results. That's why Robin and I started this blog. We want to help you turn your data into meaningful, actionable business insights. I've been doing just that for over 15 years for a variety of organizations. Read more about me here.

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Thank You, Readers on Our 10th Anniversary!...

Robin Simon

Miscellaneous

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20 Golden Rules to Help You Shine As An Analyst

Sally Martin

How To Answer Business Questions

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Visualization: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Numbers...

Robin Simon

How To Communicate Insights

Featured Article

Syndicated Retail Sales Data 101...

Sally Martin

How To Get Started with Nielsen/IRI

Blog Relaunch – Passing the Baton

June 9, 2026 By Sally Martin 2 Comments

This is a bittersweet post for us to write. We (Sally & Robin) have transitioned CPG Data Tip Sheet to Goods Intelligence – more on that in a bit.  When we started the CPG Data Tip Sheet back in November, 2012 we could not have imagined that almost 14 years later we would have over […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Tip Sheet Mailbag: Velocity Q&A – The Sequel

November 29, 2023 By Sally Martin 2 Comments

We hope you aren’t tired of reading about velocity! Velocity and distribution (which go hand in hand, as you’ll see below) are the topics we are asked about most often. We’ve reviewed our reader correspondence and pulled out a few more key points we wanted to share: Question 1: Is Velocity Independent of Distribution? Q. […]

Filed Under: Know Your Measures: Distribution, Know Your Measures: Sales

Tip Sheet Mailbag: Q&A on Velocity

May 31, 2023 By Sally Martin Leave a Comment

  We get a lot of questions from readers. Sometimes our answers touch on things we haven’t fully explored in our articles. We want everyone to benefit from these nuggets of information so decided to post a series of Q&A articles which will highlight some interesting correspondence. Our first post covers three questions on the […]

Filed Under: How To Answer Business Questions, Know Your Measures: Sales Tagged With: velocity

U.S. Inflation Rate as of April 2022

A Few More Thoughts On Inflation…

June 7, 2022 By Sally Martin 1 Comment

  Last month, we were delighted to present a webinar through the Category Management Association. The webinar content was inspired by our inflation post from earlier this year. We wanted to share both the video replay and our slides from the CMA webinar. In addition, in preparing for the webinar, we had a few additional thoughts […]

Filed Under: How To Answer Business Questions Tagged With: everyday price, inflation, pricing strategy

Join us at our upcoming inflation webinar!

May 23, 2022 By Sally Martin 2 Comments

After publishing our recent post on inflation, we were asked by the Category Management Association to present a short webinar on the topic. It will be this Wednesday, May 25 at 11am central time. It’s targeted to CMA members but you can also register as a guest. We’d love to see you there!  Description and […]

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

example of coffee creamer product characteristics

Buying Nielsen/IRI/SPINS Reports? Avoid These Three Common Mistakes!

January 28, 2021 By Sally Martin 11 Comments

Many CPG companies purchase individual, Excel-based reports from syndicated data vendors Nielsen, IRI and SPINS. Rather than the six-figure investment required for an ongoing data subscription, individual reports can be obtained for a few thousand dollars. So it’s a great place to start with this data! The vendors are quite flexible in what can be […]

Filed Under: How To Get Started with Nielsen/IRI, Know Your Measures: Sales Tagged With: attributes, characteristics, getting started, Measures, the basics

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  • The 2nd Most Important Measure: % ACV Distribution
  • Velocity: How Well Your Product REALLY Sells
  • Total Distribution Points: Master of All Distribution Measures
  • xAOC and MULO: Multi-Channel Markets in Nielsen & IRI
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Trade Merchandising Measurement

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About CPG Data Tip Sheet

We (Sally Martin and Robin Simon) first met in business school and bonded over our interest in geeky marketing stuff. Eventually we both started independent consulting practices. Now we’ve reunited to share with you some of what we’ve learned in our decades of experience working with syndicated CPG data.

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  • How To Get Started with Nielsen/IRI (22)
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ACV analysis examples analytic skills attributes average items base base weighted weeks career development category management channels characteristics coronavirus coverage factor covid-19 Database distribution due-to Excel tips Facts incremental markets Measures merchandising new items panel data periods pricing pricing strategy products promoted price quantify opportunity retailer direct data retailer markets shopper data store data Syndicated TDP the basics trade promotion trading areas velocity visualization visualizations volume bridge volume decomposition

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Categories

  • Glossary (79)
  • How To Answer Business Questions (42)
  • How To Communicate Insights (17)
  • How To Get Started with Nielsen/IRI (22)
  • How To Understand Your Database (12)
  • Know Your Measures: Distribution (24)
  • Know Your Measures: Pricing and Promotion (45)
  • Know Your Measures: Sales (21)
  • Miscellaneous (6)
  • Uncategorized (1)

Search CPG Data Tip Sheet

Tags

ACV analysis examples analytic skills attributes average items base base weighted weeks career development category management channels characteristics coronavirus coverage factor covid-19 Database distribution due-to Excel tips Facts incremental markets Measures merchandising new items panel data periods pricing pricing strategy products promoted price quantify opportunity retailer direct data retailer markets shopper data store data Syndicated TDP the basics trade promotion trading areas velocity visualization visualizations volume bridge volume decomposition

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