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ECR BUSINESS PRACTICES GROWING AT DOWBRANDS

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The business practices of Efficient Consumer Response are taking root in the day-to-day operations of DowBrands.This initial phase of the company's ECR rollout follows a year of laying the groundwork throughout the company, said Lee Shobe, president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based maker of Saran Wrap plastic film, Fantastik all-purpose cleaner and Ziploc

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The business practices of Efficient Consumer Response are taking root in the day-to-day operations of DowBrands.

This initial phase of the company's ECR rollout follows a year of laying the groundwork throughout the company, said Lee Shobe, president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based maker of Saran Wrap plastic film, Fantastik all-purpose cleaner and Ziploc plastic bags.

"The ECR emphasis on productivity will allow us to push back the rising costs of doing business," he said. "The focus on serving our consumer and customer will deliver value." Shobe described the ECR effort at DowBrands during a presentation here at an information systems and logistics-distribution conference sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers of America.

ECR is a broad-based effort of streamlining operations to increase efficiency, decrease costs and deliver more value to consumers of packaged goods. Following his talk, Shobe told Brand Marketing that the results of the ECR-oriented changes at DowBrands will be apparent by the fourth quarter.

The company began to re-engineer itself in early 1992 by focusing on trade marketing, according to Shobe. The goals were to increase promotion effectiveness and reduce administration costs with deal simplification.

The project moved to a broader re-engineering effort last year,

he said, touching all activities in DowBrands and requiring a group of 50 to 60 people from all operating functions. "Today we have redefined the activities of DowBrands into two basic processes, both focusing on the consumer," he said. One is Demand Creation, and the other is Demand Fulfillment. "Underlying both these two processes is our strategic vision to become the consumer's first choice around the world," said Shobe. Demand Creation includes product development, marketing, sales and wholesaler-retailer partners. "The objective is to bring these activities together in a manner to maximize consumer purchase and potential," he said. The Demand Fulfillment process links suppliers, manufacturing facilities, logistics and customer service through the distributor to the consumer. "The goal and measurements for this process are to provide right product, right place, right time, at the lowest cost," he said. Demand Creation starts with information flowing in from the consumer and each stage in the chain, he said. The new emphasis and practices for DowBrands include:

Consumer segmentation must drive brand programs. "Knowledge of our brand consumers' life-stage and lifestyle vs. our competitors' will allow us to tailor marketing programs to regions and retailers," he said.

A corporate account program with the top 12 to 15 accounts will develop better shared learning and support for these programs. "More headquarters-to-headquarters communication is essential with changing business practices."

More system integration is critical to developing shared marketing programs. "Scanner-based measurements and scorecards must replace warehouse movements if we are to develop consumer pull marketing efforts." According to Shobe, this process aims to focus on consumer demand stimuli, eliminating forward-buying incentives and compensating for distribution services. The Demand Fulfillment process, he explained, is also "information intense," using a different set to link the consumer purchase back through the supply chain to trigger product movement -- the right product, at the right time, in the right place at the lowest effective cost.

"Again, we are 'inventing' very little," he said, "but instead are trying to emphasize best practices across the board and developing the flexibility internally to respond faster to change." For example, the company has accelerated its ability to provide such things as custom pallets and cross-docking, he said. Shobe said that Electronic Data Interchange enables Demand Fulfillment to achieve efficiency. DowBrands is accelerating EDI with customers, he added. The firm had 570 EDI partners in 1993, averaging 27,000 transactions per month.