Fmcg: The Power of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

by Greg Thain, John Bradley

This book is about the history of the some of the world's most famous brands, from humble beginnings to current exalted status, from smudged, kitchen-table pamphlets to multi-million ad campaigns, from backyard experiments to global research. It examines the most recent developments in these glittering trajectories and reveals the very DNA of the brands themselves. If you work in Retail, FMCG, Marketing or Consumer Goods, this is a must-read book.

Keywords: FMCG, History, Manufactures, Brands, Innovation, Global, Consumer, Retail, Market, Emerging Markets, Coke, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dean Foods, Estee Lauder, General Mills, Heinz, Henkel, Kellogg’s, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft, L'Oreal, Mars, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

525 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2014

About the author

Greg Thain has over 40 years experience developing businesses and is an expert in marketing, market research, internet/tech, real estate, investment & property funds, publishing, and consultancy with a focus for the last 22 years in emerging markets. Involved in politics as a candidate for the UK Conservative Party for the European Parliament in 1991.

CEO of M3 - Modern Marketing Media, an innovative and groundbreaking digital internet business.

CEO and Facilitator of Storewars International, the world’s leading business simulation

Author of “Storewars: The Battle for Mindspace & Shelfspace” published in 2012 and “FMCG: The Power of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods” published in 2014 with John Bradley.

Upcoming Book “E-Retail 2014: Zero Friction” with co-author Alexandra Skey

Reviews

[Ties · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working at or competing with one of the 18 FMCG companies in this book? Then this book is essential reading.

* I received a copy of the book from the author, requesting an honest review. This is that review.

The book details, and I mean DETAILS, the history, development and business strategy of these iconic FMCG companies. Afterwards, it looks at connections between these companies, their strategies and global trends influencing them.

Interesting, but as a more general, none industry reader, the level of detail was too much. I loved the historic insight but the more 'corporate' aspects quickly bored me. I feel the book is more a reference work than a 'read'. I recommend the book to anyone interested in one or more of these companies and think people working in this industry should read this book. The research that has gone into this book must've been immense and think this book should be a starting point for anyone who's actively going to research these companies.

I will certainly come back to this book whenever I have business dealings with one of these companies or need to refresh my insight in the global FMCG marker.

Concerning the rating:
In setting my rating for the book I was conflicted. To me it was fine, which would equal 3 stars. But I think the value for someone in the industry is far greater, which lead to me rating it 4/5.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have even the most basic interest in branding, marketing, retailing or just a love of business, you would be advised not to read this book if you have a lot of things calling on your time. It is addictive!

Here is a behemoth of a book, crammed full of information that you just want to read. You wonder if the authors have been locked away in an office for a decade gathering information, such is the detail being presented. In many ways it is overwhelming. Yet it does not feel it is padded out, far from it - it is feared what the draft might have been before an editor’s sharp knife had been wielded.

At first glance, the price of this book might give you sticker shock (and you know this will be discounted through certain online vendors) but it is not unjustified. In short you get a history of 18 of the world’s consumer goods brands - Coke, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dean Foods, Estée Lauder, General Mills, Heinz, Henkel, Kellog, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft, L'Oréal, Mars, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever. This is not a U.S.-centric focus either as the performance of the overseas business units is brought into sharp view, showing how many “distant outposts” might lead the way. In addition a number of profiles are given for companies who are strong competitors in their regional markets and it could be interesting in the future to look back at this book and see if they managed to break out of their regions and come to dominate on the world stage.

Make no mistake. This is not just a “boring” series of company profiles. Invest the time in the book and you cannot fail to takeaway a lot of actionable business information that can still be relevant today. You just have to apply the thoughts, processes and actions to your own business. You might not be the next Procter & Gamble but you will be following a great trail and stand to possibly gain a lot in the process.

This book does feel as something that you will consult in the future. Towards the end of the book there was just too much data to parse. One strategy might be to focus on one company at a time. With even one company per week this book is going to last you a long time. Students will also love it and there is so much information here that could be shoe-horned into assignments for years to come (just remember the rules about citation and plagiarism!).

The only concern? What could the authors come up with next? Once you come out with such a great work there is a tremendous danger that anything else will just not be able to compete and be of similar greatness, even though in isolation it still could be great.

FMCG: The Power of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, by Greg Thain & John Bradley and published by First Edition Design Publishing. ISBN 9781622876488, 596 pages. YYYYY.

[Andrea James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a behemoth of a book so full disclosure is that I did not read the details of every company featured in this book. I was asked by the authors to provide an honest review of the book and so I read the profiles of a couple of the companies to get sense of their research as well as the general chapters at the end.

The company profiles are in-depth and well-written; if I have happen to work with any of the companies listed in this book in the coming years, it's likely that I'll come back to this book to give me an overview of their history and some of the strategies that these companies used over the years. The authors also plan to update the book's website a couple of times a year as well as publish a new one called E-Retail.

If there were an audiobook version of this book, I think it would be great to learn about these FMCG companies during my longer commutes, but I suppose that would be a rather expensive endeavor for a fairly specialist book.

After the slew of ridiculously shallow books that I've bought and read recently (for instance: http://goo.gl/bgQCCg), it's refreshing to come across a book where it's clear that the authors had put considerable effort into researching and writing it.

I think the book is a good starting point if one would like a general picture of an FMCG company and it provides a base from which one could launch into more in-depth analysis of specific companies or markets. The book mentions case studies and examples of marketing campaigns and strategies that the companies have used over time.

The slight downside for someone looking for a more textbook or corporate/consulting guide is that the book seems to be more a story-full telling of the companies (albeit interesting and fascinating at times) rather than analysing and/or providing comparisons using the usual graphs, tables and other visuals.

Overall, I learned a few fun facts about the companies and feel more informed as a consumer at the very least. I would recommend this book if you would like to learn more about FMCGs.

[Dima · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most informative and exciting guide to the past and present of FMCG.

As authors mention in the beginning, now everyone's obsessed with hi-tech: they want Apple, Microsoft, Tesla Motors etc. So am I, but you should never underestimate companies that practically form our day-to-day routine: all those giant corporations that once started as a small venture.

"The power of FMCG" reminds me of J. Collins's "Good to Great". Greg Thain and John Bradley have put under microscope history and culture of eighteen of the world's largest companies such as Coca-cola, Unilever, Heinz and many others. They start from the creation, then examine evolution and recent years. Every chapter ends with an attempt to discover company's DNA (is it global-local approach (Kellog's) or scientific approach to brand-building (P&G)?).

The books doesn't stops with western companies but goes further and takes a quick review of China, Brasil, Taiwan and others emerging markets. There are a lot of new players to join global FMCG game, and you don't wanna miss them.

Greg and John finish with brief review of recent on-line campaigns successfully launched by Coke, Danone and others. You will be surprise how truly innovative those multi-regional giants could be.

Easy-to-read and novel-like but in the same time deeply informative, the books provides rich expertise in marketing for everyone who builds a career. I would highly recommend it to participants of management-trainee program and to every curious mind who wants to surprise mates with some facts about their usual bottle of beer or shaving razor.

[G Ochoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Thain brings his extensive experience in several business areas as well as his experience as having been a CEO and chairman of several companies around the world himself to this book. He brings his insight and knowledge into an interesting and easy to ready description of a selected few companies and explains e-retailing for each one as it is today.

He makes several good points throughout the book, one being that FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) drives the world’s advertising industries…and this includes social media mavens: Google and Facebook to name just a couple. As we know, if a company is not already using all social media avenues available to their advantage, they soon will be--e-retailing is huge for companies to promote and market their wares.

This book would make an excellent educational book for those in Marketing, Advertising and/or Business. Not only in general, but possibly specifically for anyone in that career path for a company that was analyzed in this book. Greg’s skill as a speaker reach out here as well in written format.
Each chapter begins with often overlooked questions by both employees and students studying business--how, where, when, why and by whom the company was formed and founded--and then moves on to how each business evolved after it had become established. Easy to understand as each section is in chronological date order.

Interestingly, he also inserts bits of information and facts that are little known and kind of cool to know—making it more of a personal read, like he is talking directly to you. (And, you never know when you will be asked that million dollar question that few people know the answer too!)

In a hurry? Each company section is summarized at the end of each chapter. However, I would suggest, that if you choose to read this book, find the company you want to know most about and read the full chapter. Greg and John really did their homework and consolidated it all into one place—for a fairly quick read. Again, a great read and reference for anyone needing information and/or going to school for marketing or business development.

The authors also conveniently list CEOs to each company and a brief snapshot of their timeline with the company. Super cool for fast read there. Financials are also included for 2014

To summarize:
There is a lot of data in this book on each company chosen, each one backed by facts, dates and stats that appear to be meticulously researched. Riddled with interesting (and possibly some unknown facts) making it an interesting read. Each one in chronological order making it easy to follow the start up of the company and its progress through time. I would even venture that someone looking to play with their stocks, might find the information and data in this book helpful in predicting future gains or losses depending on the history of the company. Especially as towards the end of the book, there is a section on Emerging Markets that one would also find helpful.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This book is essentially a textbook and is very repetitive and I read every page, over 800 of them, and I cannot recommend this book.

[Bianca Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will save students a lot of time. FMCG: The Power of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods by Greg Thain and John Bradley tells the histories of nearly 30 FMCG companies. I originally used the word stories, but these are old, established companies and we discover their origins. The recent developments section goes back to 2004; it's history.

FMCG's first 22 chapters tell the histories of 18 companies. Their founding, their struggles, their developments through to now. Companies are all the standard large companies in supermarket: Coca-Cola, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, etc. These histories makeup the majority of the book, and to be honest, I read only the first on Coca-Cola. At 843 pages in the Apple iBook version, this is a very long reference book.

How will students save time with FMCG?
It will save them time because the histories do their case study research for them. What were the major turning points that lead to the current situation? Who were the players? What was the revenue? FMCG answers all those questions in the one book.

What about the other 20% of FMCG?
The emerging markets chapter gives the stories of FMCG companies operating solely outside the US. China, Mexico, Hong Kong (pre-PRC take back), Brazil. The marketing chapter looks at how these companies have adopted digital marketing, except the authors declare it Modern Marketing, as a proper noun. From a digital marketer's perspective, there's nothing new, but I live in a world that considers 12 months old to be nearing its expiry date.

Who is FMCG for?
As previously mentioned, students. We can add academics and people researching the players in the industry. The histories are very detailed and extensive. I would have danced in the stacks of RMIT's library if I found this while researching my grad school case studies. Probably would have done cartwheels if I found it during my undergrad, but I wasn't a diligent enough student then. Shh, story for another day.

Personally, I would have loved a bit more analysis in FMCG. I'm curious to know the impact of buying local and shop small on the industry. Some companies have created brands that look small, but I wonder if the entire industry is shrinking. I'm also interested to know how much the retailers are impacting these companies. Are the brand extensions being developed because they're safe, and supermarkets like safe? Perhaps that can be a future book for them.

My copy was courtesy of the authors. It's the usual rules; they share their book with me, and I write my honest thoughts. This review was originally published at: http://tapdancingspiders.com/2014/12/...

[Willi Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just an amazing collection of the history of some of the greatest brands in the world. It was easy to read and gave some insight information how these brands started and how they became so succesfull. Even though I don't work in this industry, I still found it very interesting and I learned a lot from this great book. I can highly recommend it to everyone who is interested in the FMCG industry.

[Goran Ovčariček · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Approached by the author, Mr. Thain, to write a fair review.

The two authors, Greg Thain and John Bradley, are seasoned veterans of the business world. With over 20 years of experience, especially in marketing with focus on the emerging markets, they are well endowed and versed to write what is essentially a book about analyzing financial reports. So let us start from the beginning, the title.

FMCG: The Power of Fast – moving Consumer Goods, contains in itself a critical response to the latest business trend of seeing those large, consumer goods companies as dinosaurs, or at least as something not nearly as exciting as Google or Facebook for example. However, in that sense, the title justifies its existence, but it is somewhat less than appealing. Let us imagine that the reader comes from a non – English speaking world and, more significantly, from non – business background. How would such a reader react to this title? He would definitely have to look up the meaning of the title online. In doing so, he would realize that the title is somewhat narrow which is not alluring to broader audience.

The same thing applies to the cover of the book. Although it is less essential, particularly on the digital version, it would still be nice to see some more effort there. Even more so, when you know that the authors come from the business world and know more about branding and marketing than you will ever be acquainted with. This makes the decision to go with this uninspired, unattractive cover, further baffling. The cover is the first thing reader sees when faced with the decision whether to buy the book or not. This one is a no go. Nevertheless, as they say, you cannot judge a book by its cover, even though we always do. So, let us look inside.

First of, there is an introduction to the book which establishes the rules of the game. It explains why the authors chose to write about these particular companies, and shows the way the book is structured. The structure of the chapters (that is of specific companies) is more or less universally determined. That is both, good and bad. It is good in the sense of making it easier to compare different companies, and to simplify and explicate more clearly the defining characteristics of them. What is bad about this structuralizing view is the fact that history does not follow patterns and structures. Consequently, that makes it easier to mould history in the shape of structure, rather than the other way around. Moreover, that makes it actually harder to compare certain companies and, for example, to answer underlying questions of why has this company become “modern” then and the other one has not, etc. That said the good sides of this structuralizing outweigh the bad sides.

What follows this establishing chapter is an overview of 18 consumer goods companies, their history, their present, and, to some extent, their future. There are 18 companies (21 if you count the 3 from the emerging markets that the authors chose to show to prove their point) even though the back cover explicitly says 19 companies. You might say this is nitpicking, but it serves to prove another point. That is, that this book would greatly benefit from a thorough re-read by the authors or some outside corrector, as the language is definitely not polished. Examples of this brand are interspersed throughout the entire book. Some are even worse, as demonstrated by the blunder committed towards the end of the book (page 500 of the PDF version), where one finds five lines of text copy pasted twice on the same page. This is not a major problem, however, but it is an obvious one worth pointing out. Technical aspects aside, let us see how this book fares content wise.

This review is more or less limited only to the general impression this book provides, as it would be ridiculous to get in the details of each chapter since they all follow the same structure and say the same things. What is meant by that, is that in each chapter you can find the history of some specific company, its scope, its financial standing and coping with the latest recession, and its “DNA” followed by a summary. Naturally, the things said about each company are not at all the same, but following this structure makes it redundant to get in on the details of each chapter.

The main text, even though it is good and, more or less, interesting, suffers from its own limitations. That is, it is written from the business point of view. Even the historical overviews serve to further the business analysis. On the other hand, that is precisely the point of this book. So, if you are looking for a deeper historical analysis, or a critique of the dark side of the industry, or the way that consumer goods giants shape the society, look elsewhere, because from this book you can only sporadically derive hints of those processes. Even though those insights might be valuable and interesting to a historian or a sociologist, they are too rare and they barely ever lead to a deeper evaluation by the authors. That is a shame from a historians’ point of view. Nevertheless, that is beside the point.

The main context here is, as pointed out, the business view. Moreover, this book provides a brilliant insight into the mind of an executive. One can read out the glimpses of how a business oriented person views the industry. To some it may seem cruel, to some it may be dull, but it is how it is. Not everyone is a socialist or a sociologist for that matter. Furthermore, it is refreshing to read a book that is generally not bothered by this or that ideology, so it focuses very thoroughly on the business aspects of the industry. The only example is a rather unnecessary, and rather wrong, mention of Coca – Cola’s global reach not being quite global because of geopolitics, and from the authors’ words it seems as though the United States of America are not the ones to blame for that. What stings the eye is the inclusion of Iran, which is, at the very least, doubtful, because a simple Google search reveals that despite the sanctions imposed on Iran by the USA, Coca – Cola is exempt from them. The fact confirmed by a friend of mine who recently went to Tehran. Coca – Cola is available there. Regardless of this fallacy, the authors usually do not moralize or condemn the companies observed, neither do they praise and worship them. They restrict themselves on commenting their business moves always aware of the dangers of criticizing with hindsight. In addition to that, they are rather blunt in their views. A failure is a failure, whilst success is success, and the authors effectively navigate through the intentionally foggy rivers of “business – speak”, using their rationale to discard the hindsight and relatively objectively clarify what has gone wrong or right, and why.

It is noteworthy that cheap puns throughout the book work rather surprisingly well and add a certain flavor and flair to the whole affair. However, more worrisome is complete lack of questioning the sustainability of those business models. The main capitalism maxim extracted from this book is growth, growth, and more growth. Nevertheless, the authors do not feel the need to ask where that leads. What happens when the emerging markets hit the ceiling? That one is for the future. Again, this is not that type of book.

Most of the fallacies explicated in this review are on the behalf of the reviewer and not the book itself. Overall, this book duly serves its purpose. This is, to present the reader with an overview of the business history of some company and to what extent the past shapes the present business models of the same company. The reader, expecting some broader views, will not satisfy his / hers taste buds. However, even then, the book is useful for broadening one’s cognizance via the business route. In that sense, the final grade of this book is just a number that means very little, and can essentially be quite deceiving. Worded grades such as the ones found on Goodreads, are much more accurate. So, bear in mind, that the three given to this book, means, “I liked it”.

[yamiyoghurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a fascinating book that provided the history of household brands today. It’s an admirable effort to compile the history of a well curated list of big brands and interesting to read the authors insights and analysis as well.

[Rushdie Tazeroualti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for people wanting to know more of FMCG key drivers

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free PDF version of this book to review.

For that reason, I feel bad about giving a low rating to the book. I forced myself to try to get through it, but after a few hundred pages and a couple of months, I have to admit that I'm just not interested in finishing.

The book does have a sort of interesting, story-telling charm. It tells of how the different companies got their starts, what their different strategies and turning points were, etc. But with all that said, it reads kind of like a reference book at times. How much did Coca-Cola's Asia region grow sales in 2007? This book will tell you.

The research is good, and the writing is kind of smart at times, but the whole package doesn't come together cohesively for me. After you get interested in the stories of the development, growth, and innovations of the business, you get deflated with 20-30 pages of dry statistics, expansion plans, and leadership changes.

Just to explain my rating system so that the reader doesn't get the wrong idea, for me the average book is 2 stars. That means it wasn't a waste a time, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. 3 stars is usually a book that I thought had lots of information, but wasn't done with any particular art. 4 stars is what I consider to be a good, recommended book. 5 stars are books I really like, even if I don't know why.

1 star doesn't mean the book is worthless--it means that I couldn't finish it or that I wouldn't recommend it. This book isn't bad, but I would recommend to my friends that they could get most of the interesting information in less time by checking out the Wikipedia pages of the profiled companies. There's not a whole lot of deep information that would be hard to get, such as insider interviews or deep business insights.

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engaging, well documented book. It is very interesting to learn the stories of some of the most renowned names in commerce; their successes and failures, and the decisions that marked a turning point in their strategies. Each chapter is divided into a number of fixed sections where the development of each company is described and how they came to be what they are today; perhaps this might seem a little artificial, trying to adjust the stories to a series of fixed sections, but it is effective and useful to compare the development of each organization. Almost all sections are interesting, except the one entitled "What They Have Recently Been Doing?", which at times becomes a monotonous succession of figures and numbers. I would have liked to illustrate the book with photographs of the main players and their original products, that would have made even a more interesting reading.

[Mirek Jasinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite rating it with only 2 stars (it was OK!), I want to make it clear that this is a very good book.

Not a good read, though! It is a reference book!

It took me over two months to plough through the contents in search of potential faults. There aren't many - perhaps the lack of financials (sorry, one table won't do for me!). But then, the authors have thought of this and there are links to financials on their page: http://fmcgbook.com/

Like a classical encyclopaedia, the book is very well structured. It is packed with historical detail on 18 FMCG companies. It has some interesting stories. It provides an objective analysis. It offers a good bibliography. But its' primary value is for thousands of corporate bankers who have to write credit analysis on companies from the FMCG sector. For them it is an essential reference.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given a free PDF copy of this book by one of the authors in exchange for posting a review on various sites.

This is book is well researched and presented in an interesting manner. Unlike the majority of other business based books, the biggest challenge is that is extremely detailed in reviewing the 18 companies that it covers making it not a read for the faint of heart.

The authors divide the information on each company into sections and the only place I felt that it bogged down was in the "What Have They Been Doing Recently" section. I also feel that illustrations and/or photos would have added to the reading experience.

I recommend this book for those who are serious in knowing detailed information about the companies discussed in the book. It is not for those who are looking for a quick read.