Founded in 2018, fast-growing startup Dream Pops is revolutionizing the frozen treats industry with its innovative and delicious plant-based products. Over the past couple of years, they’ve been making waves in local grocery stores and expanding their reach with new products like shelf-stable candy.
Currently entering a phase of exponential growth, the company’s trade promotions are rapidly taking off. But this growth, while exciting, has also introduced the challenge of scaling up trade promotion and deduction management.
Emily Medina, the Accounting Controller, has been with the company for two years. Her job is to oversee the entire accounting department, handling everything from accounts payable and receivable to financial reporting to trade promotions management.
Emily’s relationship with Vividly began when she realized that Dream Pops needed a more robust and scalable trade promotions management (TPM) system.
Before Vividly, Dream Pops was manually managing their trade promotions using calendars and spreadsheets on Google Drive. Emily was responsible for reviewing all trade promotions that came in. If they aligned with expectations, she would manually add them to the accounting system.
However, if any promotions seemed questionable or had a high dollar amount, they would be reviewed by the Director of Sales. Naturally, this manual process was time-consuming and left room for errors and uncertainties.
“We needed something that would make us feel certain about the validity of the trades that were coming through. I could take a look at it and say yes, this looks like a trade, and I knew what it was. But I didn’t automatically know whether it was being billed appropriately or accurately.”
The challenges didn’t stop there. Emily could easily end up spending a full day managing the trade promotions. The very nature of the CPG industry also added another layer of complexity.
Despite her 25 years of experience in accounting across various industries, Emily found that many of the existing practices in the CPG sector were quite unique. She was especially taken aback by the practice of charging back unsold products to the manufacturer. The process was complex and prone to error, especially when scaling up rapidly and managing an ever-growing number of promotions and deductions.
As Dream Pops continued to expand its operations, the need for a more efficient and accurate way to manage trade promotions became evident. That solution came in the form of Vividly’s comprehensive TPM platform, which helps CPG companies optimize their trade spend and save up to 20% in unexpected trade expenses.
Vividly’s software helped Emily automate many of the tasks that she had previously managed manually. Instead of spending a whole day, usually Monday, managing trade promotions, she now spends just three or four of hours per week. No longer does she have to work through 80 to 300 lines in a spreadsheet — instead, she now uses Vividly’s deduction scanner, which not only saves time but also negates the risk of human error. Vividly enables a level of accuracy and assurance that simply weren’t attainable before.
Emily also found the implementation process very straightforward. She had the system up and running in minimal time thanks to Vividly’s streamlined onboarding process, along with direct guidance from customer support.
“I think Vividly’s onboarding team did a phenomenal job. We’re still working through some kinks, but it’s so much easier now. The implementation was seamless, and now that we’ve put the work into getting the promotion calendars up and running, it’s really starting to pay off.”
The deduction scanner in particular was a game-changer for Emily, as it greatly reduced the time it took to manage trade promotions. Moreover, the export feature made it easy to export trade promotion data directly into NetSuite, their accounting system. This also saved a great deal of time compared to manually keying in all the information. Beyond the time savings and increased accuracy, Emily also has complete visibility into trade promotions and their broader impact on the company’s finances.
Rolling out Vividly’s TPM solution was a turning point for Dream Pops. The improvements have been very significant, the time savings and increased accuracy having provided a much-needed peace of mind. Looking ahead, Emily expects to see even more benefits as she becomes more familiar with the platform.
“I would say I could easily spend almost a full Monday managing trade promotions. Now it takes just two or three hours. I’m saving around five hours per week, so over 20 hours per month. That’s significant.”
The future looks bright for Dream Pops as they continue to expand their reach and scale without adding risk to their trade operations. Vividly’s solution will continue to support their endeavors by ensuring that their trade promotion management processes remain efficient, scalable, and accurate.
Vividly is a leading provider of Trade Promotion Management (TPM) solutions. With a focus on innovation and user-friendliness, Vividly's software streamlines trade promotion processes, saving time and increasing accuracy. Whether you're a growing startup or a large corporation, Vividly has the tools you need to manage your trade promotions effectively. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business.
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