Consumer Goods

Starting a career in the consumer goods industry can be both challenging and exciting. It entails developing an understanding of the manufacturing process of products as diverse as babies’ diapers, washing machines or shaving creams. Furthermore, an understanding of the fluctuating local and international markets in which products are placed and advertised is imperative.

Consumer goods are a large category of products that include virtually anything an individual could wish to purchase. In order to clearly identify and distinguish the different products on offer, manufacturers provide each with a specific brand and model.

Thus, on supermarket aisles, one can typically find Rexona soap, scented with peppermint or lemon; Gillette shaving cream scented with mint or aloe vera; and so on. But brands do not simply help us distinguish products in an overcrowded market.

If you develop a career in consumer goods, it will become clear that brands also try usually with effectiveness and success – to establish a specific and strong bond with consumers. Just as products satisfy a consumer’s objective requirements, brands tap into more psychological or emotional needs, with a promise to the consumer that through use of the product he or she will feel better, happier, more successful, braver or wiser.

However, this relationship between the brand and the consumer may fail if previous experiences with the brand were not satisfactory for the individual, or if scandals/negative press manages to tint the positive aura that the product is trying to nurture. As previously stated, an interest in developing a career in consumer goods requires the ability to be able to think locally and globally. The industry of consumer goods has grown exponentially over the last few decades, and has reached almost every corner of the world.

Booming markets such as Brazil, India, Turkey, China or Russia have particularly strong growth, due to willing consumers with a high interest in these products, compared to the over-saturated markets of Europe and America. However, any individual developing a career in consumer goods should be well aware of the fact that internationalizing a product is a complex process.

It involves far more than simply shipping a good securely overseas and flooding the market with advertising campaigns to ensure a high level of product awareness amongst consumers. Instead, there are multiple aspects one must take into consideration, that require the ability to understand the socio-political situation of the country, its current trading laws and regulations, the state of its roads and basic infrastructure (running water, electricity, basic supplies) and the socio-cultural environment in which this new product will be situated. It is well known, for instance, that a sugar free chewing gum will have no success at all in Brazil.

This is not due to the fact that Brazilians have a sweet tooth; moreover, consumers will relate the idea of a sugar-free gum with something tasteless, and not with a product that will help them prevent cavities. In addition, a country such as Brazil, and other emerging economies, are characterized by their economic instability.

These economies are more prone to suffering severe financial crisis (for example, the crisis in Argentina in 2002), and their governments have more trouble envisioning long term policies as their political programs are usually conceived over a four to five year scope. In addition, anybody pursuing a career in consumer goods should also be ready to advertise their products via non-traditional means.

Consumers have grown accustomed to varying types of innovative advertising techniques; catchy jingles and bright colors simply do not work as effectively as they used to.

Furthermore, with the ability to skip advertisements during TV broadcasts, or even to change channels during adverts, traditional advertising is experiencing a change.

This explains why many experts in consumer goods opt for new approaches to promoting their products, such as advertising over the Internet either by organizing contests or by inviting users to create their own ad.