Vistex Blog - Where it all adds up

Industry insights from Vistex experts.

The Price is Right

Implementing a wholesale price optimization solution can help your business maximize profit and achieve sustainable growth.

September 28, 2023

The Very Best Algorithm

In a not-so-distant past, pricing companies competed, among other things, on algorithms that lend themselves well for pricing. Companies invested money and effort developin...

September 7, 2023

Revenue Revolution In The Digital Age

Winning the day with media revenue management In this lightning-fast digital era, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies are changing how we select and view media...

August 24, 2023

Auto Shifting Buying Patterns Blog Graphics Feature Image

Are You Accelerating On The Straightaway Or The Curve?

How to take advantage of the shifting buying patterns and the future of Automotive retail In this closed-circuit racetrack that we call the Automotive industry, all OEMs wa...

August 16, 2023

Market analysis: Baby and child needs in retail

Whether diapers, rompers, pacifiers or baby monitors: German consumers spent 7.2 billion euros on equipment for their children last year. This is the result of this year...

August 15, 2023

data-analytics-electronic-components-industry-feature

How Much Does Quality Data Cost Your Company?

4 Ways to Ensure Quality Data in the Electronic Components Industry How much does quality data cost your electronic components company? You can’t compute quality into dolla...

July 31, 2023

Singing A New Tune

Will user-centric royalties ring in a promising future for music creators? The explosive rise of music streaming has transformed the industry, with millions of subscribers ...

July 24, 2023

The Crossroads Of Artistic And Artificial

Will user-centric royalties ring in a promising future for music creators? The explosive rise of music streaming has transformed the industry, with millions of subscribers ...

July 24, 2023

It’s A VUCA World We Live In

What if AI could tell CPGs precisely how to optimize trade spend planning? In previous blogs, we have described how data science and analytics can help Consumer Products Ma...

July 11, 2023

CPGs Take A Hard Right Turn Down Digitalization Lane

Prioritize RGM opportunities created by your 21st century odyssey During the last couple of years, Consumer Products manufacturers have been exposed to new challenges. Thes...

July 6, 2023

Don’t Let Your Bottom Line Bottom Out

Prioritize RGM opportunities created by your 21st century odyssey During the last couple of years, Consumer Products manufacturers have been exposed to new challenges. Thes...

June 20, 2023

Walking The Pricing Tightrope

Prioritize RGM opportunities created by your 21st century odyssey During the last couple of years, Consumer Products manufacturers have been exposed to new challenges. Thes...

June 19, 2023

Are Electric Vehicles Driving Us Closer To The Final Frontier?

Future electric car market growth and commercialization require OEMs to optimize automotive incentive management now Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before The fast-approa...

June 19, 2023

Who’s In The Major Leagues Of Retail?

6 best practices of top global retailers: how they create value and customer loyalty The major and minor leagues of retail In the retail industry, competition is fierce to ...

June 16, 2023

Doctor Byte: What’s Next In Digital Health And Digital Therapeutics (DTx)

What are digital health and digital therapeutics, and what role do medical device and pharma companies play? 7:00 in the morning my watch reminds me that yesterday I reache...

June 2, 2023

Are You Ready To Skate To The Winners' Circle?

A CPG Revenue Growth Management blog series on optimization sophistication: advanced level. Moving to the advanced level of optimization sophistication is not an easy achiev...

May 3, 2023

Economy graphics for travel and location

Convert Economic Headwinds Into Tailwinds

Wholesale Digital Transformation: How wholesale distributors drive economic recovery in Europe. Wholesale distributors operating in Europe face various challenges, including...

May 2, 2023

Is it time to test the waters of the metaverse?

The retail metaverse offers enormous potential for retailers to grow their customer base, but timing is key The water’s warming up, but you’ll still need a wetsuit 1, 2, 3…...

April 26, 2023

Prepare To Think Beyond The Semiconductor Capacity Constraints

2 semiconductor industry challenges all manufacturers must solve If you could see the future and know that the semiconductor market will double in the next 7 years, would y...

April 25, 2023

Your Next Profit Booster: A Healthy Dose Of Commercial Policies Framework

The importance of commercial policies in Life Sciences Did you know you can boost margins and profits beyond controlling pricing and contracts in sales? A healthy dose of a...

April 10, 2023

Unraveling The Mystery: Trade Spend And Year-End Close

Tips to stay focused and identify your CPG trade spend liability Flashy reporting and dashboards are an easy way to get caught up in data, predictability and “what-if” scen...

April 3, 2023

Untangling The Gordian Knot

How to drive revenue and profitability amid regulatory challenges for wholesale distributors Regulations give the public a high degree of confidence that claims have been v...

March 29, 2023

A Revenue Stream You Can Sync Your Teeth Into

How music sync licensing helps artists reap royalty rewards and exposure in today’s visual media landscape From TV to social media and gaming to fitness platforms, the grow...

March 27, 2023

It’s Not Easy Being Green

How will the surge in sustainability change licensing? Sustainability is increasingly crucial for businesses around the world. Across the $275 billion licensing industry, r...

March 24, 2023

Connectivity Is Coming To A Road Near You

Automotive industry trends for 2023: Connectivity Imagine driving KITT from Knight Rider to get groceries, take your kids to school, or go to the golf course. Sound too goo...

March 17, 2023

Intermediate Sophistication May Be The Road Less Traveled In Your CPG Organization

A CPG Revenue Growth Management blog series on optimization sophistication: intermediate level In a previous blog, we talked about optimization at an entry level and the be...

March 13, 2023

It’s The Year of the Rabbit, So Hop To It!

Data and analytics, customer experience among top wholesale distribution trends for 2023 This Lunar New Year, we celebrate the return of the rabbit, considered the luckiest...

February 28, 2023

Once The Be All, End All – Are BOGOs Really Working For You?

A CPG Revenue Growth Management blog series on optimization sophistication: entry level Like all industries, consumer packaged goods manufacturers are focused on Revenue Gr...

February 1, 2023

Is Supply Chain Disruption Moving Your Incentive Programs In The Wrong Direction?

High Tech Supply Chain Disruption and its effect on Incentive Programs “It is not the strongest or most intelligent who survive, but those who best manage change.” -C...

January 26, 2023

Looking for a needle in a haystack?

Discover the 5 benefits of crawling global web data In a recent blog, we talked about the 9 types of data to consider gathering for Revenue Growth Management and their impo...

January 24, 2023

Are You Mining Your Data, Hoping For Gold, And Getting Dirt?

Data is the new currency in Life Sciences and analytics is the pot of gold What if what you think you know just ain’t so? Mark Twain is credited with saying: “It ain’t what...

January 3, 2023

Wholesale Distribution Takeaways From VISTAS 2022

Financial concerns are top of mind — can wholesale revenue management save the day? I recently attended VISTAS 2022, the Vistex Annual Summit, where customers connect with ...

December 19, 2022

Wrangling A Foodservice/B2B Solution Into A Retail TPM Solution

Is it possible to run retail promotion management and foodservice contract management in one place? Anyone who has worked with or for a consumer products manufacturer can t...

December 1, 2022

The Art Of The Fair Deal

Songwriter remuneration and higher streaming royalty rates: A dream come true Recently, streaming services and music publishers agreed to set the highest streaming rate in ...

November 3, 2022

Revenue Management Is More Than Just Money To Retailers

Revenue Management is critical to profitability and retail success “Show me the money!” Most people can recollect a famous line from a popular movie or song that’s about mo...

October 31, 2022

Agriculture 4.0 and smart farming trends and solutions

Are You Prepared For Agriculture 4.0?

The future of farming and the 4 pillars leading to agriculture 4.0 Approximately 11,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at crop farming. Fi...

October 14, 2022

Keeping Your Glass Half Full

3 CPG pricing strategies for foodservice include thinking outside of your P&L As discussed in part 1 of this blog series, CPGs have begun the pandemic recovery but now...

October 10, 2022

Pushing Plush

Can streaming services build buzz and diversify revenue with licensed merchandise? Streaming services have shown they can sell content. They’re also pretty good at selling ...

October 6, 2022

Topping The Agenda: Mastering The Data Challenge On The Road To Optimization

9 types of Consumer Product data to consider for predictive analytics It’s no surprise that the benefits resulting from digital transformation programs have been demonstrat...

October 4, 2022

A Delicate Balancing Act

Wholesale revenue management means boosting profits, improving margins and hitting revenue targets Revenue management can be applied to data and analytics to predict demand...

September 13, 2022

Eyes On The Prize

Savvy brands score big with NIL deals and licensing contracts Since our first blog post on college athletes and name, image and likeness (NIL) deals in 2021 — when the Nati...

September 8, 2022

Invalid CPG Claims Could Be Costing You a Ton – What You Need To Know

Reclaiming your claims may feel like you’re just shuffling papers or even getting cheated Loosely defined claim audit standards applied without consistent rigor can r...

August 9, 2022

Music rights as an asset class: the latest “big hit” in the music business

Can investors and private equity firms maintain their up-tempo music royalty investments? If you’ve been tracking the headlines lately, you’ve likely read about the major a...

July 27, 2022

Is the Metaverse the Promised Land for Media and Entertainment, or a Fleeting Fad?

What’s your metastrategy for intellectual property (IP) rights, royalties and content management? The Metaverse is the next generation of the internet—a scaled, interconnec...

July 25, 2022

It’s The Right Time To Try Something Different

Will your CPG promotional spending continue to underperform in the current environment? In the past couple of years, promotional activities have been reduced when compared ...

July 21, 2022

Is Your Glass Half Full Or Half Empty?

Inflationary prices won’t lag behind for long in foodservice – shrinkflation as an alternative As the foodservice industry begins to recover from the pandemic, it also face...

July 17, 2022

High Tech Digital Transformation Industry

Industry 4.0: Are You A Disruptor or Disruptee?

Tackling tough challenges in high tech digital transformation It’s been dubbed “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” or 4IR for short. And some refer to it as “digital transfo...

July 14, 2022

6 Tips To Propel Your Market Development Fund Auditing

Are you steering your partners toward a stellar experience in claiming their MDF dollars? A well-executed market development funds (MDF) program can propel partner relation...

June 20, 2022

Riding The CMO/CDMO Collaboration Wave

CMO and CDMO partnerships are gaining momentum The Life Sciences industry was always viewed as a stable industry until the 2007-2009 economic downturn brought about interes...

June 7, 2022

Automotive Industry Trends 2023 for Self-Driving Vehicles

We Didn’t Start The Fire

Automotive industry trends for 2023: Autonomous vehicles As the old saying goes, the times they are a-changing. As a child of the 80’s, I loved Billy Joel. Still do. Given ...

June 7, 2022

Essentials to a Successful Co-Branding Partnership

Saddle Up for Success!

Take these “Magnificent 7” essentials for effective co-branding program licensing for a ride Co-branding programs—where two or more brands partner on a product or service—c...

June 7, 2022

The Struggle Is Real

Revenue growth management during inflation and how to protect your margins. There's no doubt that price has always been a key component of RGM (Revenue Growth Management)...

April 21, 2022

Bring Program Performance Into Full View

Is your channel revenue attribution giving you the visibility you need? I recently attended a conference that included channel revenue attribution as a topic of discussion....

April 8, 2022

How distributors help get your tunes on Spotify

Music To An Artist’s Ears

How music distributors get your tunes on Spotify Ever since the delivery of music shifted from the physical world to the digital world, Spotify, has been at the forefront o...

April 7, 2022

A Phine Line Between Physical And Digital

Are you taking a phygital approach for a better retail experience? Modern retail shopping can trace its roots back to ~800 BC in ancient Greece when the first merchants gat...

April 6, 2022

Royalty management aided by cloud scalability

Reach for the Cloud to Obtain a New Media Ecosystem

Cloud Rights and Royalty Management can Help Improve Media Scalability Powerhouse players have been making dramatic moves in the media and entertainment industry: Disney ac...

April 1, 2022

Let The Games Begin

NFTs are creating “play-to-earn” business models for the booming gaming industry Supported by nearly 3 billion gamers around the world, the mobile gaming market has seen ex...

March 11, 2022

Data Analysis Is A Journey, Not A Destination

Business analysis tools continue to evolve in sophistication. Yet, according to Forbes we only use .5% of the business data available to us. That equates to numbers between...

March 8, 2022

Next Stop, the Metaverse

What will become of intellectual property rights in the metaverse? The physical world is all abuzz over the Metaverse, a virtual world in which people will be able to buil...

March 1, 2022

Digital transformation journey will improve your 2022 RGM

Connecting The Digital Dots To Revenue Growth Management

What’s your digital transformation journey timeline? In the new fast-moving reality of our world, Consumer Goods manufacturers have had to face a great deal during the pand...

February 28, 2022

5 tips for managing wholesale customer relationships

Protecting Your "Vital Few"

5 tips for managing customer partnerships and growing revenue With distribution channels consolidating at such a rapid rate, maintaining fewer, larger customer partnerships...

February 17, 2022

Why is it important as a company to understand your net price?

Success in Gross-to-Net Management Affects Your Entire Business - Vistex, Inc

Cookie Cutter Tools Are For Baking, Not Financials Achieving a true net price of a product is a challenge for Life Sciences manufacturers. Gross-to-Net (GTN) is not a simpl...

February 6, 2022

Steps to optimize your CPG ecommerce strategy

Back To The Store? 

Tips to optimize your 2022 CPG ecommerce strategy and retain healthy margins It is well known that ecommerce sales shot up 70% during the beginning of COVID. Grocery online...

January 28, 2022

determine reimbursements with scenario planning

Think Again. And Again.

December 20, 2021

Changing retail: How buying behavior will change in the future

Trade has changed tremendously in recent years. Due to the advancing digitization, the demands of customers have changed immensely. This clearly shows that times are changi...

December 15, 2021

A Front Row Seat 

3 retail industry trends for 2022 provoked by the pandemic that are upstaging decision-making The Retail Industry has had a front row seat in dealing with Covid-19 for near...

December 2, 2021

Product quality in eCommerce: Meeting new requirements

Why is price as the only differentiation criterion not enough for many customers? The purchasing process is accompanied by numerous individual requirements to a specific pr...

December 1, 2021

3 ways to manage return and recall pricing

To Return, Or Not To Return, That Is The Question

Return management in pharma: finding the right price Returns on drugs and medical devices are inevitable. Pricing a returned product is not an easy task for pharma and medi...

November 15, 2021

Product matching: The success factor in market intelligence

Big data is opening up new opportunities for retail to strengthen its market position. Using market intelligence, meaning an extensive knowledge of the market and the indiv...

November 15, 2021

2022 manufacturers face supply chain problems and labor shortages

Figure It Out Or Lose Your Shirt

A look at how labor shortages are driving supply chain disruption and rising costs Consumer Products Manufacturers like you are facing multiple challenges: labor shortages,...

November 10, 2021

There’s No Dip In Counterfeit Chips

Semiconductor authenticity remains mission critical during chip shortage Much has been written lately about the effect of the semiconductor shortage on automotive manufactu...

November 10, 2021

Market analysis: sports and outdoor articles in German online retail

For some, the motivation to exercise is mere health; others want to become faster, more agile and stronger. But one thing is certain: the growing awareness of fitness is cr...

November 1, 2021

BRANDED NFTS: All That and a Bag of Chips

Brands are leveraging NFTs for recognition and revenue, but will customers bite? As consumer behavior and the digital economy continue to change in the wake of the pandemic...

October 28, 2021

Artist Remuneration In The Digital Age: Can Musicians Break Through

Artist Remuneration In The Digital Age: Can Musicians Break On Through To The Other Side?

Streaming revenue—not music—makes the world go ‘round People typically associate musicians with private jets, designer wardrobes, cash and jewelry, and luxury cars, but mos...

October 26, 2021

2021 Media Consolidation in Streaming Services

Media Merger Mania

What does the continued media consolidation mean for the industry? Like a scene ripped from a blockbuster movie script, a giant tech company scooped up a major Hollywood st...

October 20, 2021

What is the Mechanical Licensing Collective or MLC

The Effective Collective

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) is all in on collecting and distributing digital music royalties The nonprofit Mechanical Licensing Collective was established by ...

October 18, 2021

Strikethrough prices – How to communicate your offers correctly

Prices are considered the number one sales argument in eCommerce. The so-called strikethrough prices or cross-out prices are a popular means for retailers to attract the at...

October 15, 2021

Go, Fight, Earn!

Student athletes are feeling the “earn” with NIL deals.But at what cost? In a wild card move, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic A...

September 28, 2021

Pricing strategies in the semiconductor industry

GAME ON Partner pricing strategies and the semiconductor power struggle: Who will pay the cost of inventory?

When the chips are down, how do we defeat the pain of pricing? “If you build it, he will come” doesn’t work for the semiconductor industry. And for their manufacturing cust...

September 21, 2021

Fear Not the Robot Onslaught

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are kicking the rust off the pandemic-stricken distribution industry Picture if you will a large regional distribution center with dozens of...

September 21, 2021

Market analysis: the beauty industry in transition

The global cosmetics and personal care market is growing. According to Euromonitor, it is currently worth 250 billion US dollars. But the beauty industry is changing: So fa...

September 20, 2021

Why you should consider cultural factors in pricing

Pricing in foreign markets presents retailers and manufacturers with a major challenge. Many companies make the mistake of not adapting their pricing strategy to the respec...

September 15, 2021

Image recognition through AI: we are working on this technology for you

Artificial intelligence (AI) often sounds like science fiction, but above all the concept is a great promise for the future. Although the theories behind it are actually de...

September 1, 2021

cybersecurity in the manufacturing industry

Cyber Insecurity

How will you protect yourself in a world of invisible threats? Global cyberattacks in the manufacturing industry have increased by almost 3,000% since 2012. This gives manu...

August 31, 2021

3 Actionable Tips to Winning the Loyalty Program Marketing Race

Drive deeper customer engagement by mastering your communications strategy Is your loyalty program strong enough to keep customers coming back? When it comes to customer en...

August 30, 2021

Trends in Digital Acceleration Retail Industry

What Are The 5 “Secret Clichés” For Success?

Key Factors in Digital Acceleration for Retail and Consumer Products While DT (Digital Transformation) may seem like an overused term, it is top of mind for CP manufacturer...

August 17, 2021

What’s So Nifty About NFTs?

The topic du jour in the media and entertainment industry is NFTs, and for good reason. In the midst of a global pandemic, NFT trading volume exploded in 2020 with $250 mil...

August 13, 2021

No Drones Please!

Master the tech basics first to improve retail execution There’s no doubt that technology and innovation are fascinating and progressing at a rapid pace but before you deci...

August 4, 2021

The online flower business – a blossoming sector in eCommerce

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, a birthday or something in between, by giving away bouquets, flowers or flower arrangements, we offer others a treat for almost ...

August 1, 2021

Foodservice Channels Digital Coupon Strategy

The Clash of the Coupons

The future is so redeeming As customers shifted from shopping in store to retailers’ ecommerce sites, digital coupon vs. paper coupon usage has also been impacted but to wh...

June 14, 2021

Is Your Channel Data Treasure or Trash?

Channel data management (CDM) is one of the best ways for High Tech manufacturers to increase visibility into the details of events and transactions within their sales and ...

June 7, 2021

Your Gut Or Your Data?

How do you make crucial business decisions? Trillions of dollars of revenue globally flow into manufacturers through indirect sales. Let’s face it…channel partners comprise...

June 6, 2021

How Junky Data Costs You Big Time

You know that junk drawer you have? It holds an unruly collection of random items that sometimes prevents you from getting the drawer opened or closed. Does your business h...

June 6, 2021

Where Purpose Meets Profit - Microchip Technology Round Table

Did you miss the Vistex Virtual Summit for the High Tech Industry on May 13th? Here’s a summary of what went down during our round table discussion with Mitch Little, Senio...

June 4, 2021

Chips And The Dip - The Semiconductor Industry and Supply Chain Challenges

On May 13th, Vistex presented its inaugural High Tech Virtual Industry Summit—and what an amazing event it was. We kicked off the day with an insightful keynote address: “S...

June 4, 2021

Are Your Partner Incentive Funds Driving ROI?

Proper Fund Utilization is Key to Your Partner Incentive Program Most corporations with channel partner programs as part of their go-to-market strategy incentivize their pa...

May 27, 2021

Pandemic Causes 3D Printing Epidemic in the Medical Industry

How a burgeoning technology is changing the future of healthcare “What began during the pandemic in response to a critical need has expanded to change the way healthcare is...

May 11, 2021

Whipping The Supply Chain Back Into Shape

How Manufacturers Navigated the Pandemic Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chain Management What a long, strange trip it’s been. Over the past year and a half, manufacturers and wh...

May 11, 2021

The Need for Speed: SVOD Services Meet Demand to Stay Competitive

When the world took a hard stop last year there were more questions than answers about how we would collectively respond to the pandemic. Our lives shifted dramatically in ...

May 11, 2021

AI-Generated vs. Copyrighted Music

Can AI composers manipulate us to prefer THEM? Once upon a time, there was a dystopian Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It inspired Ridley ...

May 5, 2021

What’s at Stake when Your Regional Channel Incentive Programs are not Aligned?

As regional marketing program teams become engrossed in the day-to-day operation of their channel incentive programs, the importance of alignment between teams and best pra...

April 30, 2021

Life Sciences Data, Is it Helping or Hurting?

You’ve Got Data. Is It Helping Or Hurting?

Raise the bar—and the bottom line Opportunity could be staring you in the face, but you might not recognize it. As a Life Sciences company, you have so much data. Are you m...

April 21, 2021

Music Catalog Sales Are Yesterday’s News: 2006 News, to Be Precise

It wasn’t the landslide that brought Stevie Nicks down. It was the pandemic. There was no sailing through the changing ocean tides once every concert venue had evaporated. ...

April 19, 2021

Rocket Rights Selects Vistex For Rights Management

April 15, 2021

Vistex Q&A with Joel Cartwright and David Schwartz

This Moment is Pivotal for CPGs and Wholesale Distributors alike

A virtual cup of coffee with Joel Cartwright - Consumer Products Industry Principal and David Schwartz - Director of Customer Success

March 16, 2021

6 Tips to Boost B2B Wholesale Distribution Profitability

David v. Goliath This past year resembled an endless David v. Goliath competition for wholesale distributors to gain web traffic and sales. While preparedness is always to...

February 23, 2021

Does Your Incentive Program Cater to International Partners?

Here is Something to Think About… Recently, I came across some interesting information while working with a client who has an MDF program that supports international partne...

February 23, 2021

Vistex and Reservoir Jointly Validate the MLC Data Quality Initiative (DQI)

February 18, 2021

How To Make Cross-Selling Your Cash Cow

It may have been a bust for many industries, but 2020 was a boon for semiconductor mergers and acquisitions. Analog Devices announced a $21 billion deal to acquire Maxim In...

February 10, 2021

Celebrity Licensing in A Pandemic

The Miley Cyrus Burrito with a Lady Gaga Cookie Chaser For celebrities, one casualty of the pandemic is their influence. While they’re catching up on their R&R, another...

February 4, 2021

Vistex Makes Forrester’s 2021 Channel Software Tech Stack

Vistex named in 4 categories Happy New Year Tech Stack! The 2021 Channel Software Tech Stack has arrived. Each January, Jay McBain, Forrester’s Principal Analyst, Channel P...

January 22, 2021

What's in store for CPG food and beverage manufacturers in 2021?

Food for thought While everyone is anxious to close or should I say, slam the door on 2020, there will certainly and unfortunately not be, a ringing in of immediate change ...

January 21, 2021

Chess anyone? Life Sciences Industry Trends in 2021 and Beyond

Now that the new year is upon us, I’m looking ahead and trying to imagine what new opportunities and challenges we’ll face in Life Sciences. At times like this, when there ...

January 21, 2021

Incremental Volume, Promotion Planning, the Shift in CPG to Ecommerce and How to Contain the Fire

My observation is that CPG manufacturers are sometimes slow to change with the times. A large portion of CPG manufacturers recognized a growing shift in consumer shopping t...

January 13, 2021

AI Generated Music: Who Gets the Royalties?

An author creating the great American novel would never be required to share their royalties with the platform they created it on, whether it’s an Underwood typewriter or word processing software like Scrivener or Microsoft Word. Similarly, musicians using artificial intelligence software (AI) to create music do not pay the AI software companies any royalties. They are entitled to collect the royalties from their AI-generated copyrighted music.

January 11, 2021

Bold Media Predictions, Part 2

Getting You Ready for 2021 In my last blog, I gave you 3 of my media predictions for 2021, which, let me tell you, generated some interesting back-channel conversations on ...

December 21, 2020

Status Quo? No Go for The Life Sciences Supply Chain

It seems like such a logical approach—in a global economy, concentrate the production of low-cost items in low-cost countries, simplify supply chains, and employ lean manuf...

December 14, 2020

2020’s Product Licensing Hero?

Face Masked Crusaders Has the pandemic transformed Paris, London, Milan and New York’s most coveted event—Fashion Week—into Face Mask Week? (One moment—filing the copyright...

December 14, 2020

6 Direct to Consumer Trends for 2021, Part 1

Bold predictions for the media and entertainment industry My friends, family, and colleagues will tell you, I’m ‘that guy.’ You all know someone like me—that person who can...

December 14, 2020

Wholesale Distribution Evolution - 2021

Post-Pandemic, How to Compete with Amazon When 20th century sci-fi looked to the distant future, did you ever imagine the world would look like it does today? Well, to be f...

December 3, 2020

Why pricing power equals pricing freedom

Hey manufacturers, what happens when you change your prices? Do your end customers benefit from price cuts, or does that cut get gobbled up by the supply chain? What did yo...

December 3, 2020

The “Black Friday” Trademark Controversy

Are German retailers still banned from advertising Black Friday sales? It was 1967 in Philadelphia when the term Black Friday was first used in the U.S. to describe the pos...

November 24, 2020

Readying your Partner Programs for 2021

During VISTAS last month, Kristen Cole and I discussed readying your partner programs for 2021. I hope it was the impetus to start thinking about what you should consider a...

November 23, 2020

How do you get pricing right? Take the corridor

How important is it to get pricing right? According to McKinsey, a 1% price increase, on average, yields an 8.7% jump in operating profits—assuming no change in volume. But...

November 11, 2020

Price determination – methods for optimal pricing decisions

As one of the most important value-added processes in companies, considerable attention should be paid to the process of pricing and thus to optimal pricing decisions. Seve...

November 4, 2020

4 Tips to Address Wholesale Supply Chain Shortages

Overcome Pandemic Supply Chain Drain The 2020 pandemic has transformed the way America shops. Fear has turned minimalists into hoarders. It’s as if consumers collectively b...

October 27, 2020

What’s a life-saving drug worth? It depends…

Drug development is a high-risk, high-reward business. The risk? According to Medicinenet.com, only 5 in 5,000 drugs that enter preclinical testing advance to human trial...

October 21, 2020

Adding Science to the Art: How Manufacturers Add More Profit with Pricing Management Technology

For manufacturers, revenue generation means earning the highest possible margins while running a sustainable business (i.e., maintaining minimum production volumes and a sa...

October 16, 2020

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Powered Analytics Drive Real-World Pricing Advantage

“We’re looking at a new AI-powered analytics solution.” That’s what manufacturers are telling us when we ask about their pricing strategy. Though it’s still the early days ...

October 15, 2020

What Does Your Top-Down and Bottom-Up Trade Plan Look Like in a COVID-19 World?

In the next few months, most retail and foodservice CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) manufacturers like you, will be starting their annual process for 2021 S&OP (Sales &am...

October 12, 2020

What Happens When You Get Price Optimization Down to a Science?

Price optimization is the process of using data to determine the optimal price of a product, based on an objective or set of objectives. Hmmm…sounds pretty boring when you ...

October 12, 2020

5 Tips for Wholesale Distributor Wins in 2020 and Beyond

5 Actionable Tips for Wholesale Distributor Wins

If you’re a wholesale distributor scratching your head, trying to find your place in the world since the pandemic has skewed the way that everyone is shopping, you’re not a...

October 1, 2020

Global Uncertainty Calls for Agility and Flexibility in Incentive Compensation

Almost everything about running a business has changed in the last few months. But have you changed your priorities and expectations of your salespeople? A spring survey by...

September 30, 2020

Do Your Channel Loyalty and Incentive Programs Match the New Reality?

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said: “The only constant in life is change.” You can say that again. So much disruption is happening so quickly…how can you be sure yo...

September 21, 2020

4 Tips for Channel Rebate Success

Are your channel rebate programs motivating the right partners in the right ways? With 80 percent of the typical high-tech company’s revenue coming from the indirect chann...

September 16, 2020

YouTubers Are Making Millions Whispering and Eating on Camera

The Weird Royalties Series: Part One It turns out, you don’t need to be a charismatic podcast host like Joe Rogan or a Top 20 Billboard star like Adele to earn millions on ...

September 15, 2020

The Right Pricing Strategy

The right pricing strategy is a key success factor for any company and should therefore be given high priority. In previous articles we have already dealt with digital pric...

August 28, 2020

Find Your Sweet Spot by Gaining Control of Trade Promotions Against Your Plan

You have a lot on your plate. One thing you don’t want to leave behind is underutilized trade promotion funds. That would be like skipping dessert! Proper planning and exec...

August 18, 2020

The Silver Lining Playbook for the Licensing Value Chain

Can’t We All Play Nice in the Sandbox? At about this time every year, kids go to camp. That won’t be happening this year, and your immediate thoughts will probably include ...

August 14, 2020

Building Brand Loyalty in Uncertain Times

The COVID pandemic has created a shift in our landscape—challenging brands with building and maintaining their brand loyalty—as our idea of business as usual continues to e...

August 7, 2020

Why Siloed Solutions Won’t Win in the D2C Economy

How Rights holders with an integrated enterprise solution gain advantages on avails and business analysis We’re living in a time where a single Spotify download means break...

July 21, 2020

The Pandemic’s Impact on Streaming Trends

Surprise Winners, Losers and Pivots During the 2020 Lockdown In March, Nielsen was already reporting a 100% increase in streaming for Americans in the key 25-54 demographic...

July 7, 2020

Wholesale Distributors Find Opportunity in the Face of Adversity

Let’s face it. Most of us haven’t seen business disruption—life disruption—like this before. It’s hard to find a news story or television ad that doesn’t mention the pandem...

June 24, 2020

Great Customer Service: A Must-Have for Strong Channel Partner Relationships

With the competitive nature of the marketplace, channel providers should take every opportunity to provide exemplary customer service for and on behalf of our clients. Not ...

June 19, 2020

Is Your Sales & Marketing Approach Tuned in to Millennial Buyers?

A baby boomer, a Gen Xer and a Millennial click into a Zoom meeting. No, this is not the set up for a joke, it’s happening in businesses every day. Each generation has its...

June 11, 2020

Did Quibi Finally Quell Creator Rights Frustrations?

Rights and Royalties Deals Get a Facelift with Quibi For creators, what’s not to like about Quibi? When ownership is one of the greatest frictions for creators of entertain...

June 11, 2020

The race to a vaccine – unintended consequences?

A gold rush is on to find a vaccine for COVID-19. According to the World Health Association (WHO) in early May, there are more than 100 projects around the world centered o...

June 4, 2020

The 6 Biggest Pain Points for Life Sciences Contract Administration

When Your Contract Management (EDI 845) Hits a Catch-22: Every industry has its hiccups with contract administration, but Life Sciences is, shall we say… special in this re...

May 31, 2020

Six Strategies for Investing in Your Market Development Funds Process

You’ve probably heard the phrase 'unprecedented time' quite a bit in the last eight weeks. The current economic turbulence is likely to affect your company’...

May 28, 2020

Amplifying your unique partner value proposition

Amplifying your unique channel partner value proposition

There are questions that every company must ask: Why do partners or customers buy from us? What clearly motivates a decision to choose us or our products over others? What ...

April 9, 2020

Reducing cost and time to market in drug development: The importance of royalties for Pharma and Biopharmaceuticals

Within the last few decades, the cost and time to market for new drug development has soared. Nowadays, it takes an average of 15 years from first molecule investigations u...

April 3, 2020

Developing your “Data Spine” through a centrally-trained data “Hub of Excellence”

Not everyone in your organization is a doctor, so why should we expect them to be? How much data do you need to identify an opportunity for a business decision? Recognizing...

April 1, 2020

How Retail is Transforming Open Spaces into Unique Customer Experiences

Too Much Space….What To Do? Have you noticed the prevalence of for-rent signs in malls and retail shops? The US retail industry has too much space per capita and not ...

February 28, 2020

Lost Royalties from Book Piracy: Should Authors Fight Back

Lost Royalties from eBook Piracy: Should Authors Fight Back?

Authors, graphic novel creators, and publishers worldwide alternately feel helpless and frustrated to find that within days of their new eBooks’ releases, they are already ...

February 24, 2020

How Rights and Royalty Issues and Industry Conflicts Nearly Ended The Irishman's Oscar Destiny

We may never know the real story of how Netflix ended up with the rights to The Irishman, and frankly, the version I know is so convoluted, I’d bore you by retelling it her...

February 4, 2020

What’s in a Name? Royalties, If You’re Tailor Swift

While Prince Harry may soon take ownership of The Purple One’s old Artist formerly Known as Prince title, today’s lesser-renowned streaming musicians have an opportunity to...

January 31, 2020

How 2019 Could Spark Some 2020 Licensing Surprises

The disruptions and surprises in 2019 licensing trends have set the tone for swirling around the bone china cup and reading the settled tea leaves for 2020. In no particula...

January 31, 2020

4 Tips to Maximize Your Sales Reward Dollars

How varying the mix and simplifying your incentives program means greater rewards for YOU! Did you know that a company can increase sales by 50% by effectively tweaking its...

January 30, 2020

The Analytic Orientation of Pricing Management

Reflections while considering a new year, and a new decade in data analysis Last year, The Professional Pricing Society’s Q2 Journal of Professional Pricing, published an a...

January 27, 2020

Wholesale Distribution Evolution - 2020

Insights that Bring Your Business Back to the Future When 20th century sci-fi looked to the distant future of 2020, what was the world going to look like? We may not be dri...

January 17, 2020

The Power of Outcome-Based Pricing

In February of 2019, CEOs and senior executives from seven major pharmaceutical companies met with the Senate Finance Committee about drug pricing. During that meeting, Ast...

December 11, 2019

Delivering an Effective Marketing Strategy for Channel Partners

Thinking smarter may just mean thinking smaller Marketing is a central element to achieving, maintaining, and expanding reach and engagement with channel partners and end u...

December 6, 2019

How a Global Payments System Can Benefit, Not to Mention Save your Channel Program

Slow reimbursement can kill a partnership in no time. For channel partners everywhere, getting paid on time is a top concern, and being able to receive and make timely, cur...

December 3, 2019

From the High Wire to the AI Spire

How Predictive Modeling Brings Balance and Success to Your Supplier If you’ve ever been to the circus, then you know the excitement of watching the aerial and high-wi...

November 27, 2019

The Genesis of 360° Deals

Traditionally, record labels limited their revenues to sound recording sales, and artists would exploit other revenue streams to increase their profits, like touring and me...

November 15, 2019

Farming Innovation: From Ammonia to AgTech Software

Just over a century ago, the Haber-Bosch process was invented in Germany, enabling the scalable production of copious amounts of ammonia for the very first time. This 1910 ...

November 5, 2019

How a Compliance Council Clears the Chaos and Boosts the Value of Your Policy Exception Strategy

Death by a Thousand Favors Customers challenge commercial policies daily with the goal of cutting costs with their trading partners. While holding to policies is always the...

October 29, 2019

What’s a Chart-Topping Cassette Tape Really Worth in 2019?

Resurging Sales Say Old School Is Cool Again In one of the most famous scenes of Monty Python’s film The Holy Grail, the Black Knight is guarding a stream, refusing King...

October 17, 2019

Enhance the Partner Experience with a white-glove program

A White Glove Approach for Channel Partners Pays Off

When you think of white-glove service, what comes to mind? Often, we think of service that goes above and beyond, where special care or attention to detail is the highest ...

September 18, 2019

The Advantages to Inventory Life Cycle Data Via an Online Tool

In today’s high-tech world, companies of all sizes are still tracking their important data via spreadsheets. It’s no secret that manually manipulating spreadsheet data crea...

September 6, 2019

FOMO Redefined: Will Streamer ‘Fear of Media Obliteration’ Force Demand for Physical Media?

In October of 2018, a well-publicized auction at Sotheby’s auction house became the unintended metaphor for the future of streaming entertainment. Street artist Banksy’s...

August 29, 2019

How to Monetize Music on Social Media and Capture Royalties Due

TikTok, Facebook’s Lasso, Facebook’s in-app service Lip Sync Live, Instagram Stories and German-based Mobile Motion GmbH’s Dubsmash are some of the sites where musicians...

August 13, 2019

Royalty Management: Why Google Stadia and Its Cloud-Based Videogaming Rivals Need a Robust Solution

While videogame graphics have evolved from 8-bit to 64-bit architecture, rights and royalties management software also had to level up to meet user demand. Today’s R...

August 12, 2019

Taking a Holistic Approach to Revenue Management

The Brave New World of High-Tech Revenue Management Is Holistic the Way to Go? From music, to TV to software, cloud-based subscriptions are the norm today. Gartner estimate...

August 1, 2019

Carly’s Cost-Plus Pricing Strategy

Carly was tinkering frantically with her spreadsheets, as she had done all afternoon. This all started a week ago when the new CFO announced a set of initiatives to focus m...

August 1, 2019

Vistex Announces Partnership with European Pricing Platform

July 29, 2019

Licensing Expo 2019: Advice on Best Practices for New Brands

I have a special place in my heart for new brands who develop creative concepts and invest their savings towards bringing their ideas to market at the Licensing Expo. For s...

July 12, 2019

A Call for Mobile Dashboards

Leveraging channel promotions and rebates to automate manual processes Last year a client came to us with a need to provide partners with a mobile dashboard. The ask was t...

June 26, 2019

Sanjay Shah EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 Midwest

Chicagoland Global Software Company Vistex Doubles Down on the City with New Downtown Office

June 26, 2019

Revenue Leakage: A Focus on Deductions

Today’s ever-changing revenue ecosystem is increasingly complex, regardless of industry. Various industry experts have concluded that companies’ revenue leakage contributes...

May 29, 2019

Vistex announces availability of SAP S/4HANA® for rights and royalty management by Vistex

Vistex announces availability of SAP S/4HANA® for rights and royalty management by Vistex

May 29, 2019

Do you have the right Elements in place for a Successful Channel Partner Program?

Is it even possible to overestimate the role the channel plays in the high tech industry today? I’m pretty sure it’s not. If your company operates in the B2C market space, ...

May 20, 2019

Effective Special Pricing Agreements

Using Vistex technology to increase the speed, compliance and accuracy of SPA management Special pricing agreements (SPAs) are a great way to manage contract compliance and...

May 13, 2019

Observations from Channel Partners Conference and Expo

Wow! Is it May already?!? April was a busy month – several new implementations kicking off, interesting customer conversations about business challenges, and attending the ...

May 10, 2019

Get More for Your Money: Rebates 101

In both my personal and professional life, there has been one phrase I have repeatedly heard for ages: Rebates are simply a cost of doing business. Nowadays, nothing sells ...

May 10, 2019

The New Music Modernization Act: 3 Key Points

Since my last article discussing the Music Modernization Act passage from both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the President signed the act into law. Recently...

April 26, 2019

Creating a Successful Partner Pilot Program

When it comes to rolling out new programs for partners, it is common to pilot the program to a subset of partners first. In addition to gauging your partners’ program engag...

April 26, 2019

Visibility and Transparency into Consumer Products

Visibility and Transparency – A Bird’s Eye View into Consumer Products

As long as I can remember, senior management within consumer products manufacturers have talked about achieving a working framework for sales planning and forecasting provi...

April 25, 2019

Who Still Pays for Cable? And Why?

There are a dozen websites and Twitter accounts dedicated to divorcing your cable provider and mixing up the perfect cocktail of streaming services. If CordCutting.com is a...

April 5, 2019

Vistex to Announce Rights Integration for TV Distributors at MIPTV

April 3, 2019

Vistex Unveils First and Only Cross-Divisional Rights and Royalties Management Solution

April 2, 2019

The Race is On for Delivering Content to Consumers: Can You Easily Monetize

Ability will never catch up to the demand for it," – Confucius While these words have never been truer – especially in the direct to consumer (DTC) economy ̵...

March 26, 2019

Vistex at NAMM 2019: Believe in Music & Software

The annual NAMM 2020 (National Association of Music Merchants) convention held recently at the Anaheim Convention Center was a massive affair…as it so often is! Every aspe...

March 25, 2019

Maximizing your ROI through Market Development Funds (MDF)

Recognizing the foundational blocks In my experience, the ability to plan, pivot and execute is what sets companies apart. Successful organizations can look ahead to both p...

March 19, 2019

Protecting your Intellectual Property

The Secret Decoder Ring for Licensing Contracts From eHow.com to WikiHow to Lifehacker and YouTube, there is no shortage of D-I-Y tutorials. But there’s one area where you ...

March 5, 2019

Price Optimization – Working with a Muddied Concept

What is Price Optimization? The term ‘price optimization’ refers to the process of setting your prices in such a way that they are optimal in respect to your business objec...

March 1, 2019

Creating a Best-in-Class Channel Incentive Program

While focusing on channel programs and incentives throughout my career, I’ve been presented many types of incentive questions from both partners and clients. But there was ...

February 20, 2019

In Licensing, Book Publishing Is the One to Watch

Here’s my prediction for 2019: The demand for creative content exploitation, partner transparency, and fair compensation will continue to amplify. This isn’t too much of a ...

January 18, 2019

Loyalty Program Strategies: Define, Design, Launch!

We obviously live in a fast-paced society. Many people are constantly on the go and in search of ways to simplify their busy lifestyles. As a result, companies are faced w...

January 11, 2019

7 content and licensing trends to watch for in 2019

As the sands run out on the 2018 hourglass, I cannot help but look forward to where technology and consumer trends will take us in 2019. In reviewing the projects we’ve dep...

December 19, 2018

Back to the basics: Create effective partner communications

Back to the basics: Creating effective partner communications

With the internet and so much information at our fingertips it may be hard to make your partner communications stand out, let alone get your partners to engage. However, ke...

November 30, 2018

The hidden world of intellectual property licensing

The next time you’re sitting in Caesars Palace amongst the cacophony of lights and sounds, pulling the one-armed bandit in rapid succession on what is hopefully a loose slo...

November 26, 2018

Channel track raises the stakes at VISTAS 2018

VISTAS 2018 was the biggest and best yet, complete with an electrifying keynote presentation from Vistex CEO, Founder, and Chief Architect, Sanjay Shah, mystifying magic fr...

November 8, 2018

The Music Modernization Act and CLASSICS Act move a step closer to becoming law

As consumption of music has moved away from the physical realm of CDs and vinyl into the digital realm, copyright laws have had difficulty representing this technological s...

September 28, 2018

Key Metrics in Channel MDF Program Efficiency and Partner Engagement

One of the motivators for channel partners is via market development funds (MDF). Whether accrual-based or discretionary, there are many measures that can demonstrate prog...

September 24, 2018

Streamlining the Licensing Workflow – Why Attending Conferences is Important

From January through June every year I am either managing meeting logistics or attending one of a few trade conferences which are very important to our business and the bus...

September 23, 2018

A Guide to Channel Partner Program Transitions

Change isn’t easy. We are creatures of habit, accustomed to working with tools, processes and people that are familiar to us. Learning to use new software, operate wi...

August 2, 2018

Use Channel Data Management to create a 360-degree view of your channel partners

When working with my channel clients I often hear the term Channel Data Management (CDM) discussed in the context of managing Point-of-Sale (POS) data. POS is certainly an ...

June 26, 2018

Key Steps in Developing a Channel Strategy

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin Creating and initiating an effective channel strategy is one of the hardest challenges channe...

May 24, 2017

6 Go-to-Market Strategy Tips to Enable Cloud & Traditional Partners

Many technology partners and vendors find themselves in the implementation stage of a hybrid Cloud model. Tiffany Bova of Gartner, sees the channel evolving as follows: (...

January 30, 2015

How Successful Cloud Partners Categorize Vendors

Even if you are the 800 pound gorilla in your market (think Microsoft, HP, Google), you need to get into your partners’ heads to maximize the potential of your channel. If ...

December 30, 2014

Analytics - 3 Data Visualization Techniques

Okay, I might be biased, but let’s address a common misconception: visualization is just about making things look pretty. Over the last 10 years I’ve found visualiza...

November 21, 2014

Move From GTM Program Management to Optimization

Companies across different industries – Technology, Consumer Products, Life Sciences, Automotive, etc. – are experiencing pain points in today’s rapidly evolving markets. ...

September 25, 2014

Strategy to Improve Promotional Allowance Programs

Promotional allowance programs (MDF, Co-op) can be one of the most effective tools in a channel marketer’s toolkit. However, they often also represent the largest expense ...

September 18, 2014

Channel Strategy & the 80/20 Rule - How to Improve the Bottom 80%?

If you’ve spent any time in corporate America you realize that The 80/20 rule can be applied to pretty much anything – candy consumption, crop yields, tenant complaints, s...

September 4, 2014

Facing Your Channel Program Execution...

You can have the most perfectly designed channel programs, but if you don’t execute successfully, it will fail … ever wonder why this is? The Business/Strategic effort to ...

August 21, 2014

Are You Falling Victim to These 4 Go-to-Market Challenges?

Recently, we hosted a webinar called Building a Go-to-Market Strategy to Enable Both Your Cloud and Traditional Partners. Our presenters VP Channel Strategy William Gilsin...

August 15, 2014

Are Your PAMs Biases Skewing Partner Profiling?

Companies are constantly reaching out to us for guidance on how to recruit the right partners for their channel. They have questions about finding their ideal partners, an...

August 7, 2014

Crawl, Walk or Run to Joint Marketing Planning that Drives ROI

If you are like many of us here at Vistex, you got into marketing because you enjoy engaging in creative and collaborative processes to develop strategic marketing plans, ...

April 3, 2014