July / August 2014

A large portion of my time as editor of Retail Leader is spent sifting through and reading the mountain of information that's made available to me every day.

Less than half of survey respondents still offer them, and their formats vary wildly in every respect. Perhaps no aspect of CPG retailing is in a greater state of flux than coupons–what form they should take, where they should come from, and whether they should even exist.

Not exactly. "The thought [was] when we started that, well, the similarities are so blatantly obvious, it's roughly the same business," says Bo Sharon. "But the reality is that it truly wasn't at all."

Ask the average consumer in the Unites States the question, "Who is Nestlé?" and you're most likely to get the response: "Chocolate." But even the briefest glance at the company's portfolio of brands makes it clear that, in reality, the global Nestlé organization is much, much more.