What is a Revenue Management Platform? The Aforza Perspective
Revenue growth is one of the toughest challenges facing consumer goods companies today. For many years the formula for success was clear. Reliable population growth, steady consumer preferences, and predictable distribution models created a rising tide that lifted almost every player in the industry. Profitability was protected, growth was constant, and consumer goods consistently outperformed the wider market.
That formula no longer works. Margins are shrinking, volumes are harder to capture, and costs are escalating across every part of the value chain. Traditional approaches to revenue management, built on disconnected tools and manual spreadsheets, simply cannot keep pace with the scale and complexity of today’s environment.
At Aforza we believe the answer is a new class of system. A modern Revenue Management Platform must be omnichannel, intelligent, and mobile first. It should connect every revenue generating team into one source of truth, give them the ability to make smarter decisions in the moment, and provide the insights needed to protect profitability at scale. This is exactly what Aforza delivers.
Market Context: A Decade of Slowing Performance
For decades consumer goods companies outperformed the market through a simple but effective formula. Growth was strong and margins were steady which gave investors reliable returns. Over the past ten years the picture has shifted. Growth has slowed, margins have been eroded, and inflation has added new pressure.
This chart tells the story. While the S&P 500 has grown strongly, CPG performance has faltered. The industry has moved from being an engine of value creation to one struggling to keep pace.
Source: McKinsey & Company – Rescuing the Decade
Performance Has Slowed
The drivers behind this slowdown are well understood.
Top Line Growth Has Faded
Population growth has slowed while grocers have consolidated and consumer preferences have fragmented. The rising tide that once guaranteed growth is no longer present.
Margins Are Down
The pandemic and inflationary spikes combined to reduce profitability and drive contraction in volumes. Even well run companies struggled to defend their bottom line.
Costs Keep Rising
Labour, distribution, fuel, and materials have all become more expensive. Inflation has amplified this further and made it more difficult to sustain healthy returns.
This is the dual challenge facing the industry today. Growth has slowed while costs have risen. Companies must find a way to restore profitable revenue and adapt to a far more demanding environment.
Industry Challenges in Revenue Management
Against this backdrop most consumer goods companies face three structural challenges when it comes to revenue management.
Fragmented systems
Pricing engines, promotion planning tools, and sales execution systems are often separate. The lack of integration means there is no single view of revenue performance and no ability to manage decisions across channels.
Inefficient trade spend
Trade promotion represents the largest single investment for most consumer goods businesses yet much of it is wasted. Without a clear connection between planning and execution the ability to measure ROI is weak and value leaks away.
Slow decision making
Decisions are often made on outdated data and without the support of AI. As a result opportunities are missed and competitors gain an advantage.
These issues combine to create an industry stuck in reactive mode. Instead of driving profitable growth many revenue management processes are tied up in manual tasks, disconnected reporting, and delayed decision cycles.
The Aforza Solution: Five Pillars of Revenue Management
Aforza was created to solve these challenges directly. The Aforza platform is built for consumer goods and provides a connected approach to revenue management that drives profitable growth. We believe there are five essential pillars.
Connected Platform
Revenue management must be unified across the organisation. Aforza connects sales representatives, Key Account Managers, trade planners, finance leaders, and marketers into one platform.
Everyone works from the same source of truth which eliminates silos and ensures consistent execution. Strategies developed at headquarters flow through to the field with clarity and speed.
Omnichannel Engines for Pricing, Promotions & Orders
Revenue levers such as pricing, promotions, and order management cannot be treated in isolation. Aforza provides omnichannel engines that connect these areas together.
This allows companies to design the right price strategies, activate promotions that deliver profitable growth and capture orders with confidence. Execution happens in real time and ROI can be measured instantly.
Trade Promotion Management (TPM)
Trade spend consumes up to one fifth of revenue in many consumer goods businesses. Without strong systems it becomes a cost rather than an investment. Aforza TPM transforms this dynamic. It unites planning, execution and post event analysis into one process.
Promotions are designed with clear objectives, execution is monitored in the field, and profitability is measured. This ensures every dollar invested in trade drives growth.
Ava for Revenue Decisions
Ava is Aforza’s Vertical AI and she is at the heart of profitable revenue management. Ava acts as a Commercial Excellence Coach for every role in the organisation. She interprets scenarios, recommends strategies, and can take action instantly.
This could mean generating an order, adjusting promotional spend or guiding a field representative on what to do next. Ava does not simply suggest actions. She executes them. This makes decisions smarter, faster and more profitable.
Mobile First On the Go Revenue Management
Revenue management does not only happen in the back office. Decisions need to be made in store, in customer meetings, and on the move. Aforza provides dedicated mobile apps that give teams the ability to manage revenue wherever they are.
Field users can see live promotion performance, capture orders, and receive guidance from Ava in real time. This ensures decisions happen at the moment of impact which is where value is created.
Ava: The Game Changer in Revenue Management
While many platforms claim to include AI only Aforza delivers Vertical AI built specifically for consumer goods. Ava is trained on the language, processes, and challenges of the industry. This allows her to move beyond pattern recognition into true scenario interpretation.
Ava changes the way revenue management works.
She automates the heavy lifting such as analysing promotion performance and creating orders.
She interprets the context behind data and recommends the right action.
She scales productivity by empowering every team member to perform like the best commercial leader in the business.
The result is an AI that is not an add on but a core part of the revenue management process. Ava ensures that every decision made across pricing, promotions, and orders is optimised for profitability.
Ava in Action: Customer Case Studies
Aforza is already being used by leading consumer goods companies around the world to generate profitable revenue. These case studies show that Aforza is not theory. It is a proven platform delivering measurable results.
“Ava has transformed the way our field teams work. By cutting data collection time in half and improving accuracy to 96%, our reps can now focus on building stronger customer relationships and maximising opportunities at the shelf.”
Keir Stewart
Head of Performance Analytics, AG Barr
“At Heineken Beverages, we fully digitized our retail execution, trade promotion management and marketing capabilities on a single platform. Just 6-months after implementation, we are seeing game-changing results with a significant increase in sales order basket size.”
Craig Price
Head of Revenue & Margin Growth, Heineken Beverages
“The Studio Marketplace is a strategic move for Aforza and the industry as a whole. The ability to have an ecosystem of solutions seamlessly connected together, and then take real-time action on the insights, is a game-changer.”
David Jacobs
Director of IT Sales, Suntory Global Spirits
“Aforza’s industry and domain expertise sets them apart in the market. The new Business Process Library is a great example of this leadership, empowering their customers to implement best practices better, faster and cheaper around the world.”
Paul Brennan
Global Commercial Excellence Director, Edrington
“BrewDog recorded a 250% improvement in sales results in the first quarter of using Aforza, and we then saw a sustained improvement of 40% in subsequent quarters. Strong field adoption and segment-driven account coverage have been key to this success.”
Jerry Shedden
Head of On-Trade, BrewDog
“Whyte & Mackay needed to transform our front-office capabilities and create a step change in how data led insights are used to inform our strategy, empowering the team with a modern, beverage-focused cloud and mobile solution.”
Mike Southgate
Sales Director, Whyte & Mackay
Industry Recognition
Aforza has been recognised by the world’s leading analyst firms and industry bodies for its leadership in revenue management.
Gartner
Gartner has highlighted Aforza for its capabilities in Revenue Growth Management. This recognition underscores the value of our connected AI driven approach.
The Promotion Optimization Institute (POI)
The Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) has awarded Aforza multiple Best in Class distinctions across Trade Promotion Management and Retail Execution. Awards include Connected Enterprise, Data and Analytics and Agentic AI.
This external validation reinforces what our customers already know. Aforza is the global leader in Revenue Management Platforms for consumer goods.
Getting Started with Aforza
Implementing revenue management improvements no longer requires years of transformation or complex integration projects. Aforza is cloud based, built on Salesforce and Google Cloud and designed for instant adoption. Companies can start small with a single use case or roll out a comprehensive revenue management programme.
Aforza provides flexibility to match the priorities of each business. For some the focus may be on optimising trade promotions. For others the priority is mobile order capture or omnichannel pricing. In every case Ava is present to guide teams and ensure decisions are profitable.
The path to profitable growth is clear. Companies who embrace connected revenue management and AI driven decisioning will thrive in the new environment. Those who rely on fragmented systems and manual processes will continue to struggle.
Conclusion
A Revenue Management Platform must do more than report numbers. It must create profitable growth. Aforza has redefined the category by providing a connected omnichannel platform, dedicated TPM, mobile first design and embedded Vertical AI.
The result is a system that allows consumer goods companies to restore growth, protect margins and scale profitability across every channel. Now is the time to rethink revenue management. With Aforza companies have the platform they need to succeed in the decade ahead.
Get a Demo of Aforza
Discover how Aforza’s Revenue Management Platform connects pricing, promotions, orders, and Trade Promotion Management into one system. See how Ava, our Vertical AI, empowers every team to make smarter decisions and drive profitable revenue growth. Request your personalised demo today.