Article at a glance:

How consumer goods companies are coping with complexity

• Consumer goods marketers are struggling to keep up with unprecedented levels of change—from an explosion in the number of media choices to the growth in size and importance of major discount retailers.
• Recent McKinsey research combined a survey of marketers at 20 leading North American consumer goods companies with a review of their relative market shares, growth rates, and new-product sales, as well as other metrics.
• Some leaders appear to be coping with today’s challenging environment by experimenting with new media, novel approaches to gathering insights about consumers, and more collaborative relationships with retailers, among other things.