They face slow growth in their traditional markets, find that emerging markets are not the panacea they once seemed and battle new and established competitors at every turn. CPG companies need to find new ways to stand out, and one area that hasn't been truly conquered yet is their understanding of their customers.

There is a trend in marketing right now chasing the "conscious consumer" - those consumers whose buying habits are often a reflection of their environmental, ethical and political concerns. The trend can be seen in everything from eco-friendly detergent to green homes to the slow food movement.

Balancing the P&L for a marketer is a system of checks and balances; with the biggest line item for consumer product brands being its working media. Marketers need to take every opportunity to ensure optimization of their programs to gain the maximum return on their investment. Breaking down the components of any advertising buy with focus on the target audience is the best way to drive efficiency. Optimizing media plans and reducing waste by a few percentage points allows for gains as long as the benefits are not cancelled out by a proportionate increase in media costs.

In past studies, it has been estimated that $483 billion is spent on promotional marketing. Whether it is coupons, rebates, sampling, sweepstakes or contests, there's no denying promotions are an important way for CPG brands to drive sales, awareness, loyalty, engagement and much more. A marketer's worst fear is designing a promotion that gains no real traction with consumers. No one wants to throw a party where the guests don't show up. As marketers, our job is to design a plan that attracts participation, engagement and sharing.

Ten years ago, the partners at our ad agency did an offsite meeting to plan our future. We were small and scrappy and talent-laden, but like the vast majority of agencies, we lacked any real point of differentiation.

Content marketing has become a high priority for both B2B as well B2C brands over the last couple of years. Many brands have taken the position that they effectively need to become publishers to market and win with consumers. In fact, according to Seth Godin, "Content marketing is all the marketing that's left."

As a CPG marketer, you get that social activation plays a crucial role in the shopper marketing mix. With almost 60% of Americans already actively using social media, brands and retailers recognize the important role that social platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram play in shoppers' digitally enabled path to purchase. Brand and agency teams now consistently work together to maximize the benefits of integrating social in their shopper marketing strategy.

Humor is one of the riskiest bets in advertising. Some ads win big - having humor that generates interest, brings in customers, and works longer by going viral. Some spots split the pot - entertaining the masses, but doing nothing for the brand. Then there are the big losers, whose jokes actually drive away business and damage the brand.

Similar to the way online advertisers measure and optimize their ads on-the-fly, CPG marketers can now measure and improve their retail and product performance with an unprecedented level of accuracy. This level of measurement was simply not possible just a few years ago without the widespread mobile and crowdsourcing technologies that exist today.

Personalization for CPG has long been a buzzword, and it's easy to see why. It has led to more sales, higher brand affinity and loyalty and deeper engagements between brands and consumers.