Why Technically Correct Pricing Recommendation Can be Strategically Wrong with Sandeep Mathew

Sandeep Mathew is a sales and marketing leader with 19 years of global CPG experience, including extensive work at Unilever building and deploying revenue growth management (RGM) capabilities. He eventually managed RGM as a global capability across markets and channels, and now works on customized RGM analytics across different markets, categories, and channels.

In this episode, Sandeep explains why even sound RGM data and technically correct pricing recommendations can lead brands in the wrong direction.

Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast:

• Learn why a technically sound RGM recommendation can still be strategically wrong for a brand's long-term health.
• Discover how promotions can become a downward spiral that erodes brand equity and profitability.
• Build a better promotional strategy by connecting source of growth → brand job to be done → promotional objective before analyzing the data.

"Don't take any recommendation at face value. Look at all angles to it. Most importantly, from the long-term health of the brand. Never compromise that for any short-term gains."

— Sandeep Mathew

Topics Covered:

01:20 – From Marketing to RGM: Why Sandeep Trusted Purchase Data. Learn why Sandeep became drawn to RGM after seeing how actual purchase data could produce more actionable insights than consumer intention research.

03:30 – One RGM Framework Doesn't Fit Every Channel. Discover why e-commerce, value channels, omnichannel, and quick commerce each require customized RGM approaches rather than one standardized framework.

06:00 – The RGM Paradox: When Good Data Leads to a Bad Decision. Sandeep explains how he went from trusting RGM recommendations almost completely to realizing that short-term data can miss long-term brand consequences.

08:00 – Why Three Months of Data Can't Protect a 100-Year-Old Brand. Understand the mismatch between RGM's typical 3–6 month or 3–5 year view and the 10–15+ year horizon required to manage brand equity.

10:00 – The Brand vs. RGM Tension. Learn why marketing teams understand the brand but may not understand RGM, while RGM teams can produce powerful analytics without seeing the long-term brand picture.

12:00 – The Hardest Question: How Do You Measure Long-Term Brand Impact? Sandeep explains why long-term data is ideal, why 10–15 years of data still creates causality challenges, and how to combine brand-equity measures, consumer surveys, and RGM analytics when perfect data isn't available.

14:00 – The Promotion Spiral That Can Kill a Brand. Discover how brands can respond to an underlying brand-equity problem with promotions, temporarily chasing volume while gradually increasing discounts and eroding profitability.

16:00 – What Does Your Brand Actually Stand For? Learn the three questions Sandeep uses to diagnose brand strength: What do you stand for? What meaningful value do you bring? How differentiated and salient are you?

18:00 – Build the Promotional Strategy Before Running the RGM Analysis. Sandeep shares his framework: identify the brand job to be done, determine the source of growth, translate it into promotional objectives, and then use RGM to evaluate the options.

19:30 – Final Pricing Advice: Never Trade Long-Term Brand Health for Short-Term Gains. Sandeep's closing principle for making better pricing decisions.

Key Takeaways:

"When you're making decisions at that level for a certain brand, you don't want to only win over the next three months or six months. You want to win for the next five years, 10 years." — Sandeep Mathew

"Don't forget that there are long-term impacts on the brand. That's the most important thing." — Sandeep Mathew

"Sampling will only work if you want to do penetration. Don't do sampling if you want to switch from your lead competitor." — Sandeep Mathew

Connect with Sandeep Mathew:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeep-john-mathew/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com