CPG Marketers Still Worship the 'Consumer Journey'—But It’s Just Code for More Discount Spam

Here we go again: it’s mid-August, city heat shimmering off every delivery van, and the CPG marketing crowd is back with another study about the ‘consumer journey’—as if that’s some mystical roadmap, not a dressed-up excuse to keep shoveling coupons into the digital void. This week, Circana and Ibotta dropped a report (yes, sponsored—try to act surprised) promising that promotions still drive ‘incremental business outcomes.’ Translation: keep flooding inboxes and apps with temporary discounts and you might, just might, squeeze out a few more purchases before shoppers ghost you for the next shiny offer.

What’s laughable is how these folks act like AI and media fragmentation are new. The landscape’s been fractured since the day Instagram introduced Stories, and AI’s been hawked as a silver bullet since ChatGPT’s first viral meme. But did any of that stop your average CPG brand from running the same tired playbook? Of course not. Instead, we get recycled wisdom about ‘connecting media, promotions and commerce’—which, in the real world, looks like another pop-up on a bodega app promising 50 cents off a can of seltzer. If you’re lucky, it syncs with your loyalty card. Most of the time, it just adds to the noise.

Let’s cut through the horseshit: promotions aren’t driving loyalty, they’re driving addiction to discounts. The only ‘incremental outcome’ here is a race to the bottom on margins. And don’t let Ibotta’s partner insights seduce you into thinking this is some breakthrough in behavioral economics. It’s the same old couponing dressed up with a few AI buzzwords and a dashboard that makes CMOs feel like they’re steering the ship rather than rearranging deck chairs.

If you want real incremental growth, stop treating the consumer journey like a scavenger hunt for promo codes. Invest in actual product quality and relevance—something people notice, not just when it’s 30% off. And for the love of summer, can we get through one August without a trade publication pretending that ‘personalized offers’ are the holy grail? Try showing up with a product worth buying at full price, and see how far that gets you. But that’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Here’s the ugly recommendation the industry will ignore: slash your promo budget by half for a quarter and force your team to win on product, experience, and brand. See who’s left standing when your AI-powered discount machine goes cold. Spoiler: it won’t be the lazy, listicle-chasing agencies or the CPG brands addicted to short-term lifts.