Category Management
Category Management creates value to the consumer by improving business results through the cooperation of retailer and supplier, insuring that there is a clear path to success. This involves developing category plans to improve the offer to the consumer and to make the fixtures more shoppable and profitable.
To make Category Management work, plans have to be based on facts, so MARKETING INITIATIVES must:
- Ask the right questions
- Have the skills to interpolate the resulting data
- Have the ability to formulate a strategy
- Plan and implement actions that deliver extra benefits to the consumer
- Work with retailers as a team to implement the category plan
At MARKETING INITIATIVES we fully embrace Category Management to ensure we add value for both our clients and retailers resulting in MARKETING INITIATIVES being nominated Category Captain in many categories by retailers. We have the experience to manage close, regular contact with the retailers facilitating joint cooperation on the management of product categories. Making Category Management work effectively involves a number of processes working in synchronisation;
Category Structure Definition
The Product Hierarchy is defined as;
- Product categories
- Sub categories
- Product groups and sub product groups
Performance Measurement
Using Kantar or Nielsen data, MARKETING INITIATIVES constructs data reports for each category based on the Product Group Hierarchy. For each product Marketing Initiatives shows sales, profit and movement for last year as well as year on year performance. MARKETING INITIATIVES fully analyses fixtures using photographs and space planners to construct a space model showing the number of lines per category for each size of store. MARKETING INITIATIVES also constructs analysis to show how retailer A is performing against retailer B.
Strategy Definition
Using product data and the fixture analysis MARKETING INITIATIVES builds a presentation for each retailer showing where they are over-performing or under-performing in the market. MARKETING INITIATIVES will make range recommendations on the opportunities and define the strategy of the category with the retailer.
Implementation
Implementation is derived from the information gained from both market research and analysis.
Category Review
The Category Performance will be monitored on an ongoing basis and the plan will be modified if and when appropriate.