Category Captain: Bakery: Dawn Foods

Dawn Foods’ effective category management program with a major club store retailer took the cake in the bakery category in 2011. The supplier developed an ongoing total cake program for the retailer’s fresh bakery, helping to signify it as a cake destination.

Armed with the retailer’s in-house point-of-sale data, as well as leading consumer data from The Perishables Group, Nielsen, The NPD Group and others, Dawn Foods analyzed shopping habits, taking current economic concerns into consideration. The company created high-quality and value dessert cakes with innovative flavors that are the “right” size to fit consumers’ buying profiles. It also developed a special-occasion cake program, offering the best solutions with minimal execution at store level.

New signage and fresh, creative displays helped to further bring the changes to life while capturing shoppers’ interest. The results were decidedly sweet: Total cake sales were up 6.5 percent in dollars, and unit sales were up 10 percent.

Other highlights of the year for Dawn included the initiation of the Dawn Retailers’ Advisory Board, an open forum with participation from a group of major noncompetitive ISB retailers; the Dawn 360 proprietary/confidential study; and Dawn category managers’ initiation of certification from the Category Management Association.

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