Progressive Grocer Honors 2016 Category Captains
Retailers and suppliers continue to make strides to further enhance their collective strategies to maximize the profitability of every department in the store, as evidenced by a new slate of Progressive Grocer Category Captains.
The leading national trade publication's annual awards program, now in its 20th year, honors CPG companies for category management aptitude, best demonstrated by collaborations with their grocery retailer partners to deliver shopper solutions and drive sales.
PG's 2016 Category Captains compeitition recognizes 62 winners, in two classes: Captains and Advisors.
All the winners are featured in PG’s November 2016 issue.
"Retailers and suppliers are working together to maximize the profitability of every department in the store," said Jim Dudlicek, PG's editor-in-chief, who led the judging panel. "These partnerships are generating solutions tailored for specific consumer need-states that address unique demands at local and regional levels. Cutting-edge advancements in shopper insights have created unprecedented opportunities for collaboration between retailers and their trading partners."
The award criteria factored into the judging of the entries included creativity in merchandising, marketing, promotion and advertising; application of shopper insights; demonstrated commitment to meeting retail partners’ specific needs; effectiveness at lifting an entire category’s sales for a retailer; and success in facilitating shopper-centric solutions focused on consumer need-states.
Honorees designated as Category Captains demonstrate excellence across all our judging criteria. Those named Category Advisors also exhibit high competence, but to a lesser degree and/or in fewer of the above areas.
Category Leaders
Some examples of effective initiatives that stood out in the minds of our editors this year:
- Spirits supplier Beam Sunatory worked with its partner retailers to develop shelving principles that deliver incremental growth, while allowing customization for specific regions and store clusters.
- Mars Chocolate North America’s Wrigley division leveraged research to identify key need-states at the front end that cross several store categories.
- Coca-Cola launched a strategic merchandising incentive to grow sales of beverages and complementary categories, with displays in nontraditional areas of the store.
- Dean Foods is doing it all it can to roust a sleepy fluid milk category by answering demand for clean-label products and additional marketing investment to reignite excitement.
- Tyson Foods’ Velocity Process uses data to uncover growth opportunities within a retailer’s prepared foods department and expose service lapses that impact retailer loyalty.
Read our complete Category Captains awards coverage in PG’s November 2016 issue.