Retailers Seeking Actionable Category Insights
Kantar Retail's "2011 Category Leadership Benchmarking Study" finds solutions moving well beyond traditional tactics.
Category leadership takes center stage in the recently released "2011 Category Leadership Benchmarking Study" from Kantar Retail. Formerly titled CMAR ("Consumer Marketing at Retail"), the publication focuses on best practices, historical trends and category leadership insights from both a retailer and a manufacturer perspective.
This year's report, titled "Linked," sheds light on the evolution of category management from a narrow scope of tactical planning and organization to a holistic approach that has begun to incorporate shopper insights and marketing. Wilton, Conn.-based Kantar Retail recognizes best-in-class organizations for the creation of a Center of Excellence within their corporate structures to better address this broadened methodology.
Among the key highlights of the study is its finding that manufacturers have remained consistent on the value of category management, with 81 percent rating the area as very/ extremely important. For retailers, on the other hand, the importance of category management has declined over the past decade. Retailers are looking to their trade partners for category leadership and actions based on insights.
"Retailers are looking for real growth solutions, and that means moving beyond the mere category tactics," affirms Grace Park, Kantar Retail managing director.
Importance of Category Management
Some industry leaders have already demonstrated the effectiveness of a centralized function to integrate the formerly distinct areas of category management, insights and shopper marketing, according to Kantar Retail. This group can focus on a holistic approach to category leadership, the "whys" and "why nots," and improving the ability to listen, which trading partners rank as the key to differentiation.
Category Management Activities That Will Differentiate Companies in the Future
Meanwhile, the Kantar Retail report finds that trading partners predict significant growth in the importance of insights to company differentiation, foreseeing an increase of more than 30 percentage points between now and the future. Linking this area to existing category management is recommended to drive leadership and growth.
SUPPLIER PERSPECTIVE
Some industry leaders have already demonstrated the effectiveness of a centralized function to integrate the formerly distinct areas of category management, insights and shopper marketing. This group can focus on a holistic approach to category leadership — the "whys" and "why nots" — and improving ability to listen, which trading partners rank as the key to differentiation, says Kantar Retail.
CMA Readies for Annual CatMan Conference
The Category Management Association (CMA) will bestow on-stage Strategic Insights Employee Recognition Awards from any company that would like to recognize the outstanding achievements of its category management, space management or shopper management professionals. The awards will be presented with a certificate and photo, and will be displayed on screen throughout the 2011 Annual Category Management Conference, scheduled to take place Oct. 24-28 at the Georgia International Conference Center in Atlanta.
"This is an excellent opportunity for companies to finally give public recognition to their strategic insights team members. In the past, sales and marketing professionals were recognized with public ceremony awards, annual bonuses and lots of tools to do their job. Now CatMan teams are beginning to receive similar recognition, and we are happy to provide the platform for a public ceremony awards function at the annual conference," says Donna Frazier, CMA's founder.
"Team leaders are welcome to contact me personally, and we will provide them with a PPT template," adds Frazier, noting that this type of recognition is long overdue. "Around the globe, category management professionals are stepping up to the plate to drive total company strategy," she explains. "Retailers and manufacturers know that they must improve their strategic analytic capabilities or go out of business, and they are turning to category management professionals to guide this effort, as seen in countless instances cited in the 4,000 global sources monitored by the Category Management Association."
An example is a citation from Sidney, Neb.-based Cabela's Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting: "Our next honoree is being recognized for outstanding work throughout 2010 in her role as a retail associate category manager for optics. She has aggressively worked to build the optics business by working with our vendors to assist stores with sales contests, kept customers' needs in mind for promotions, and helped stores meet and exceed their sales goals. She is a real team player through and through, and I'd like to call Kelly Streit forward to be recognized."
Strategic insights teams are increasingly seen at retailers and manufacturers, and comprise category management, space management and shopper management professionals. As voiced by one company: "[S]everal years ago, we challenged ourselves to think about 'what would be the next generation of category management?' That challenge sent us on a journey that's led to something far greater and more integrated across our entire company than we could have ever imagined...."
The CMA is an unbiased central resource for industry information and best practices, and is the only organization certifying companies and individual category management professionals according to recognized, industry-wide standards. The Wimberley, Texas-based association encompasses a broad range of strategic insights and planning functions related to consumer, shopper, channel and category strategy. For more information, visit www.cpgcatnet.org.
Kroger, Walmart and Target have maintained their positions as the top three retailers in terms of best practice category management. Manufacturers note Kroger's ability to make stores relevant to shoppers through use of shopper card data.
SUPPLIER PERSPECTIVE
Procter & Gamble and Kraft top the list of manufacturers with the most helpful consumer/shopper insights/category management. Kraft may be catching up to the leader, however, as P&G has slipped by more than six points. The two manufacturers have impressed retailers through their use of unbiased shopper insights.
Based on the results of the "Category Leadership Study," Kantar Retail recommends the following steps:
■ Focus on higher-level context of shopper insights
■ Listen to the pain points/issues
■ Link disparate sources of data to unlock real growth solutions
■ Frame category management recommendations within this context
■ Set the organization on a path to deliver a holistic 'linked' solution
■ Develop a COE or function that integrates shopper insights and shopper marketing disciplines The report suggests that a "linked" approach is critical in today's — and, more importantly, tomorrow's — world. It can separate the best in class from "middle of the pack" organizations to drive real growth and leadership at retail.
Calls Open for PG's Annual Category Captains Competition
Applications are now being accepted for Progressive Grocer's 15th annual Category Captains Awards competition. The awards recognize overall excellence in innovative, creative, profit-generating category management platforms. The new slate of Category Captains and Category Advisors will appear in the November 2011 issue of PG.
All Category Captain entries will be preliminarily qualified by PG's editorial staff, and then carefully evaluated by an impartial judging panel consisting of a cross-section of retailers, marketing executives and industry experts.
Following is Category Captain Awards entry information (full details appear on our website):
1. Innovation: Submit an overview synopsis of new key category management initiatives your company/ organization has employed over the past 12 months to accomplish the following crucial objectives:
■ Product differentiation in a specific supermarket category
■ Increased sales for all products in the specified category
■ Verifiable data illustrating outstanding performance among retail partners, resulting in higher sales across the entire category
All entries must be submitted in a Microsoft Word document of 800 words or fewer. The synopsis must include verifiable examples of new programs, technologies, business systems, merchandising schemes and/or promotional tactics that played a key role in your category development objectives.
2. Results: Submit supporting verifiable comparable market-specific or account-specific sales or market share data that supports your claims about the effectiveness of your category management program/platform.
3. Art/Graphics: Submit an electronic image of one or more of the products/programs mentioned in your synopsis. Images must be 300 dpi in resolution, in .tif or .jpg format; 4x4 preferable for size.
4. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 1, 2011.