Consumer-Centric Category Management E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 366

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2005

Beschreibung

In some parts of the world, especially in developing markets, category management today remains a stretch goal - a new idea full of untapped potential. In other areas, the original eight-step process that emerged in the late 1980's forms the foundation of many companies' approach to category management. In still others, particularly in developed countries like the U.S., the U.K., and others, refinements are being made - most of them designed to place consumer understanding front and center. New ideas are emerging - from "trip management" to "aisle management" to "customer management." Whether a new descriptor emerges to replace "category management" is yet to be seen. Even if that does happen, what won't change is the overall objective - to help retailers and their manufacturer partners succeed by offering the right selection of products that are marketed and merchandised based on a complete understanding of the consumers they are committed to serving. This book, which explores both the state of and the state-of-the-art in category management, is for everyone with a vested interest in category management. It can serve such a broad audience because category management is about bringing a structured process to how executives think and make decisions about their businesses, no matter what information and information technology they have access to.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Chapter 0: Introduction—Why Category Management is More Important Than Ever

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marketplace!

Marketing Basics and Category Management

What is the Purpose of this Book?

Who Should Read this Book?

Part I: In the Beginning—the Purpose of Category Management

Chapter 1: The Evolution of Category Management and the New State of the Art

Birth of the Eight-Step Process

Early Practitioners

Evolution of Category Management

Role of Technology

Category Management Today

Consumer-Centric Process

Beyond Supermarkets

Role of the Retailer

Role of the Manufacturer

Category Captain

Supporting Players

The Promise of Category Management

Chapter 2: Category Management Begins with the Retailer’s Strategy

Components of a Good Strategy

How Do You Develop a Strategy?

Examples of Strategies

Retail Branding

Shoppers: Getting to Know You

Who Is the Competition?

Channel Blurring

Wal-Mart

Bringing Clarity to Channel Definitions

Establishing the Mission

Financial and Performance Scorecards

Communicate Strategy

Thumbs-Up: Here Are the Winners!

Conclusion

Part II: The Eight Foundational Steps of Category Management

Chapter 3: Step One: Define the Category Based on the Needs of Your Target Market

Shoppers Come with Changing Missions

Variations on a Theme

Moving On

Chapter 4: Step Two: Assign a Role to the Category That Best Supports the Retailer’s Strategy

A 360-Degree View Delivers Results

The Art and Science of Role Assignment

Variations on a Theme

Moving On

Chapter 5: Step Three: Assess the Category to Find Opportunities for Improvement

Four Perspectives

The Search for Actionable Insights

Assess Private Label the Same as Other Brands

Variations on a Theme: Lower-Cost Ways to Assess

Moving On

Chapter 6: Step Four: Set Performance Targets and Measure Progress with a Category Scorecard

One Size Does Not Fit All

Technology Helps

Common Pitfalls

How Often Is Often Enough?

Variations on a Theme: Top Shopper Scorecards

Moving On

Chapter 7: Step Five: Create a Marketing Strategy for the Category

Marketing Strategies

A Multilevel Approach

Focus First on Consumers

Product Supply Strategies

Validate to Stay Relevant

Clear Communication Required

Variations on a Theme: Including the Manufacturer Perspective

Moving On

Chapter 8: Step Six: Choose Tactics for Category Assortment, Pricing, Promotion, Merchandising, and Supply Chain Management

Select the Right Tactics

Assortment

Pricing

Promotion

Decisions to Make

Merchandising

Supply Chain Management

Moving On

Chapter 9: Step Seven: Roll Out the Plan

Execute and Reap Rewards

Product: To Succeed, Keep Execution Simple

Planogram: Where Shelf Sets Can Go Wrong

Pricing and Promotion Must Synchronize

Variations on a Theme: Raise Expectations for Execution

Moving On

Chapter 10: Step Eight: Review the Category’s Performance Regularly and Make Adjustments as Needed

What Reviews Might Reveal

Variations on a Theme: Stay with Your Category, or Not

Conclusion

Chapter 11: Bringing the Consumer into Category Management—A New Take on the Eight Steps

Step by Step

Consumer-Centric Assessments

Setting Strategies

Getting Tactical

Keeping Score by Cluster

Implementation

Part III: Category Management Success Stories

Chapter 12: General Mills—Going Beyond the Categories

Consumer-Driven Approach

Working with Retailers

Future

Chapter 13: Big Y—Focusing on Implementation

Organization

Eight Steps

Technology Investment

Future

Chapter 14: SUPERVALU—The Last Three Feet of Category Management

Organization and Personnel

Today’s Process

Focus on the Consumer

Challenge for Wholesalers

Deploying a Centralized Process

What’s in Store for the Future?

Chapter 15: CROSSMARK—Just the Facts

Working with Retailers

Category Captain or Validator?

The Role of Technology

Chapter 16: Acosta—Multiplying the Impact of Category Management

Company Background

Working with Retailers

The Role of Technology

Creativity on Tap

Chapter 17: Chiquita—Extending Category Management to Perishables

Produce Is Unique

Some History

Technology Improvements

Consumers First

Working with Retailers

Execution and Compliance

Chapter 18: The Hershey Company—Linking Consumer Insights and Customer Strategy

Organizational Structure

The Classic Eight Steps

Technology

Working at Retail

Working as Category Captain

What Does the Future Hold?

Chapter 19: Miller Brewing—Tapping Category Management for Competitive Advantage

Market Structure

Organization

Technology Investment

What’s on Tap?

Chapter 20: Hewlett-Packard—Taking Category Management beyond Traditional CPG

Start with the Basics

Step by Step

Looking Forward

Part IV: The Way Forward

Chapter 21: Lessons Learned from the Real World

Objectives

Starting Point

Process

Closing Thoughts

Chapter 22: Proactive Category Management

Chapter 23: Linking Category Management and Loyalty Marketing

Why Linkage Has Been So Hard

Loyalty Marketing—A Brief History

Loyalty Marketing—Key Insights

Defining the Opportunity

Approaches to Linkage: Give the Customer a Seat at the Table

Approaches to Linkage: LM as a Category Tactic

Approaches to Linkage: Share-of-Wallet

Approaches to Linkage: Top Shopper Index

Approaches to Linkage: Loyalty Strategy

The Path Forward: Shopper Upgrade

The Path Forward: Top Shopper Insight

Conclusion

Chapter 24: The New Category Management Emerges

Shift in Power

Acknowledgments

Index

Copyright © 2006 by ACNielsen. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

ACNielsen Company.

Consumer-centric category management : how to increase profits by managing categories based on consumer needs / ACNielsen, with John Karolefski and Al Heller.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-471-70359-4 (cloth)

ISBN-10: 0-471-70359-1 (cloth)

1. Retail trade—Management. 2. Consumers’ preferences. I. Karolefski, John. II. Heller, Al. III.

HF5429.K296 2005

658.7’8—dc22

200521556

FOREWORD

Reports of category management’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Consultants offering their new twists and titles are all too happy to declare the practice dead—so much the better to promote their own offerings. But the reality is that category management is very much alive and, well, continuing to evolve.

In some parts of the world, especially in developing markets, category management today remains a stretch goal—a new idea full of untapped potential. In other areas, the eight-step process detailed by The Partnering Group in the early 1990s forms the foundation of many companies’ approach to category management. In still others, particularly in developed countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and others, refinements are being made—most of them designed to place consumer understanding front and center.

New ideas are emerging—from “trip management” to “aisle management” to “customer management.” Some will blossom into full-fledged business processes; some will be plugged into existing processes as improvements on specific steps; others will be cast aside as ineffective or too expensive.

Whether a new descriptor emerges to replace “category management” is yet to be seen. Even if that does happen, what won’t change is the overall objective—to help retailers and their manufacturer partners succeed by offering the right selection of products that are marketed and merchandised based on a complete understanding of the consumers they are committed to serving.

At its core, category management is a business fundamental. The complexity of its execution varies from company to company and market to market largely based on the amount and quality of information available to decision makers. Some have highly sophisticated systems at their fingertips that quickly integrate extremely granular and disparate data streams and then create electronic “smart alerts” that help them monitor key performance indicators. Others, especially in developing markets where modern retail stores still drive less than half of all food sales, sometimes have a difficult time just measuring their market share.

This book is for those with a vested interest in category management all along the sophistication spectrum. It can serve such a broad audience because category management is about bringing a structured process to how executives think and make decisions about their businesses, no matter what information and information technology they have access to.

With this book, we are exploring both the state of and the state-of-the-art in category management. For those who are new to the concept, the first part of the book provides a solid understanding of the core process. It’s essential to know where we’ve come from if we are to make changes for the better. For those who are further along, the case studies and essays about the future of category management should shed new light on how to get more from the process.

Our intention with this book is to facilitate a conversation about category management. Where is the practice today, where is it going, and how can we continue to make improvements? What are the essential steps, how can each step be executed most effectively, and how can consumer understanding increasingly become the centerpiece of the process?

By definition, a book must have a beginning and an end. However, we ask you to view this book differently—to see it as the continuation of an ongoing conversation about a vitally important business practice that will continue to evolve.

Steven M. Schmidt

President and Chief Executive Officer, ACNielsen

CHAPTER 0

Introduction—Why Category Management Is More Important Than Ever

Bell’s Family Markets was facing tough times. The local trading area was very competitive with too many food stores serving a shifting shopper base that was increasingly diverse and demanding. Wal-Mart was planning a supercenter near Bell’s flagship store, while shoppers were checking out some new formats that opened in the past year: a limited assortment store, a warehouse club, two extreme value stores, and a Hispanic-oriented grocer. As if that weren’t enough, a trendy Italian restaurant chain began promoting gourmet take-out meals at reasonable prices for customers coming home from work and looking for alternatives to cooking dinner from scratch.

As a conventional grocer, family-operated for three generations, Bell’s suddenly seemed out of step with the new marketplace. Sales were declining as the new competitors enticed some traditional customers for their shopping needs.

Sound familiar? Such scenarios have been taking place in the United States—and in many markets around the world—for several years. The outcomes are different because retailers deal with adversity in different ways. Some do nothing.

Fortunately, Bell’s was proactive. Management first reviewed its go-to-market strategy. Was the corporate strategy still viable? Who was the target customer group? What shopping occasions did Bell’s want to own? To support the overall strategy, the retailer worked with key trading partners to implement a consumer-centric category management program that gradually rebuilt the business.