Category management is now an essential part of the business planning process for both retailer and supplier, its impact has been profound in helping the industry understand consumer behaviour, shoppers needs and how we interact with brands and categories. Category management is evolving to suit the ever changing needs of the industry and those who embrace the process are achieving significant results.

The Eight Step process

Back in the early 90’s a process was developed to help retailers and suppliers manage the category management process, many retailers and manufacturers refined the process for speedier strategy/opportunity fulfillment, smoother execution, and more robust results. A ninth step was added (nowadays forgotten about) called the readiness stage i.e. is the company ready for the process, does it have the capabilities and resources needed etc. a valid question worth asking.

Category Management is not just about pushing buttons or running various reports, it’s about truly understanding the shoppers path to purchase and understanding how you can influence that path or at the very least understand how a shopper arrives at making the final decision, something that online retailers are beginning to make real headway in and convert many traditional bricks and mortar shoppers to online shoppers

To better understand this process we have broken it into 3 stages; 

The Assessment stage – Category definition, Category Role, Category Assessment – What do I know or need to know?
The Strategy Stage – Category Strategies & Tactics, Category Scorecard – What have I learned?
The Implementation Stage – Implementation, analysis and review – What actions am I going to take?

Download available here > The eight steps of Cat Man

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