Benefits of Membership
Advancing professional standards in category management
The main benefit of membership is created by the thought leadership of the entire CatMan community. Your participation is crucial to refinement of this evolving discipline known loosely as ‘category management’, which has many differing definitions of roles and responsibilities, spans many departments, and is characterized by an unprecedented depth and breadth of knowledge expected of CatMan practitioners.
Most manufacturers expect a CatMan professional to be an ‘expert’ in all fields, a ‘liaison’ among departments, and the focus of a strategy that works for the retail customer.
Retailers demand of its own CatMan professionals this same level of expertise, and expect a sophisticated strategy for every category, whole aisle, whole store, private label, and for every store location.
One of the most important initiatives undertaken by the association is the Category Management Standards & Committee, which is made up of leading manufacturers, retailers, and universities. This group of volunteers is crafting certification guidelines for the range of skills expected of today’s CatMan professional.
The association website is an information repository (created by the members) for all things CatMan - using a broad definition to include Shopper Insights, Consumer Insights, Trade Promotions, In-Store Execution - and anything else that impacts Strategic Sales and Marketing.
We expect this field to continue to evolve indefinitely, as the demands and expectations of consumers evolve for shopping decision-making information, clear and intuitive shelf display, logical cross-category product groupings, and channel coherence.
The CatMan community must address these issues regularly, as a group, and in collaboration with trade partners. There will never be a ‘final’ solution; this field must evolve with the shopping behaviors of the consumer, and requires manufacturers and retailers to work together to satisfy those demands.
The association is a meeting place for thought leadership, training resources, events, web-meetings, international chapters, consultants, industry share groups, and ‘all things CatMan’.
We encourage you to participate!
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