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ASSOCIATION OVERVIEW WEB MEETING INFO |
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ASSOCIATION OVERVIEW POWERPOINT |
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Today's expanded definition of Category Management: Trading partners collaborating to determine the point of optimization in pricing, promotion, shelving, and assortment to maximize profitability and shopper satisfaction. Successful Category Management draws on the latest industry trends, leverages available data, and utilizes best-in-class technology from the leading solution providers.
An historical definition of Category Management: “A Distributor/Supplier Process of managing categories as strategic business units, producing enhanced business results by focusing on delivering consumer value.” -- ECR Category Management Report, 1997
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Historically, the discipline known as category management, had many different definitions of roles and expectations of responsibilities. The Association was founded, in part, to address these gaps and create formalized standards. Now, with accepted industry-wide training standards, there is a foundation for the future of category management.
Certification through approved standards will ensure that Category Management professionals have a clear understanding of the competencies expected at various levels of responsibility. It provides formal recognition for professional experience and training, which will help in recruiting and retaining talent. Plus, certified professionals will be able to better serve their trading partners, and retailers will be able to easily recognize those professionals who are truly best in class.
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WHAT THE INDUSTRY IS SAYING |
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We are always talking to people in the industry and hear great declarations about the state of category management.
Below are some quotes. (In accordance with the Association's privacy policy - some quotes are anonymous)
"The future is integrating consumer and category trends, insights, and analytics - and putting them into action." - Top retailer
"The certification effort is the most important industry initiative in the history of category management. Certification will change professional development and talent acquisition, communication to customers, selection of category captains, and, in large part, will determine what companies will be most successful in category management in the future. Additionally this effort will govern how universities approach category management and teach the subject in the future." - Dan Strunk, Chairman Certification Evaluation Board & Executive in Residence, Center for Sales Leadership, DePaul University
Want to add your thoughts? Email your comment to: lcastle@cpgcatnet.org or post it on the Association bulletin board.
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Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by guest
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It is interesting how significantly (by a decade) category management predates the Harris / TPG method that unfortunately became self promoted as the founder of category management.
It is also interesting to see how a community accepts this general notion that Harris started category management when 100s of projects had been completed prior to this.
I recall having gained some excellent results working with Nestle and RHM whilst a senior buyer at Sainsbury on CM projects in the early 90s, then seeing a presentation on the Harris Method. Yes that is one way and formulises many key principles. Fortunately I only had to follow this one method on occassion whilst working as a supplier to Sainsbury and many others in the UK like Tesco and Asda had moved onto more agile methods.
As a real origin I think you could go to the Brand Partnership Group in the UK where many global brands joined to find ways of finding a position against private label in retailers. Naturally this led to manufacturers operating as retail buyer sees the world by categories.
As retailer buyers / merchandisers category management is really what buyers have always done in grocery retailing in particular, as pointed out by Loblaws example.
The term became relevant as the branded manufacturers realised that blindly selling brands would no longer gain traction with consumers, shoppers and retail buyers (also known as category managers).
My names is Paul Digweed and I have worked in category management since the mid 1980s as a retailers, manufacturer and consultant in th UK, Asia and Australia. |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by moo
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Dr Brian Harris & Bill Purcell were both very active in this space. They co-founded ABA Groups, which developed the Apollo Space Management system in 1983. http://www.cpgcatnet.org/page/119828/;jsessionid=itss132rqk3f
Safeway globally had for some time been using a magnetic board layout system, but not in conjunction with Category Management principles.
All retailers had grouped "Commodities" together. Category Management enabled expansion on the commodity, by identifying opportunities and removing "me too".
For what its worth -- Dr Harris has also been talking about occasion management for some time also -- so that "Bread" is laid out as "Breakfast", "Lunch" & "Dinner". The 3 imply more usage occasions than Category Management can, and would lead consumers to buy more bread than they do today.... |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by guest
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The memory trail continues.
I was hired at Loblaws in April, 1983 by David Nichol to lead the category management effort. He had joined earlier from McKinsey and I was recruited from the same company. At Loblaws, Category management was used as a basis to review categories for Private Label product introductions (and other merchandising objectives).
So, if this is an exercise in dating, then I suppose that April, 1983 precedes the Shnucks experience by a year or two.
Prior to me, John Shipton had pioneered work in this area within National Grocers (Loblaws). So we did not "invent the concept", but merely applied the principles on a very large scale.
I hired and led a team of 8 analysts through 1984 and we planned each category in its own plan. This was in conjunction with the buyer/category manager from the Merchandising department.
Reviews were conducted by Dave Nichol in a War Room, which drew liberally on the Decision Support System which I had built (and was used continuously by Loblaws for the next 15 years). This system received several pages of attention in a best-selling business book about the Loblaws private label revolution.
My trail continued with Mike McPartland and Lanny Hernandez and Brian Harris after Loblaws (Old Prospectors Club). I consider that the "formalization" of the practices by FMI into a booklet is what defined the discipline for the industry. (It is said that the Roman Empire did not know that it had fallen until Gibbons wrote his book about it!)
P.S. the third Apollo person was Bill Purcell. P.S. I contributed the "Future Section" for the FMI Category Management Best Practices publication as part of the parallel efforts of Bob Blattberg at NorthWestern.
My name is Ray Goodman and I can be reached at ray.goodman@manthansystems.com I serve as President of an Indian-based company that specializes in Retail business intelligence software and services. |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by guest
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The first memory I have of using the term Category Management occurred in a conversation between Scott Schnuck, Brian and myself at Schnuck's in the mid 80's. We were discussing alternate approaches to organize the merchandising functions at Schnuck's. Brian and I were explaining our recommendation of how responsibility should to be assigned to one person for the various merchandising functions for a set of products. Scott asked what title we should give that person. Either Brian or I came up with the term Category Manager. Subsequently we began using the term Category Management. After we both left IRI in 1990, Brian and Mike McPartland flushed out more of the concepts now embodied in the definition of Category Management.
As I remember, the first exposition of the Category Management tenets was in a Coca Cola Research study presented by Brian and Mike at an CIES conference in Nice in October 1991 and subsequent FMI conferences.
While none of the management concepts embodied in Category Management are particularly new, it was the packaging and timely delivery that caught everyones attention.
-- Lanny Hernandez |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by 1stcoast
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I just recently read the responses to this question concerning the history of category management. Whereas these all are excellent answers and very true for a modern era answer. I believe that the concept for category management started just a little bit earlier. If you understand that category management is the study of consumer purchase habits and how they relate to one another then category management was started in the early 1900's by a well known Floridian, P.T. Barnum. His desire to understand his customers and their wants and needs began on the midways of his circus. It was on the midway that he coined the phase "if the customer wants vanilla, give them vanilla". Thus starting the understanding of the consumer and their expectations while shopping. |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by mrbentonville
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I recently read "Consumer-Centric Category Management : How to Increase Profits by Managing Categories based on Consumer Needs." It is a very good book on the subject. |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by moderator
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A little More on Harris.
Brian Harris, co-founder of the Partnering Group, is credited with coining the phrase category management. In 1994, he did the first industry-sponsored pilot at Giant. Harris used a "category captain"--a vendor chosen to help select the products that would get shelf space. The category captains used in the trial were Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. In those categories, Giant reclaimed market share that had been taken by Wal-Mart. |
Re: Cat Mgt History - posted by guest
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Brian Harris was the "Father of Category Management" and it began in the
late 1980"s. He was a professor at USC for their grocery program and also
developed Apollo space management system with two others (Lanny Hernandez
and someone else). AC Nielsen has a book about the beginning of CM. |
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