Category Management Collaboration Gap Narrowing

Here are some excerpts from an interesting article on Category Management from cpgmatters.com Category Management newsletter.

http://www.cpgmatters.com/categorymanagement0108.html

“Leave your brand shoes at the door,” advised Bill Bean, Director of Global Shopper Marketing Insights & Trade Research for Colgate-Palmolive. “Talk about the category, not the brand. Once that happens, just about everything magical happens.”

Barry Thomas, Director of Global Category Management for the Coca Cola, Co. added, “Move beyond the category to the entire aisle. Any work you do in the aisle has to be in context of the retailer’s view of category management.”

Thomas and Bean were participants in an all-star panel discussion at a category management conference recently in Bonita Springs, Fla. The event was produced by the Institute for International Research (IIR) with support from CPG CatNet, the trade association. CPGmatters was the official media sponsor of the event.

Added Wal-Mart’s Mertes, “In our experience there are different methods of category management. A lot of it is intentional. Companies A, B and C may offer opinions that are based on different key performance metrics. One emphasizes consumer insight; one profitability; another presents a turn model. So the buyer has to decide. We don’t get mad, we get challenged.” Mertes continued, “In chilled juices, Tropicana versus Minute Maid will present different approaches that serve their interests. But Wal-Mart 101 is ‘never run out.’ We also know we can’t run out of Sunny Delight on weekends, despite what either model says.”