The retail landscape will continue to shift this year. Persistent inflation is altering consumer purchase patterns, impacting everything from product sizes to preferred ingredients. Tariffs are threatening already slim margins, and supply chain complexities add further hurdles. Your Q1 sales may be up and Q2 is trending well, but dig deeper – are units and trips down due to rising prices?
In this challenging environment, how can you strategically integrate emerging brands into your product mix to achieve sustainable category growth? The answer lies in a focused, data-driven approach fueled by deep shopper insights optimized across all channels.

Optimize Category Performance Through Precision & Shopper Understanding

Category managers are constantly balancing how to introduce emerging brands in a way that enhances the category and doesn’t steal share from the existing product mix, including their OWN brand portfolio. The key is to identify how these new entrants can attract new buyers to their category while enticing current buyers to purchase more. To achieve this and drive year-over-year category growth:

Break free from the old playbook. Seek out marketing partners who can deliver granular, category-specific targeting, continuous optimization, and demonstrate results for your category.
Seize on category opportunities swiftly. Forget those 45-day campaign set-up lag times or waiting months more for results. Expect near-instantaneous speed to market to capitalize on emerging trends.
Pair speed with precision for maximum category ROI. Combine laser-focused execution across channels with advanced measurement and optimization tools to ensure emerging brand initiatives translate to tangible category growth.

Reach and Engage the Right Shoppers

Don’t drown in data. Zero in on your best current customers, then develop a targeted strategy to identify and engage potential shoppers in related or even competing categories. Ask yourself: Who else should be buying within my product mix?

Demand precision, not discounts, to grow your category. Partner with a data analytics expert who can prove you’re reaching new households and transcending limited targeting of deal seekers or relying on temporary price reductions. Look for one that delivers purchase-based audiences that align with your category growth objectives.

Take Vermont Creamery, for example. As they transitioned from food service to retail, this emerging dairy brand needed to find new shoppers and drive repeat purchases. By collaborating with data specialists, they delivered measurable category impact, not just impressions. Vermont Creamery attracted 26,000 new buyers to the butter category and saved $6,000 through cross-channel suppression across 2.6 million households. The result? A $2.46 ROI on long-term total sales.

Connect Category Data Directly to Sales Results

During joint business planning, category managers develop strategies that include temporary price reductions, advertising schedules, shelf displays, and end cap placements for various brands. This process considers what contributed to last year’s performance to build a growth strategy for the category.

As shopper priorities continue to evolve, it’s crucial to quickly understand which elements of your plan are working and whether emerging brands truly boosting category sales. Shift focus from chasing impressions to prioritizing conversions and tangible sales lift.

Demand more than surface-level metrics. Implement a sequential marketing approach that strategically integrates brand building and performance marketing. This “if this, then that” customer journey makes it easy for you to craft a compelling category narrative that prompt purchase within your aisles.

For example, if you know a customer consistently buys toothpaste and mouthwash at your store, don’t waste your promotional dollars on these predictable purchases. Instead, allocate those incentives to shoppers who need a final nudge to buy other products in the oral care category, perhaps by offering deals on dental floss or toothbrushes. This will make your promotional dollars work harder for the entire category and minimizes waste.

Speed and flexibility are essential for category growth. You have a short window to prove that an emerging brand can drive growth in the category. Waiting months for campaign results is a tragedy. Why find out in Q3 insights into a Q1 campaign? Seek real-time insights to ensure your shelf space stays intact and delivers results that tie back to the overall success of the category.

A ready-to-drink coffee brand nailed this approach when they expanded to retail from a direct-to-consumer subscription model. As a healthier option in a crowded category, they needed to find those health-conscious shoppers that their competitors were missing –and activate across channels to drive category sales.

They picked a mix of CTV, digital ads, and in-store coupons, then used sequential marketing to dynamically guide those shoppers towards a purchase. They were able to adjust their spending in real time so only those who showed interest received trade-up promotions to encourage them to buy more and stay within the brand category. The results? These new buyers generated an incremental $195,000 in sales after seeing their ads, leading to 1.1 million units sold and ongoing repurchases within the category, ultimately improving overall category sales.

Drive Category Growth, Secure Actionable Results

Stop guessing, start knowing your path to profitable category growth. Identify the most cost-effective strategies to:

Precisely identify and reach your most valuable shoppers to drive brand and category growth.
Activate a sequential marketing campaign across relevant channels to impact category sales.
Measure performance in real-time, focusing on category-specific KPIs.
Optimize campaigns in-flight to save money and maximize impact on category sales.

At Catalina, we’re focused on helping you identify which emerging brands have the highest potential to grow your overall product category and how to drive incremental sales through laser-focused targeting scaled to your budget. To discover how we can boost emerging brand performance within your category this year, contact us at results@catalina.com.

Dan Klein, VP, CPG Omni-Channel Solutions, guides Catalina’s emerging brands and shopper marketing teams in delivering personalized solutions for CPG marketers. He also oversees new business development for the company.