When I started my journey into business, I had a burning desire to create and write marketing plans for a company, practicing all I had learned. I am naturally inquisitive, wanting to unlock the mysteries of why people do what they do. I had a dream of one day providing thought leadership in my industry, creating new ways to do things never done before.

It did not take long to learn that category management could provide me with everything I wanted, a career filled with growth opportunities that enabled me to do things far beyond my greatest dreams — and continues to do so today.

Category management is the one discipline that balances staying current with leading the way forward into the future, thinking far beyond the way people used to shop in-store into online, with so many ways to fulfill their needs.

Come with me on my exciting journey and experiences within category management. The examples below helped retailers and my companies change their trajectories, and it helped change my career. And all of it can be viewed through the lens of applying category management principles like the ones below.

Category Definition

Many people think the creation of a Category Definition is a one-time event that will never change.

I beg to differ!

When I was running the Category Management function for a beverage company that was the third largest player in the category, my teams created the first Beverage Center using Virtual Reality software that helped completely change the business. Suddenly, managing the aisle by grouping subcategories differently became a complete game changer for the retailers that implemented it. My category grew share for seven straight years with my own company having the highest growth within the category! C

ategory definition static? I think not!

Category Role

The same can be said for a Category Role. I can well remember sitting in a Sales and Promotions planning meeting with my Category Management team listening to the Sales team complain about a large retailer who was cutting back on our assortment, space and promotions. After an hour of this, I realized a category management discussion was a solution to pursue as I explained all the signs pointed to the retailer changing the category role. I asked to set up a meeting with the retailer to probe for understanding, which drew puzzled looks.

But through this conversation, we got the clarity we needed. During our meeting with the retailer, the buyer smiled as we talked with her. She told us she needed our help to convince her VP of Merchandising why the category role should stay “Destination” versus moving to the new “Routine.”

Once again, category management led the way in our business plan creation.

Category Assessment

Category Assessment is another discipline that’s completely changed as the omni shopper has emerged, and business plans must reflect this reality. Utilizing thought leadership and Virtual Reality research to understand how shoppers move across shopping in-store and online is simply fascinating! A great example in my career came over the last four years, when I was able to provide a better understanding of assessing new elements in a category plan such as Taxonomy, which is how shoppers navigate a retailer’s web site with an understanding of what makes their shopper journey better while using the assessment process within category management.

Category Scorecard & Category Strategy

No matter the category, keeping score is essential to success. Here, I want to challenge Category Management practitioners to rethink a Category Scorecard, as I did for one of my companies.

My company was in the Health and Wellness category. No one had come forward with a bold outward category vision as shoppers were changing their lifestyles, especially after COVID. I quickly changed that. I created an category vision that doubled the category over the next three years complete with the mega trends that would drive that growth. The Category Strategy was paired with the scorecard to show retailers how they could achieve this, with the scorecard providing the metrics to measure progress against this new vision. In just three pages, we had our retail customers excited that our category would be the driving force for their total store — talk about exciting! Category management was the clear driving force of this. We were and continue to be the “tip of the spear.”

Applying Initiatives & Tactics

In my career, I have and continue to always think “what could be” and “what if?” Within category management, I created exciting new thought leadership that went far beyond my own category and impacts so many other categories today. Building Initiatives and Tactics both assortment and space management come to mind.

I am an admitted analytics and insight “geek.” When I started in category management, the assortment was done with just ranking reports, if you can believe that. In one role, I worked with two suppliers helping to create a methodology to use statistics to create a measure we call Incrementality that has replaced ranking reports. I have had so much fun working with retailers helping them understand what products are truly incremental and which are not. Talk about being in the drivers’ seat providing some of the greatest influence in a category!

Category Management: The Ultimate “Fixer” Function

More than any other function, category management is a problem-solver for retailers and manufacturers. Throughout my career, I have worked in Sales, Retail Strategy, Category Management and Marketing Research with my MBA in Brand Management.

I remember when I led a Category Management team in Beverages. Retailers were having a major problem keeping enough inventory on their shelves. I saw a great opportunity to develop new thought leadership, helping my retailers solve a broad problem they were experiencing far beyond my own beverage category.

In walking stores, I saw how many displays the beverage category had. I then reviewed how manufacturers were analyzing sales to determine how much space they needed on the shelf within the beverage aisle. They were using total sales, which were inclusive of all the volume sold off displays to tell retailers how much inventory they needed on the shelf within the aisle. I quickly saw this only benefited the manufacturer, not the retailer. I developed a formula that enabled a retailer to determine the true holding power of the shelf by factoring out volume sold from display. This became a game-changer upon implementation with in- stock conditions improving and category turns far exceeding retailers’ expectations.

Now you know just a few reasons to use my career as an example of why category management has been and continues to be the most exciting function. If you feel the same way, send us a note here, and we may run your best responses in a follow-up feature on why our members love category management.

And as you know, there is a lot to love about a discipline where so much is possible!