A common practice in many organizations is for senior management to hand share, volume and/or profit results from standards reports as feedback to managers, with instructions to “fix the business.”   The consequence?   Quite often, no insights are drawn, and no action is taken, or they ask their category management analyst to figure it out.  Or perhaps an extra ad, or hot pricing and/or tradespend dollars are the actions thrown against some particular products, to “fix” the issue.   But is that strategically the right thing to do?  What’s the right solution?

The solution starts with the reports that organizations use to measure their business – usually focused on volume, share and profit data – which answer the question “how is my business performing”?  Many topline reports don’t tie in with the “why”- or the tactical insights – that are changing at the same time, and are often the drivers of the volume, share and profit results. 

This week’s tip walks you through the first of two requirements to turn data into insights, through based on a basic drilldown approach.  The other requirement for developing insights is based on experience and knowledge, which I will cover in next week’s tip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwShvGUCIms

I hope you enjoy the tip.   If you are interested in learning more about related courses, check out:

1. Completing a Category Assessment
2. Fact-Based Selling

If you enjoy our tips, please network with us through:

• Like us on Facebook
• Join us in LinkedIn
• Follow Us in Twitter
• Check out our new eLearning Center (free sample training video)
• Check out our website

 Have a great week! 

Sue

You would think we’d learn from our experiences in category management, but the same thing seems to be happening with shopper insights.  Organizations are not broadly sharing their shopper insights across different functions, although the value of doing so is definitely there.  My category management tip this week shows a basic set of shopper insight data, and then explains how the knowledge from these shopper insights can be used across brand, trade marketing, sales and category management for a manufacturer.

I hope you enjoy the tip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOaNRezNWog

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Building Data Competency:  Panel Data” (this accredited eLearning course gives you great depth in understanding consumer panel data, including consumer purchase behavior, demographics and interaction data).
• “Store Clustering Through Store Level and Geodemographic Data and Tools” (this accredited eLearning course gives participants the ability to use store level data to evaluate category performance and in store execution, and to create store clusters and measure before/after performance).
• “Understanding and Marketing to Your Shopper” (this accredited eLearning course gives participants an in-depth overview of understanding the consumer and shopper, their needs, and their behavior beyond the basics, and beyond the category level. ).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

You should check out our BRAND NEW eLearning center that includes a sample video on the front page, a live glossary with over 300 definitions, links to additional resources/whitepapers/books, and a new anonymous “community” inside the center.  We’re so much more than just an eLearning center. 

Have a great week!

Sue

In this tip, I walk a few basics about space management that will hopefully entice you to want to learn more (if you don’t already know). Not from a technical perspective, but from a strategic perspective. If you are involved with innovation, category reviews, business reviews or category tactics, you need to understand the shelf! Also learn why it’s so important to include data in your planograms to make them more insightful and strategic, providing a competitive advantage for your organization.

 I hope you enjoy the tip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9DsZ2PniLA

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Space Management Fundamentals”  (this accredited eLearning course gives you the ability to strategically understand shelf space (without the technical requirements!).
• “Leveraging Data For Advanced Shelving Solutions” (this accredited eLearning course gives participants best practices for designing practical shelving recommendations that simplify the shopping experience and optimize category sales and shelf productivity).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week there won’t be a tip (we are on “Spring Break” in Calgary!).  The week after’s tip will give you some perspective on pricing analytics.  Once again, if you have suggestions or requests for future tips, please let me know in the “Comments” section of the blog, and I’ll try to accommodate your request.

Have a great week!

 Sue

So what’s the problem?  Efficient Assortment has come a long way - I remember back to my P&G days when one assortment project for one retailer in the haircare category would take about 3 weeks to complete it.  Now there are some incredibly sophisticated softwares available that make the process so much easier (in fact, is it too easy)?  How well educated in the assortment process are the individuals who are “pushing the buttons”? 

Efficient Assortment requires both science and art to truly be successful.  The science is driven by historical data that gives an understanding of category, segment and sku performance across different measures.  Much of this is captured through the “push of the button” assortment tools.  The art is driven by the forward thinking initiatives and concepts that anticipate what’s to come in the category.  And it’s driven by experience and category expertise that can’t be captured in a software program.  Sometimes I think that the art gets lost in the process.  I am a huge advocate of the automated software out there – it’s amazing.  But a human brain who knows and understands the category needs to be overseeing the decisions being made by the tool, and adding in the artistic perspective.

So my tip this week explains a bit more about what I mean by “science” and “art” in efficient assortment.  I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbi0RyDQOHI

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Efficient Assortment:  A Step-by-Step Process” (this accredited eLearning course walks you through the complete efficient assortment process, including both the science and art perspectives).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week’s tip will give you some perspective on space management — it’s not just for space management professionals!  Marketers, sales and category management professionals need to understand the shelf!   Once again, if you have suggestions or requests for future tips, please let me know in the “Comments” section of the blog, and I’ll try to accommodate your request.

Have a great week!

This week’s category management tip switches gear from my previous tips, and gets more into some technical training.  Creating charts that tell a story turn category management from a science into an art. Bubble charts are a great way to dimensionalize business results based on three different measures. In this week’s tip, I walk you through the steps to create a great bubble chart in Excel without having to go through the pain of figuring it out on your own!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoahKNuP8k

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Build PowerPoint and Presentation Skills” (this accredited eLearning course walks you through the fundamentals that you need to know to maximize the use of PowerPoint, and create a presentation that has logic and flow).
• “Building Excel Skills” (this accredited eLearning course will give you information on the key functions that you need to know to maximize the use of Excel.  This is one of our most popular courses, because it gives you examples that also include category management related data sets).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week’s tip will teach you some efficient assortment analytics.  Once again, if you have suggestions or requests for future tips, please let me know in the “Comments” section of the blog, and I’ll try to accommodate your request.

Have a great week!

Last week my category management tip focused on “Index” and how you need to correctly interpret an index that is over or under 100 (and that you can’t apply a “good” or “bad” or “overdeveloped” or “underdeveloped” label on the numbers at the surface).  One of the “index” numbers that I referred to in this tip is “Index vs All Commodity Volume (ACV)” (or index vs all sales share).

Many people use the term ACV incorrectly – because they have never completely understood where it comes from and how it’s derived.  Based on this, I decided to make this week’s tip on this subject.  Many retailers and suppliers use ACV / ACV shares / Index vs ACV calculations to benchmark their business – it’s a great measure to understand development vs competition, other categories, and vs the total business – but it needs to be used correctly.

ACV is the sum of all the category volume in the store, but it varies based on the data source and based on the category composition that goes into that “all store sales” number.  Without truly understanding how the number is created, and how you can then calculate and interpret  ACV shares and Index vs ACV calculations, both retailers and suppliers may be drawing incorrect conclusions about the numbers.

If you are a sales manager, a category manager, a buyer, a category analyst, a vendor advisor – you need to review this week’s tip.   Let’s get everyone out there interpreting this powerful number correctly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIuFb2X50oU

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Category Assessment” (this accredited eLearning course walks you through how to complete a category assessment, including completing an “Index vs ACV” analysis.
• “Understanding and Using Data” (this accredited eLearning course will give you information on how all key category management data sources are derived and used).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week’s tip will teach you how to create compelling bubble charts, which result in great quadrant analysis for an impactful view of 3 data measures.  Once again, if you have suggestions or requests for future tips, please let me know in the “Comments” section of the blog, and I’ll try to accommodate your request.

I hope you enjoy this week’s tip!  See you next week!

Sue

• Check CMKG’s training
• Join our LinkedIn Group
• Like us on Facebook
• Find us on Twitter:  @CatManKnowledge

Calculating an “index” is a common practice in category management - index vs ACV (or all sales share), fair share index, index vs year ago – to name a few.   An index provides a comparison between two sets of numbers, and can be very useful data.  But there tends to be some generalizations when using an index.  For example, if I create an index that compares a retailer’s category market share and a retailer’s ACV market share, if their index is > (greater than) 100, it is “overdeveloped” or good, and if it’s < (less than) 100, it’s “underdeveloped” or bad.

But this is an incredibly limiting perspective for many different reasons.  Check out my tip this week to see why!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70conhkNHY

I hope you enjoy this week’s tip!

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Category Assessment” (this accredited eLearning course walks you through how to complete a category assessment, including completing an “Index vs ACV” analysis.
• “Category Management on Limited Data” (this accredited eLearning course will give you ideas on how to complete category management work in a limited data environment.  Also presents the “Fair Share Index” calculation).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week, I’ll be sharing some different perspectives on “good” and “bad” numbers in category management.  Have a great week!

That being said, I think that baseline and incremental sales information is incredibly valuable for both suppliers and retailers, for scorecarding their business, and measuring ROI on promotions (to name a few).  This data tends to be underutilized in many organizations.  By dissecting your sales volume one level deeper – into baseline and incremental sales – you can really get an understanding if you are building your sales through innovation/marketing/shelving activities (baseline sales) or through promotion / temporary price reductions / display activity.  If you include some basic baseline and incremental measures in your monthly scorecard, you will have a much better understanding of what types of activities are driving total sales.

You can also use incremental sales to understand the true performance of promotions – baseline sales would have sold regardless of the promotion, so by completing your promotional evaluations based purely on incremental sales gives you a better understanding of the payout of the promotion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcknIGdBEOY

I hope you enjoy this week’s tip!

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Category Health Assessment (Baseline and Incremental Sales Drivers)” (this accredited eLearning course will give you in-depth examples and analytics across the key baseline and incremental sales drivers, and teach you how to complete a full category or brand health assessment) (this one of my personal favorite courses!).
• “Category Tactics and Analytics” (this accredited eLearning course will give you an overview of all of the tactics (pricing, promotion, product assortment, product placement and some of their basic analytics).

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week, I’ll be sharing some different perspectives on “good” and “bad” numbers in category management.  Have a great week!

Suppliers need to complete profitability / return on investment evaluations to ensure that they are booking the most cost effective options with the best payout.  It’s not a simple task to find the right balance between profit and sales, for both the retailer and the supplier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu5hX1yqtWI

Enjoy this week’s tip!  If you liked this tip, please “like us“ in Facebook. You can subscribe to my blog in the bottom righthand corner, and receive the weekly tips in your e-mail each week.

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Pricing Tactics & Analytics” (this accredited eLearning course will give you more examples in retailer pricing strategies, establishing retail prices, completing breakeven analysis, and price correlation and price regression)
• “Promotion Analysis Techniques” (this accredited eLearning course will give you more examples in pricing that relate to promotion)

We also have fully accredited programs for individuals, teams and organizations based on your specific and unique needs.

Next week’s tip focuses on baseline and incremental sales.  Have a great week!

Sue

I certainly am not going to complain about anything in Calgary these days – beautiful snow in the mountains to give us some of the most fantastic ski conditions around, and we are enjoying a balmy 10°C in the city (with no snow at all).  Very unlike Calgary in February, but I’ll take it!

February’s category management tips are all going to relate to the tactics (pricing, promotion, placement, product assortment).  I thought I’d start with one on breakeven analysis, which is a very important consideration for both suppliers and retailers as they determine pricepoints required to achieve margin or profit (in the examples I’m giving today, it’s based on promoted prices).  Suppliers need to know how many units they have to sell to “break even” on the promotion that they run with the retailer – they can check their retailer’s weekly POS data to determine which pricepoints generate the required # of units.  And retailers need to make sure that they “break even” at specific pricepoints, particularly if they have break even margin objectives on promoted items. Once again, they can check their POS data to determine the right pricepoints to generate the required units to break even.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGfsX1yGAKM

If you are looking for any training relating to the examples in this tip, you may want to consider the following CMKG courses (click on the course for more details):

• “Pricing Tactics & Analytics” (this accredited eLearning course will give you more examples in retailer pricing strategies, establishing retail prices, completing breakeven analysis, and price correlation and price regression)
• “Promotion Analysis Techniques” (this accredited eLearning course will give you more examples in pricing that relate to promotion)

Look forward to next week’s topic on Product Assortment. You can subscribe to my blog in the bottom righthand corner, and receive the weekly tips in your e-mail each week. Have a great week!

Sue