25 Jan 2012
For the last 3 weeks, I’ve focused my tips on a retailer perspective as it relates to Private Label. This week, my focus is on National Brand suppliers. If you are a National Brand supplier in a category that is highly developed in Private Label, or one where Private Label is growing significantly, don’t think that it’s not a potential threat for your National Brand(s).
You should proactively assess your key retailer’s private label brand results as part of your regular category reviews, at a level that goes beyond a “Total Control Label” sales and share result across some key geographies and channels. You should purchase your consumer panel data so that it breaks out “Control Label” into specific retailer brands like “Presidents Choice” and ”Great Value” for more depth in your Private Label understanding. This will add value to your demographics, cross brand interaction and consumer purchase behavior analysis.
httpv://youtu.be/KkzMGnsLC4c
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):
“Completing …
19 Jan 2012
January and February tend to be my least favorite months (remember, I live in Canada)! It’s cold, we don’t get as much daylight, and when it’s -30 degrees outside, there’s not a lot of outdoor activities and fresh air. Oh, to be in Hawaii or the Caribbean right now!
Last week I covered how to assess Private Label performance in a category vs National Brands and vs retail competition. I also reviewed some ways for retailers to identify who their real brand competition is at a category level, instead of thinking that all National Brands should be treated as equal competition to the retailer’s Private Label brand(s).
This week, we’re going one step further, with a focus on total Private Label “brand health“, that looks at a basic category overview, and then some sample tactical analytics (including price, promotion and assortment). For suppliers, these types of analytics can also be completed for your own brand’s health assessment, or for a total category health assessment.
httpv://youtu.be/DElz8jrWLLE
Next week I’m going to review some ways that manufacturers can better understand the Private Label brand, and show some analytics that may help to differentiate National Brand(s) from Private Label competition.
If you are …
12 Jan 2012
I’m having to get used to the cold again for the first time this winter because temperatures have plummeted! Even though Calgary (Canada) is notorious for cold weather, it’s been pretty mild (10-15°C) and we’ve had no snow for a month.
Last week’s category management tip was on Private Label Essentials. This week’s tip gives examples of some of the ways that you can start to analyze Private Label for a Retailer compared to the market and the rest of the category. This is important for Retailers to understand, so they can be more strategic with their Private Label brands at a category level – creating some overall corporate store brand strategies isn’t enough – each category needs more strategic Private Label brand focus to understand development gaps and opportunities, as well as the key national brand competition.
This information is also valuable for Suppliers. Many Suppliers consider their brands to be premium to their retailer’s store brands, and consider their competition to only be other national brands. Private Label has almost 100% penetration in households in Europe, and slightly lower in North America. So almost every household has a Private Label item in it! And Private Label for many retailers …
05 Jan 2012
Hi, and welcome to my blog. I’m Sue Nicholls, President of Category Management Knowledge Group (www.cmkg.org). My New Years Resolution is to start blogging, because I have a great passion for category management related topics, and because my CMKG team and I want to be able to share our passion and understanding about category management with YOU!
In my blog, I’m going to be providing weekly tips that relate to different topic areas each month. These tips will be available via YouTube videos, and will be chockful of tips & tricks & things to consider in your own role. I wouldn’t plan on popping popcorn for the video, because they’re all less than 5 minutes long! I’ll also provide links to interesting resources, articles, whitepapers and other information that you may find useful as it relates to the different subject areas. There’s no selling in these tips, and they are relevant for retailers and suppliers (yes, including sales & marketing, who truly do need to understand all areas of category management!).
If you are interested in receiving my future tips, you can subscribe to …
05 Jan 2012
There’s been so much press and news about Private Label recently, I thought it would be a great way to start 2012, as our January topic. The Private Label brand story around the globe is really quite incredible. I remember back in my P&G days (1990′s), because of our premium brand positioning, we really could “ignore” the relatively small Private Label brand in the categories in which we competed. Back then, Private Label was primarily a low-quality, low-cost product offering that gave consumers a cheap option to national brands - and you’d never find a single Private Label item in my house!
But fast forward to now, and how things have changed! The Private Label concept has expanded over the last decade to reach levels beyond anyone’s expectations. The more savvy retailers have managed to create incredible offerings for their Private Label brands, focused on innovation, quality, and pricing and format strategies to capture shoppers from varying income levels (and admittedly, you’ll also find a few Private Label items lurking in my house).
So all of my tips for January focus on Private Label, and are available through video (via YouTube). You can also find some …
05 Jan 2012
This week’s “Category Management Series Tip” is about the essentials you need to know and understand about Private Label.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5WaWbhuCBY
And please give me feedback, more links to add in that have valuable information for our subscribers, ideas for future topics, etc. Also, invite others in your organization to enjoy these tips. If you are interested in receiving my future tips, you can subscribe to my blog (on the righthand side of the screen towards the bottom), subscribe to our channel in YouTube, “Link In” through CMKG’s ‘Category Management Learning Forum’; “Like Us” in Facebook, and/or Follow Us in Twitter.
Next Week’s Topic: “Private Label Data & Analytics” – don’t miss it!
20 Dec 2011
CMKG New Blog Launched – Dec 20, 2011
Category Management Knowledge Group (CMKG) is committed to developing individuals in category management. We are not only known for creating industry-leading category management content, but for being the first training firm accredited by the Category Management Association, the first provider of retailer-focused certified content, and the first trainers to become Certified Professional Strategic Advisors. We are also actively involved in our “Category Management Learning Forum” on LinkedIn, which has over 1,500 category management professional members.
In 2012, we are going to extend our focus on social media, by launching a new weekly blog that will include a weekly YouTube video tip that relates to different areas of category management. We hope you’ll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil our new blog and focus on social media. It’s non-traditional, it’s easy, and it makes a ton of sense for anyone in the retailer or consumer packaged goods industry who likes to learn and grow in their role.
Join CMKG Through The Social Media Vehicle Of Your Choice!
This announcement is a long time coming and we’re thrilled to finally be able to …
20 Dec 2011
CMKG’s First Ever “Live” Bootcamp!
We recently ran some live training sessions at the Category Management Association conference in Atlanta, and were given feedback that people really liked our approach in running live training. We also love facilitating live training sessions! So we’re blending our Certified Professional Category Analyst certified training (with an option to extend the training to our Certified Professional Category Manager eLearning), live classroom and case study components, to come up with an exciting new “live” program that we’re running in Toronto on February 21st to 23rd. The session will be relevant for both suppliers and retailers, and promises you a highly effective blended learning approach! Sue Nicholls and Michelle Patterson (CPSA’s) will be facilitating the 3-day session.
Click here for more details on this exciting new approach to classroom training!
20 Dec 2011
Back by popular demand, the “Selling Target In Canada” seminar will run on January 26, 2012 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.
This full-day session is designed to give you the insights you need as you prepare to do business with Target Canada. This session is being by an industry partner of CMKG’s, Jeff Doucette, of Sales is Not Simple.
If you missed the first session, make sure you attend in January; as it is expected that Target will start more in-depth vendor discussions in Canada during Q1 and Q2 of next year.
