Category Management Principles

For organizations to gain a winning edge in today’s competitive environment, it is important to implement key category management principles and place category management at the heart of their firm’s strategic business plan. This also means that organizations have to adopt a more strategic approach towards category management. Category management generally revolves around the following key principles:

• Strong supply market intelligence
• Cross-functional approach
• Stakeholder engagement
  

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Category Management Process

Step 1

Define the category: This is the most crucial step that offers detailed insights into each segment while determining the products that belong to the category.

Step 2

Assess the role of each category: This helps to understand the role of the category in the retailer’s product portfolio.

Step 3

Assess current performance: A detailed analysis of the category’s current performance.

Step 4

Set targets for each category: Devise category scorecards to set measurable and achievable category goals.

Step 5

Devise precise strategies: Develop precise in-store and marketing strategies for each category.

Step 6

Set category tactics: Outline the measures to achieve the set category goals.

Step 7

Implement the devised strategies: Implement the set strategies to ensure the category goals are met.

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About the Client

The client is one of the top ten U.S distributors and retailers of the finest quality of canned goods ranging from desserts to canned meat products. The canned goods retailer is well-known for establishing their presence in various markets across the globe within a short span of time.

Client’s Challenge

The canned goods retailer embarked on a new program to transform their procurement functions. The rising need to increase the value delivered by their procurement functions paved the way for new challenges for the canned goods retailer, i.e., how to make the required changes in a fast-paced environment while ensuring continuity of supply and operational efficiency. To address such challenges by devising a precise category management process, the canned good retailer approached SpendEdge to leverage its vast industry expertise.

Engagement Overview

To help the canned goods retailer, the procurement experts at SpendEdge implemented the right category management principles while retaining their current delivery system. The adopted category management process helped achieve exceptional results while reducing supply chain risks and the overall procurement cycle time.

Key Findings

The offered solutions and recommendations delivered savings which exceeded the target by about 70%. Also, the implementation of category management strategies with a long-term view helped the canned goods retailer to focus on priority initiatives to improve the supply chain operations. The category management process also proved to be a game changer by helping the client increase sales and revenue by maximizing synergies and curtailing unproductive competition among their own products.

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