Most fmcg companies offer category insight and strategy to retailers. They provide regular category reports and occasionally they do their big sell of a category vision. But success varies wildly.
Sometimes a company’s advice betrays an obvious partiality to their own brands or subcategories. Sometimes the advice is impractical: it’s ideal world, not real world. Sometimes recommendations are too complex, pointing to many drivers and tactics. In the worst cases, all this can mean a lot of work but with very little traction.
So what can you do to create quality conversations with retailers about category growth, which result in real differences for shoppers?
First, understand how things get done within the retailer. You need to know the buying teams and their objectives. You need to understand the retailer’s broader objectives and strategies: how your category fits with all the other priorities; how the different divisions work together; who the key players are in the big decisions.
What are the constraints around what can and cannot be done in stores? Retail people are a tribe. If you don’t show an understanding of their jungle, or at least a willingness to learn, they won’t listen to your ideas.
Second, stimulate the imagination. Many category visions feel flat – the fluffy vision statement, the slides full of boxes, words and numbers, the bit talking about how much growth will come from penetration, frequency and price per item. It must get boring for the buyers.
So liven it up. Use arresting pictures and videos. Use interesting words so your big ideas stick in the mind. Use numbers very sparingly. Tell them only 3% of store visitors buy the category compared to 5% at their main competitor, and they’ll remember. Tell them how that compares to all the other categories and retailers, and probably nothing sticks.
Third, ‘co-create’ with the retailer. Find the space for an open, imaginative conversation. It might be a formal working session with several people from supplier and retailer. It might be equally effective as an informal one-to-one, perhaps over a drink or a coffee. Share ideas and argue the toss with each other. The best ideas often emerge when two opinions conflict.
Don’t go in holding tight to a narrow goal of ‘what we want to get’. Influential people are prepared to be influenced, so be open to other ideas. There might be something better than you’ve yet considered, and anyway, it is easier to get traction with a co-created idea.
Everyone wants category growth. But much category work is too flat. To create quality conversations and plans, you need get beyond the mundanity of the category management textbook. Understand your retailer, then stimulate their imagination and co-create with them.
Jeremy Garlick is a partner at Insight Traction
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