CatMan reloaded?

Many people think that category management (often abbreviated as CatMan) is a long and boring analysing process. Judit Hauber, senior client lead of dunnhumby told us that the general main goal is to call shoppers attention to a category and make them buy the products in it; in addition to this, a more concrete goal can be set for store types and individual categories.

Gábor Viczián, P&G division sales manager of Orbico Hungary Kft. informed that in the household chemicals and cosmetics categories multinational chains and drugstores have been successful in CatMan for year. With Hungarian-owned chains the cooperation in category management started with full force at the end of last year. Renáta Draskovich, electro division trade marketing manager of Orbico Hungary Kft. added that they keep examining certain areas of category management and make recommendations for changes accordingly. In dunnhumby’s opinion regionalisation can be one of the key factors of category management in the future. It is characteristic of the Hungarian situation that both retailers and transportation companies have limited human resources, which means they have less time for realising large-scale projects. Consequently, in category management the focus is on daily operative work. Pilot projects are realised in one country first and if it works, other countries adopt it. Orbico believes in sharing knowledge and best practices in different domains. For instance one of the company’s most efficient display projects for Braun was developed based on a pilot project done in Croatia; now it is already used in many other countries. Making planograms is one of category management’s fundamental tasks. Ms Hauber opines that in an ideal case a planogram is valid for 1.5-2 years, but as companies keep coming out with new products, the planogram often has to change. Mr Viczián reckons that a planogram is good if in a given category sales, basket value and profit all grow. At the same time design elements can also increase the value of the shelf arrangement and of the category displayed. Ms Draskovich revealed that in modern channels of retail and in consumer electronics stores product samples can always be found, because customers need to try the devices (e.g. hair clipper, toothbrush, etc.) they will use every day in the next 5-7 years. Dunnhumby’s experience is that retailers are more and more open to discuss CatMan matters with manufacturers and there are more joint projects than before. However, it is very important to create mutual trust between the parties and to really think in terms of categories and not just about the brand of the manufacturer. It is really good news than dunnhumby can help the process with objective and shopper-centred analyses. CatMan projects have to be monitored throughout the project – these days there’s often no time and energy to analyse results and draw conclusions after projects. Category captains play an important role in the CatMan process, from beginning to end. In the case of bigger category management projects market research results are also used. These can direct attention to market trends and changes in consumption habits. When working with Tesco, dunnhumby always represents the shoppers: if they are satisfied, manufacturers and retailers are also winners. As there are many players in the market and a large number of products make up categories, it often happens that retailers involve more players in the projects to get a full picture of the situation. This leads to longer periods of time needed for implementation – sometimes a year or more. Unfortunately, this speed is too slow in our rapidly changing world.