Category Management Tools – Identify Your Category Fair Share Gap
Category Managers tell us that they sometimes get lost in the armfuls of data. This Category Management tool helps you, a Category Manager, to focus. As a rule, using the simple, yet effective tool below, you can identify the size of the opportunity for your category.
You can keep one eye on the size of the prize by seeing what’s possible. This happens because either your category offers an opportunity to increase its share, or you need to protect against overtrading.
Related: Check out our ultimate guide on Category Management and also on Medium.
Instructions for Using this Category Management Tool
- Firstly: Enter the current market share % for the total category in box (1)
- Secondly: Enter the current market share % for your retailer in box (2)
- Thirdly: Enter the value of your category, e.g. £86,000,000 in box (3)
The Results from Your Category Management Tool
Your category opportunity value is presented in box (4).
If you have a negative result you have an overtrade to protect, because your category is outperforming your retailer’s share of spend. Furthermore, if you have a positive number then you have an opportunity to meet or exceed fair share for your category.
A further build to consider is how your category is performing by looking at the percentage spend change period on period, and then comparing it to your retailer’s spend change period on period (or another parent or shoulder category). Namely, this gives a further benchmark on performance and allows you to consider the below 4 positions.
Your Share of a Category
To achieve a fair share for a supermarket is a simple goal. Thus, another close element to consider is your share of the category.
A category is say £100m. You are, for example, 52%. What is the ceiling for your company in this category with this supermarket? It might be 100%, or you may accept that (A) you do not have the production capability to do the final 10%, or (B) you accept that the supermarket might never give away 100%.
So here’s another of the category management tools to try today. The below simple tool, helps you identify the opportunity size.
