Category Strategy development process

Category Strategies should be a roadmap that drives your business growth in the short and long term

How do you develop an effective category strategy?

Effective category strategies start by identifying consumption opportunities for your target consumers, focusing on propensity rather than trying to push sales.

The most successful category strategy projects are collaborative with marketing, category and sales teams working together combining consumer, shopper and customer perspectives right from the start.

Steps to successful Category Strategy development:

Effective category strategies start by identifying potential in consumption opportunities for your target consumers, these opportunities are often referred to as Demand Spaces.

The space refers to the gap, a gap between what your target consumers want or need versus the current offering (within the category) 

The category strategy development process is often referred to as a category strategy funnel.

Effective category strategy funnels starts with analysis into the trends and motivations that are relevant to your target consumers.

These are unmet or changing needs are translated into consumption demand spaces.

The next step is to identify how the business can meet these needs and drive growth, hence the terminology Category Drivers.

Clear and compelling Category Drivers make the process of developing the tactics, often knowns as Category Enablers incredibly straight-forward.

This all speeds up execution and reduces time to implementation delivering growth for the business and their customers. 

Why work with Dynamic Reasoning to develop your category strategy?

Dynamic Reasoning has a proven, commercially viable category strategy process that helps teams quickly and effectively identify tangible growth opportunities for their business and their retail customers.

We have developed an interactive process to develop category strategies that uses mixed media to help teams make data connections, and generate insight in a way that energises everyone involved and helps to embed the strategy.

Once the category strategy has been signed off internally, we then create an induction program that can be used to take everyone through the stages of development, so the whole business is fully aligned.

The category induction plan can also be used to share the vision, drivers and enablers with external agencies ensuring that everyone gets the strategy and is lined up ready to execute. 

If you're wondering if your existing category strategy needs a refresh then click here to view our free evaluation tool that's designed to help category or sales directors reflect on the strengths of their existing cat strat and identify areas for improvement. 

Would you like to strengthen your category strategy or like to know more?

Click here to view our free evaluation tool designed to help category or sales directors to review their existing category strategy.

Or if you have any questions or would more information on our approach to developing an effective category strategy then please send us an email.

Alternatively please click here to arrange a call to discuss any elements of your existing category strategy you'd like to develop or strengthen.