Bill Bittner

FD Buyer: Let's Try Coordinating the Time of Category Reviews

March 8, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Let's say you're a manufacturer with a new product breakthrough, and you're ready to present it to the trade this month. But let's also say that several of your key retailers won't be reviewing your category until the following January. Would an effort at standardizing which categories are reviewed when be beneficial for the industry?      [more...]

There are a lot of things to consider here, everything from the different seasonal and demographic issues to in-store execution, and of course there is the consumer. With all manufacturers trying to hit the same time window, you are only going to increase the paranoia the other manufacturers have of the "Category Captain." I am not sure the warehouse, category manager, or stores have enough resources to risk on a variety of unknown new items all at once. The consumer may also feel overwhelmed as discontinued products force them to make new brand choices across many items. Who knows, you may end up with a lot of unproductive space in six months when new items are no longer supported by advertising and introductory discounts.

The advantage of the current method is that there is constant evolution of the category occurring. This allows for adjustments between resets that avoid long periods of unproductive space or under allocated space. Perhaps the important thing is to administer categories more flexibly, allowing for changes between major resets. This means over allocating a few of the staple items so that new items can be introduced between resets without major adjustments. It means culling the dead items and using the space to extend some of the surprises. More attention should be given to a "discontinued when out" section that allows the store to comply with assortment changes by moving the discontinued items to a separate area.

I think the whole effort to create targeted assortments emphasizes the need to have more flexible administrative procedures. This should enable categories to grow and shrink organically as they move between periods of high and low emphasis. New items should arrive with a special case label that identifies the items to the left and right of where the new item is to be displayed. Changes in pack sizes or demand forecasts that change the proper shelf allocation should be highlighted with notices to the night crew and new shelf labels. Resets cannot be eliminated, but added flexibility between them will improve performance.