Kai Clarke

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...]

This is a non-question. It is the differences in category reviews that allow the industry to become more efficient. If we had to have all of the same category reviews available at the same time, who would coordinate the presentations, address the issues and create new product prototypes for availability all at the same time? Crazy! Instead, the offsetting schedules of different companies is a welcome reprieve for companies to first focus on one retailer and then another without having to do them all at once. Although disorganized, it is better than the alignment of reviews that this article proposes.