Good supplier management is vital to the success of almost every business
The category manager worked together with the purchasing managers, the marketing experts and those in charge of managing and controlling the retail points, keys for the exhibition, positioning and sale of the product.
- The category manager is a professional in charge of defining the purchasing strategy that a company makes to carry out its activity.
- How do businesses do to manage, position and improve the sale of their products?
- The category manager is a very relevant profile in the companies and industries in which the differentiation of the product and the threat of the white marks determines its strategies.
This professional profile arises in the nineties, especially before the arrival of white brands in the markets, saturating the offer and forcing brands to defend their identity and bet on the quality of their products.
Normally, the category manager is the professional who is responsible for defining the business strategy in relation to manufacturers and suppliers, so that everyone has the same objectives and together they can improve their sales.
After all, much of the success of a supplier that supplies raw materials for the manufacture of a final product depends on sales and the results achieved by its customers who handle final products.
Keys to being an expert in Category Management
His work methodology involves focusing attention on product categories. This is understood as each category is a grouping of products that work independently, complementing or grouped according to the needs of the consumer they cover.
In order to work effectively, these professionals work each category as a business unit and are organized into work teams where they are present from the manufacturer and suppliers to the distributor so that all the stages of the process can be controlled and defined.
The methodology of work of a category manager
Since he is one of those in charge of making a definition of the successful business strategy, with the support of his team, the category manager usually performs the following steps for the correct development of his work :
1. Define categories
And with that, to specify the Target Market of each set of products.
2. Define the role of each category
According to some classifications that respond to the needs that the product covers and on what type of consumer good it is.
3. Analysis phase
Of all the agents involved: consumers, market, competition, points of sale, …
4. Set goals
What you want to achieve and how to measure the results.
5. Strategic design
Defining how to improve the traffic of products, customer loyalty or position the brand in the market and in front of the competition.
6. Tactic
After the strategies, it is time to specify the actions for each category, objective and retail.
7. Execution
It is the moment in which the points of sale are managed, a follow-up is carried out and the results obtained from the product are reported in contact with the final customer.
The challenges that must be handled and overcome by a category manager for the success of a business are great.
