Other Services
from Category First Services
Space Planning and Analysis
Category First Services can help with your planogram or blockogram space planning needs. Apart from plan builds, we can conduct an analysis of your space plans, make segmentation and point of purchase recommendations and analyse performance once the plan has been implemented.
The average time spent at fixture by a shopper while deciding on a grocery purchase can range from a couple of seconds to just under one minute. That is not a lot of time for your products or brands to shine. Aisle standout and position on shelf can be the difference between your category or product being bought or not.
Here is how we can help with your space planning:
-
Build your planogram suite to match your requirements
-
Make insight-based recommendations to optimise your planogram effectiveness
-
Provide analysis and reporting on your planogram performance
We can work with you on a project or ad-hoc basis depending on your needs. Get in touch if you want to discuss space planning further via telephone or web call – whichever suits.
Training and Mentoring
If you are looking for help to support your staff on category management knowledge or skills development then we can help. We can provide an assessment and plan on what to do in the category area so that your team are driving and delivering real value for the rest of your business and your customers.
We provide bespoke training and coaching on all category management related topics and elements of the category management process to suit your business’s needs. Following an assessment, we will design a programme around you to help achieve your learning goals.
Our key differentiator in the category management learning space is that we will not just ‘hit and run’. We are agile enough to tailor the programme to your requirements, but we support you or your teams continued development by being on hand to ensure that newly acquired learnings are embedded and actionable for achievement of day-to-day tasks.
Training and coaching can be arranged on a one to one or team basis and can be carried out over a short- or longer-term period – whichever suites your needs. We can also help with onboarding new category management staff. Get in touch for a free consultation.
Our training and coaching topics include:
-
Category Management Strategy and Vision Development
-
How to conduct a Range Review
-
Space Planning
-
Insight Development
-
Data Analysis
-
Compelling Category Presentations
-
Category Reporting
Digital Marketing Support
We provide consultancy, advice and training in marketing fundamentals and can help with compiling your marketing strategy and plan.
Category management has evolved to include elements of e-commerce and category management marketing in response to the changing environment. Rob Mullen is a fully accredited digital marketing and analytics marketer who can help you to harness the power of digital and translate it into your e-commerce category management and marketing plans.
We are making our purchase decisions differently now compared to 10 years ago. More people are shopping for groceries online and we increasingly conduct research online before making our final purchase in-store. Direct to consumer services have flourished and omnichannel marketing has grown in importance.
Category management has a role to play in this digital environment. Category First Services can help integrate your digital and category plans in areas like:
-
Digital Marketing Strategy
-
Digital Market Research
-
Big Data Analytics
-
Online Category Management
-
Social Media Strategy
Contact us today for a free consultation call to discuss any digital marketing support requirements you have.
Small Business Support
If you are a small business new to category management or want to develop your business further by using category management techniques, contact us and we will be glad to scope out how our services can help you achieve your objectives.
We will introduce you to the most appropriate techniques for your business and provide you with an expert view on the practices that can help you grow within your category.
Range Review Support
At Category First Services, we provide ad-hoc or continuous range review support at. We examine category dynamics, shopper behaviour and product performance to produce the optimum range, brand and product mix to meet your category needs. We also keep a keen eye on your customers' category needs so that any recommendations are compelling and growth focused.
We understand that scheduled or ad-hoc range review periods can be busy times for consumer-packaged goods businesses. Range reviews are an excellent opportunity to spotlight the insights you have identified for your categories, shoppers, and consumers. Range reviews are also a great vehicle to propel your category initiatives from plans to implementation.
Category First Services can support you at all stages of the range review process. If you are new to the range review process or are a category advisor, challenger, or partner, we will work to your brief to help you optimise your influence on the range review including support on:
-
Objective alignment
-
Market Overview
-
Assortment analysis
-
Category and Shopper Insights
-
Recommendations
-
Space planning and merchandising
-
Size of Prize Quantification.
-
Compelling range review presentations.
-
Initiative performance and score-carding.
Karen O’Connell, Category Development Manager, Manor Farm.
AN EXCEPTIONAL AND REWARDING EXPERIENCE
“Working with Category First Services is an exceptional and rewarding experience. We needed to develop a plan for our category and to get to grips with some core category management techniques. Rob put the tools in place to help us craft our Category Vision and Strategy and skilfully guided us through a category management training plan. The results have meant greater collaboration between our functional departments as we continue to bring our category plans to life”.
