Effective Category Strategy development
Category Strategies should be a roadmap to drive growth in the short AND long term
How do you develop an effective category strategy?
The most successful category strategy projects:
- Are collaborative with marketing, category and sales teams working together
- Combine consumer, shopper and customer perspectives right from the start
- Focus on propensity, rather than trying to push sales
#1: Category strategies should start with analysis into trends and motivations that are relevant to target consumers.
It is essential to get this first step in the category strategy development right:
- Trends tell us the direction in which something is changing
- Trends can highlight the threats a category needs to address
- Or trends can identify new opportunities to consider
The important word when looking at trends is relevance.
At Dynamic Reasoning we work with category teams to identify:
- Which trends are potentially relevant to the category and target consumers?
- How these trends might influence how consumers think and therefore behave?
- Consumer motivations, their wants and needs
#2: Consumer's unmet or changing needs should translate into consumption demand spaces.
Demand space refers to a gap, and gaps can = opportunities
Demand spaces identify gaps between what target consumers want/need versus the current offering (in or outside the category).
Dynamic Reasoning's proven category strategy process helps teams to:
- Identify the difference between demand moments and demand spaces
- Evaluate and prioritise which demand spaces to focus on
- Identify white spaces to develop a strong NPD pipeline
Effective category strategies identify demand spaces the business can deliver on
#3: Next step is to map how the business can meet these needs and drive growth, identifying Category Drivers.
Category Drivers are statements that bring to life an opportunity that will drive incremental growth for a business and their customers.
Clear and compelling Category Drivers make it easier to develop tactics, or enablers.
At Dynamic Reasoning we help teams to apply a commercial filter to their Category Drivers.
Compelling Category Drivers should be:
- Engaging and easily understood
- Aspirational yet achievable
- Motivating, a spring-board to energise teams into action
Taking the time to strengthen category drivers ultimately speeds up execution.
In turn this reduces time to implementation delivering a higher ROI for all stakeholders.
Why work with Dynamic Reasoning to develop your category strategy?
Our Proven Approach
Dynamic Reasoning has a proven category strategy process that delivers results.
What We Deliver
- Tangible growth opportunities for your business and retail customers
- Interactive collaborative process that helps teams make data connections
- Actionable insights that energise everyone involved
- Full business alignment through comprehensive induction programs
Beyond Strategy Development
Once your category strategy has been signed off internally, we create an onboarding program that:
- Takes everyone through the stages of development
- Ensures the whole business is fully aligned
- Shares the vision, drivers and enablers with external agencies
- Gets everyone lined up and ready to execute
Ready to develop a category strategy that drives real growth?
Get in touch to discuss how we can help you capture growth opportunities in your category.