Why KAMs Need Category Management Skills Today More Than Ever
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010When I first started as a KAM at Unilever in 1997, Category Management was just emerging in Canada and quite frankly was the domain of a few people in the sales team that were gathered in one corner of the office surrounded by mountains of AC Nielsen data books. That’s right – literally huge binders [...]
More Bad News for #3 and #4 Brands
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010Our very first post on this blog highlighted an Ad Age article about Wal-mart’s move in the US to eliminate all but one brand of lunchbags (Ziploc), in favor of creating space and sales opportunity for their PL brand – Great Value. The idea was that reducing choice would actually increase sales in the category, [...]
Canadian Retailers Need to Go Global
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010There was an interesting article in the Toronto Star last week that discussed a recent University of Toronto study about the management of Canadian retailers. While the findings are that retail management in Canada is on-par with talent in the US, Canadian retailers that have international experience are much better managed. This is not a [...]
Having Difficulties Getting Your Retailer Partner to Share Data?
Monday, February 1st, 2010Originally Posted in October 2009 One truth in today’s world of advanced POS systems and loyalty cards such as SDM’s Optimum and the Safeway Club Card is that in most cases retailers have a much better understanding of shopper behavior than most CPG firms. The challenge is to convince retailers to share the sensitive information [...]
Inside The Mind of the Shopper
Monday, February 1st, 2010Originally Posted in August 2009 I picked up a fabulous book for vacation reading this summer which was recommended in July’s Canadian Grocer (coincidentally, I also had a column in that issue). Inside the Mind of the Shopper by Herb Sorensen is an interesting look into the shopper research that he has conducted over the [...]
