Master Essential Skills & Topics for Retail and CPG

Course Overview Participants learn how retailers can take category roles one step further, by assigning strategies to each category. These strategies help the retailer to define the purpose of each category in the store, beyond the category role. The strategies consider how the consumer shops, the image of the retailer, and the competitive nature of the categories. Participants will understand how these category strategies dictate more detail surrounding the tactics that relate to each category. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview This course reviews each of the tactics, or “4 Ps” (product assortment, product placement, pricing and promotion). Each tactic’s definition, measurement, and basic analytics are included. Specific calculations for “Share per Item”, “Item Share”, “Wtd Distribution”, “Sales per Point of Distribution”, “Shelf Share”, “Feature Share”, “Gross Margin”, “Penny Profit”, and “Avg. Unit Price vs. Avg.Tonnage Price” are included. Approximately 2.5 hours course time

Course Overview In this course, participants learn that although this is the last step of the category management process, it is also the most important. After all the category management work is done and the category plan is complete, successful execution of the plan in stores is critical to the success of the entire plan. This course gives examples of what is included in a category plan and explains the important considerations to ensure successful execution of the plan at store level. Approximately 2.5 hours course time

Many category management professionals end up in a very tactical role that results in them pulling and compiling data, with little room left for analyzing the data and becoming more strategic in their role. The opportunity is to become more strategic by learning where participants are spending too much time doing unimportant work and making some usually simple changes to free up some time for that more strategic work that they’ve always meant to get to.

Course Overview Participants increase their understanding of what is included in a retailer’s overall strategy, and the importance of being able to understand and articulate the strategy (from both a retailer’s and supplier’s perspective). Retailer strategy has a significant impact on category management, and needs to be defined across different buckets, including retail format, target consumer, competitive environment and private label or no name. Each of these areas will be reviewed in detail. A hands-on workshop allows participants to define the strategy for a specific retailer that they either work for, or that is their client. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview This course gives participants a solid foundation of considerations when using data, including properly citing references, using proper analytic techniques, only presenting relevant data, etc. It includes an 8-step analytic process that helps to plan out an analytic project before completing an analysis project, to save time and effort, and have a more successful outcome, as well as provides an overview of the different types of standard data (including retail POS, retail measurement data, consumer panel data and “other” data. There is emphasis on how all data sources are collected. Within each data source, the strengths & watch outs are identified, along with some basic measures available from the data source. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview

Course Overview Learners get an in-depth look at retail POS data, including retailer and third-party scanned sales data, and learn how the data is derived and understand key measures and definitions that relate to POS data. Trends, out of stocks, sales and profitability, distribution and shopper insights will be reviewed in retail POS data, so that participants learn how to maximize its potential. This includes calculations like Calculate shelf capacity, comp stores, gross margin, markup, initial markup, markdown, and margin. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview Participants learn how course time a category health assessment, including an exploration of internal and external influences. An in-depth understanding of baseline and incremental sales volume, drivers and measures are included in this assessment. Participants acquire the ability to address important questions that relate to a category’s health, including those associated with the consumer, trends, the economy, competition, and tactics associated with winning segments and brands. A SWOT analysis introduced as means to captures the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the category as the health assessment is completed. Calculations include seasonality index, quadrant analysis, baseline sales and incremental sales measures, tactics % change results, temporary price reduction, and shopper measures. Approximately 4 hours course time

Course Overview

Course Overview

Course Overview

Course Overview

Course Overview

Course Overview Participants review retailer strategies that relate to pricing, including price setting definitions and price rules for the retailer. It covers how prices are set, including promotional and new product pricing. The second half of the course captures a variety of advanced pricing analytic techniques, including breakeven point, correlation and price regression, activity-based costing and slope. Participants learn many different techniques used to assess retailer pricing. Approximately 2.5 hours income

Course Overview

Course Overview Efficient assortment is the analytical process that fits within product assortment, and within the category management framework. It is an enabler to the other steps within the category management plan. Participants learn about retailer assortment strategies, and the importance of understanding these strategies before moving into any type of assortment work, then learn the steps course time a manual assortment project, which will give them foundation from which they can either build their own assortment capabilities or better understand the assortment tools being used in their own organization. In this course, basic and intermediate techniques of assortment analytics are reviewed. Approximately 2.5 hours course time

Course Overview Category management is the retailer/supplier process of managing categories as strategic business units, producing enhanced business results by focusing on delivering consumer value. Category management provides strategic businesses approaches and analytics that benefit sales, marketing and category management professionals to understand. If participants are working in a category management environment, they need to understand the whole process, from a big picture perspective. Approximately 1.5 hours course time

Risk analysis is a process that helps to identify and manage potential problems that could undermine key business initiatives or projects. Participants may work for an organization who is encouraging them to “take risks”, however may not be giving them the roadmap to help to do that and feel comfortable with their decisions. In this course, we share the steps course time a risk analysis to give learners more confidence in the choices they make.