Master Essential Skills & Topics for Retail and CPG

This category management training program spans the foundations of Category Management from the foundational to the intermediate level with a focus on in-depth data and analysis. It's a great program if you have a limited background or need a refresher in the foundations, if you want a good general knowledge of category management data and analytics, or if you are seeking certification at the Certified Professional Category Manager (CPCM) level with the Category Management Association (CMA). Buy Foundational / CPCA + Intermediate / CPCM Category Management Training Program ($1,549) or Certification Package ($1,699) from CMKG.ORG

This set of foundational courses gives a solid grounding in the category management process, analytics and presentation skills. This program meets all learning requirements for the designation of Certified Professional Category Analyst (CPCA) designation for those who are interested in certification. Who should take this course? Retail, category management, sales and shopper teams looking for an intermediate understanding of Category Management and/or who is looking to achieve CPCA certification. Program Details Approx. 30-35 hours course time No prerequisites Available in Spanish

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 30 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 10 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

This category management training program gives you access to all of our accredited and non-accredited category management courses at the Foundational, Intermediate and Advanced levels, plus an additional 6 non-accredited courses. Learn everything you possibly can about category management in this expanded set of accredited and non-accredited courses. If you are serious about category management and want to become proficient at all levels, this program is ideal for you, and gives you the best bang for your buck. An "all course access" gives you access to 34 courses (29 accredited and 5 non-accredited), with two years access to the full program in our Online Training & Resource Center. Buy All Course Category Management Training Program ($2,149) from CMKG.ORG

Course Overview Participants have access to a set of mini-Excel courses that start “basic” and move up to “advanced” topics, while all the data examples used in these courses are appropriate to category management work. Participants learn to maximize their Excel skills across a broad range of topics, and they also benefit from the applied category management learnings provided in these courses. Topics reviewed include Range Names, Dynamic Range Names, Absolute and Relative References, Basic Formula Writing, Custom Formats, Custom Lists, Text Functions and VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP formulas. Approximately 2.5 hours course time (more time will be required for participants new to Excel)

Course Overview Participants learn how course time a category assessment that includes “most” and “least” developed brands and segments, highest and lowest growth brands and segments, and benchmarking concepts. Workshops give the opportunity to review a category assessment and complete observations. This course includes calculations for Category $ Share, $ Sales % Chg, Absolute Sales Change, Share Pt Change, Retailer Share of Market, Index vs. ACV and ACV. Approximately 2.5 hours course time

Course Overview Participants build their skills in technical and tactical functionality of PowerPoint and presentation skills. By understanding the fundamentals of PowerPoint, participants become more efficient in developing effective, succinct, and impactful presentations. The presentation skills included in this course allow participants to take their great PowerPoint presentations, and effectively present them to either internal or external audiences. This course is broken into 2 distinct parts, first focusing on PowerPoint skills, then on presentation development and delivery. Approximately 2.5 hours course time

Course Overview Participants learn to define a category from the shopper’s point of view and understand how category definition affects how the category is merchandised, priced, and promoted. Once the category is defined, it needs to be segmented based on a consumer decision tree. This sets up the category for effective analysis based on how the shopper shops the category. Key steps and varying methods are explored in completing these steps of the Category Management process. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview This course gives meaningful insights into maximizing data in a limited data environment. Participants review different report layouts and perspectives, based on limited data in different areas of the business. They learn about the importance of a trust between retailer and strategic trading partners to be successful in a limited data environment, with participants completing the course having examples that they can take back to their desks as examples. The tactics will also be included in the analytics, with suggestions on how to gather and analyze the data for meaningful insights. Approximately 2 hours course time

Course Overview This course gives an understanding of the importance of the category roles based on the purpose of the category for a specific retailer. Participants learn how assigning a category role to each category allows retailers to strategically lay out their stores and help with tactical decision making through pricing, promotion, placement and product availability. Approximately 2 hours course time

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 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