Distribution and sales: Category management

 

This paper provides an overview of brand positioning, from its definition to its formulation, including a discussion of positioning is needed and an examination of how it should be determined by consu ...

Argues that marketing departments often fail to engage with (and be valued by) other parts of the organisation because they rely on the creative aspect of their work (the ‘magic’), and do not recognis ...

Offers suggestions to help marketers in the difficult process of measurement for accountability. First, it is essential to realise, and admit, that not everything is possible: included here are issues ...

Argues that marketers are wrong to believe (as they do) that products in their markets are always getting better. On the contrary, as soon as a product becomes mass-market, it declines in quality and ...

Argues that many marketing departments spend too much time contemplating what they have done (‘accountability’) or might do (‘approvals’) instead of actually doing it. Marketers should spend less time ...

The possibility of using a simple, single measure of brand potential across different markets that is both conceptually meaningful and of value to management is presented. Building on the Dick and Bas ...

Describes Ad-ID, a Web-based system developed by the AAAA and ANA to build a universal standard for the advertising industry. It is like a barcode which uniquely identifies every advertising asset a c ...

Discusses the increasing involvement of advertisers' procurement and strategic sourcing departments in producing advertising. Although advertisers' marketing departments as well as agencies often disl ...

Offers thirteen guidelines for successful brainstorming within companies (meetings for generating new ideas). It is essential to plan, prepare and conduct this operation correctly; if not, it can dama ...

Argues the case for companies to use Marketing Resource Management (MRM) software to help achieve marketing accountability. MRM comprises three types of marketing solutions: to drive marketing efficie ...

Describes what UK stock market analysts are looking for when they evaluate fmcg companies. The increase in foreign equity ownership and the activity of hedge funds (with their interest in short-sellin ...

Correct evaluation of marketing activity is essential to ensure that marketing money is spent wisely and not wasted. It also increasingly affects remuneration. This best practice article offers twenty ...

Describes how Orange monitors its global brand positioning, comparing consumer perceptions with performance in each country. Reasons for valuing brands are summarised: not just for accountancy but als ...

Argues that the traditional `four P’s’ model of marketing, because it assumes that the marketer is in control of the process, is out of date now that the consumer is in control. An alternative demand- ...

The paper presents a business case from the baby care category. It describes how the organization of the baby care shelf according to consumer/shopper needs leads to a win-win-win for the consumer, th ...

The paper presents the method of measuring a manufacturer’s performance in the retail outlets. Through the total shopscore index it is possible to examine the level of product inventory, position and ...

The paper describes a down-to-Earth approach to optimising a retailer’s product assortment in key product categories by the combined analysis of the retailer’s internal sales information and external ...

A main feature of the category management process is the search for an optimal assortment. Improving the assortment is assumed to lead to faster turns, higher profits, and greater customer satisfactio ...

Coordinating and controlling advertising strategy within contractual and administered vertical marketing systems (VMSs) can be a complex task given the number of channel members involved in the proces ...

This paper is a critique of the article 'Managing Brand Experience: The Marketing Contact Audit' by Amitava Chattopadhyay and Jean- Louis Laborie, which appears in the same issue of JAR (March 2005, V ...

Although 90 percent of marketing communication investments are accounted for by investments in brand contacts, i.e., the points at which the consumer and the brand come in contact with each other, unt ...

Brief discussion of the beer market in the USA. From Business Horizons.

New technology is changing the shape of business by the development of ubiquitous networks (`u-networks’) such as the internet, ATM’s, cellular phones, computers etc. This changes the traditional spat ...

Tim Ambler applauds Customer Capital as a valuable new addition to the marketing vocabulary, but questions whether it gets to the heart of the problem.

Does marketing Influence decisions in every area throughout your company? John Flynn explains why it should.

Judie Lannon talks to W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne about how blue ocean strategy is helping companies seize new growth opportunities in today’s business environment by understanding the logic and pr ...

The industry has already extracted much of the benefit to be had from improving productivity and concentrating on core brands. Meanwhile, its dynamics are changing. What comes next? McKinsey analysts ...

In traditional multibrand companies, individual brands had individual managers reporting to marketing directors, but this is changing. As the corporate brand model becomes more widespread, the care an ...

In the past, B2B companies were likely to see marketing as the cosmetic sheen to be papered on to a commodity in the hope of faking distinctiveness. Heavy-duty B2B companies didn’t need it. Alexander ...

In this edition of ‘Best Practice’ Roderick White looks at the logistics of integrated marketing communications (IMC). He considers who should be in charge, how best to structure a multi-discipline f ...