The Category Management Handbook

Activity 2Category hierarchy

Figure 1.4 Category hierarchy

Overview

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a category as ‘a class or division of people or things regarded as having particular shared characteristics’. Marketers were early pioneers of grouping similarities within categories in order to establish targeted media campaigns to different classes of consumers. Later, the procurement community developed the concept to categorise potential supply-market opportunities and synergies in lieu – with Peter Kraljic being one of the pioneers. Each category and subcategory represented a separate sector within the supply market, thus offering a ...