The Category Management Handbook

Stage 2Research

Overview and benefits of this stage

Successful category management is underpinned by robust data and rigorous analysis. To create and implement a strategy, you need to have a thorough insight into all of the relevant information, characteristics and trends that apply, both internally (in terms of organisational behaviour and spend patterns) and externally (in terms of market dynamics).

This is a time-consuming and potentially resource-intensive stage in the category management process. Good strategy is based on good knowledge, and so the temptations of shortcuts here need to be resisted. This is category management’s equivalent of big data.

It’s impossible to give guidance on the timeline for the research phase of category management. ...