How category captains help brands and retailers succeed

In retail, buyers work on behalf of retailers to selectively purchase and merchandise products for different product categories (eg. Frozen Pizza, Supplements). But with limited time and many responsibilities, buyers also rely on individuals from leading CPG brands for guidance on how to strategically grow and manage their category. These designated leaders are referred to as Category Captains, and play a beneficial role in driving success for all parties involved. 

What is a Category Captain?

Typically, retailers will nominate a Category Captain from one of the leading brands in a category. The individuals from these companies work with retailers as consultants, leveraging data and market research to identify strategic opportunities and attract new customers – not just to their brand, but the various other brands and products that make up the category. While most suppliers only have access to their own sales data at a given retailer, CPG Category Captains gain access to a much wider-ranging and richer set of data. They typically also have a greater amount of time and available resources to conduct market research and category analysis.

Being a Category Captain is a two way street that drives value for both the brand they work for, but also the retailer and category as a whole. Captains utilize their research and data to plan product mixes for their category, which helps guide the retailer’s buying decisions. In this way, Category Captains influence the direction of the category and set a precedent for the types of products a buyer will choose to sell on shelve (which likely includes expansion opportunities for the Category Captain’s brand). Since these individuals work for companies that maintain a larger market share, buyers understand that their input will be key to hitting revenue targets and growing sales for the retailer. 

It is a mutually beneficial relationship because as sales for the Category Captain’s brand grow, so too does the category as a whole.

With limited time and many responsibilities, retail buyers rely on individuals from leading CPG brands for guidance on how to strategically grow and manage their category. These designated leaders are referred to as Category Captains, and play a beneficial role in driving success for all parties involved. 

Roles and responsibilities

Category Captains meet with their retailer connections more frequently than other brands, so they can share reporting, conduct category analysis, and review product sets. Since buyers often manage multiple categories, they rely on Category Captains for key reporting functions and for expert insights. The Category Captain contributes information that places their brand at the forefront of the conversation and helps maintain their market share, while also showing how emerging brands or new products can be introduced to the set, suggesting merchandising strategies that can help grow the category as a whole. Captains and buyers can work together on strategies that attract new shoppers, drive incremental growth, and encourage customer loyalty.

• Reporting: Category Captains are often considered the single source of truth for weekly reporting. They work for leading CPG organizations that have a wide range of retail partnerships, and will leverage data across retailers to inform category analysis. By aggregating their sales trends like velocity across retailers, they are able to uncover insights and offer additional context that will provide great value to a retail buyer. In order to have the best handle on this data, enterprise CPG companies use platforms like Crisp for their data reporting as it allows them to harmonize reports from multiple retailers.
  

• Category Analysis: CPG Category Captains analyze performance and provide input about not just their own products, but other brands and products in a category. They assist with the analysis of evolving consumer behavior, variables affecting the market, and new product trends. By analyzing a retailer’s category, captains can go to market with products that meet the needs of loyal, traditional customers and new audiences alike. They help the buyer make decisions about incorporating other brands into the category because they know that shoppers appreciate variety and it will be better to attract and grow business in the category rather than lose customers by not serving their needs.
• Line Reviews: Buyers and category managers conduct reviews to assess their product sets on varying timelines, typically on bi-annual or annual basis. During these reviews, retailers will most certainly seek the input of Category Captains to help with strategic direction of the category. This direction can be reflected in the product mix and shelf plans they devise, which can be done in a way that is also advantageous to the Category Captain’s brand.

Key data and reports

Part of what makes the input of a Category Captain so valuable to retailers is their ability to use data to identify sales trends and opportunities. With a CPG data platform like Crisp, brands can provide their buyer with weekly reports of key sales data to uncover insights and drive decision making around pricing, promotions and product assortments. Velocity reports (units per store, per week) can be sorted down to the SKU level to examine the weekly performance of each individual item in a set. 

With this level of data, the Category Captain and buyer are better able to devise the category’s planograms (also known as modulars) – a visual, schematic diagram that demonstrates how products will live on shelves. Products from different brands are added, removed or rearranged on a planogram in accordance with the insights that data uncovers. 

While Category Captains tend to lead these conversations, sales professionals at other CPG brands in the category can also have a say by offering their own data and insights. By leveraging their own sales data, they too can influence the decisions of a category manager and the category as a whole. 

How to become a Category Captain

Category Captains are appointed by the CPG organizations they represent for their expertise, willingness to help the retailer and brands succeed, and their ability to use data to create compelling sales stories. Compared to other sales professionals, Category Captains garner the most attention and time with buyers because they are usually from leading CPG companies with the most items in a mix, and therefore have a higher influence on the category’s revenue. 

Leading CPG brands have not always possessed the top spot in their category, and have grown into their position by strategically meeting consumer needs with products now used by millions of households. Today, these needs are evolving, and there are opportunities for emerging brands to take a new lead. Using data to prove how their products will grow the category over time is referred to as incrementality, and being able to do this effectively reflects the true mindset of a Category Captain. 

Part of what makes the input of a Category Captain so valuable to retailers is their ability to use data to identify sales trends and opportunities.

Conclusion: Understanding the retailer-supplier relationship

At the end of the day, retailers want to work with suppliers that help the sales in their stores flourish, and individuals that are able to continually deliver on their promises. Reliability will be key, as the retailer will expect a regular supply of the products, so as to never turn a shopper away and lose sales.

Recall that retailers are also limited to data from their own stores. If a CPG professional is able to use their sales data from across other retailers, to help a buyer grow their category, then this will place their brand in a favorable position when it comes to planning product sets. 

Category Captains are leaders that take initiative in creating a healthy, mutually beneficial retailer-supplier relationship, and drive vision for the long-term success of a category using data that proves the value of its products to consumers.