Product & Category Management

Introduction
 What is a product?

A product is any offering by a company to a market

that serves to satisfy customer needs and wants.
It includes physical objects, services, persons, places,
organizations and ideas etc.
 What is design thinking?
A Method of focusing innovation and designing based on:
What people need and want
What people like or dislike
In regards to production, packaging, marketing, retailing, support, or all of
them

A skill that allows a designer to align what people want with what
can be done, and produce a viable business strategy that creates
customer value and market opportunity.

Also, by identifying an unrecognized and unmet need, an

organization can use Innovation to apply its creative resources to
Design an appropriate solution
Design Thinking: Examples
 What is Category?

A category is distinct, manageable group of products or

services that customers perceive as interrelated or
substitutable in meeting a consumers need.

Examples: Dairy & frozen foods, Household Cleaning,

Consumer Electronics, Paper products, glassware, health
and beauty products etc.
Category Perspectives

Manufacturer

Retailer
 Category Management at
Manufacturing Organization
Category management : Product management system in
which a category managerwith profit and loss
responsibilityoversees a product line.
 Category Management at
Retailing Organization
Category management is a process that involves
managing product categories as business units and
customizing them [on a store by store basis] to satisfy
customer needs.

It is an organizational approach in which the management

of retail establishment is broken down into categories of
like products.
Examples: Hair Care, Oral Care, Back to school, Pooja
Items/kits, Diwali gifts etc.
Evolution of Category Management
In the late 1980s, P & G management made a significant
change in its brand management structure to improve co-
ordination and efficiency.
Multiple brands were combined into product categories,
under the responsibility of a Category Manager, who
managed individual brands as part of the overall category
portfolio.
In 1989, Brian Harris effectively invented Category
Management concept in Retail by publishing an 8-step
process which has guided collaboration between retailers
and consumer
Category Tree / Structure / Classification / Levels /
Bifurcation / Merchandising Hierarchy
Category Structure: Example
Thank you