Introduction

Category Management is a term familiar to food, drug and mass market retailers and suppliers. It’s been evolving for the past 25 years in that industry, but it’s virtually unknown in the consumer electronics and technology space. With the high level of customer and transaction data available to sophisticated retailers and suppliers in consumer and technology products, and the current demands Wal-Mart is placing on suppliers in all category, Category Management is ripe for our industry. Those who jump in early will reap long term benefits. Those who wait can be left in the competitive dust. The purpose of this white paper synopsis is to introduce the principals of category management and provide a basis for considering your category management options. While at HP I pioneered category management for our consumer business, and developed the retail relationships, infrastructure, skills and processes that propelled HP into the leadership position not only in the printer and printing supplies categories, but established HP as the leader in category management for the entire industry. (more…)