CHICAGO -- Choosing retailer allies for category management is an inexact science at best, but Mott's U.S.A. is developing the tools it says will move it out of the realm of educated guesswork and closer to fact-based decisions.
Last month, the company began an effort to integrate its continuous replenishment, category management and Efficient Consumer Response capabilities, said Stuart Barker, senior category manager at Mott's U.S.A., Stamford, Conn.
He said the company, which has a fully brokered sales force, is investing heavily in this process to maintain ties to its biggest volume accounts and strengthen ties with accounts where Mott's has not yet reached its potential.
"We want to get closer to our customers, not to be nice, but because it is essential to our business," he said.
Speaking here at "Category Management: The Elements for Success," a conference sponsored by the Strategic Research Institute, New York, Barker outlined how Mott's is using what he called "decision analysis" to determine which accounts to partner with first. Among the key judgments needed, he added, is "Should we target the top-volume accounts or the biggest opportunity-gap accounts?"
Among the tools the company has developed is a weighted scorecard it is now using to help determine which customers it should focus on first. Customer opportunity-gap assessment is developed by first ranking each retailer by its share of total all commodities volume nationally. Then each is weighted according to Mott's share of business with that customer relative to its ACV, Barker said.
"The initial hit list will be 10 to 15 companies to partner with. "Our underdeveloped customer opportunity alone suggests a 26% additional business opportunity through category management initiatives," said Barker, who estimated that those accounts represent 64% of the total growth opportunity facing Mott's brands.
Like many brand marketers, Mott's expects to establish customer teams at many of those accounts. "Our broker basically is our sales force," he said. "They will be part of our key account teams and they will most certainly be part of the key account staff."
Mott's is in the middle of a multiyear, structured process, which is designed to take it toward fully integrated category management and ECR capability by 1997, he said.
