CPG Food Brands Need Planogram Expertise

We asked retail food buyers how much of the job requires food manufacturers to be experts in their category, and how do the best manufacturers show their planogram expertise?

Buyer answers to the first question were unanimous and absolute: 100 percent of the responsibility is on the food manufacturers to be experts in their category. The fact is, the more you are an expert in your category—from the target market, the planogram, the competition, and trends to your product’s differentiation and packaging—the more you position yourself and your company as an excellent resource to the buyer.

Category and Planogram Expertise

Gaining expertise and leveraging it are among the key concepts driving many NewPoint posts, and buyers and retailers believe that there’s no reason to even be in business with them if you aren’t an expert. Buyers don’t want to educate you on your category, which might sound like an obvious requirement. However, several buyers told me it was laughable how many suppliers simply don’t know their own business—an issue that seems to happen more often as supplier sales teams change and become more inexperienced with each passing year.

Have a Game Plan

As far as showing expertise, a good game plan is to package your buyer presentations so that they accentuate your category expertise. This means you must prove to them that you have a firm grasp on all the data, trend information, and consumer feedback. In short, be prepared to back up your product presentation with a convincing argument.

Trying to make sense of the planograms you are in or trying to get in? We can help! Please reach out to the NewPoint team. If you are interested in more food marketing topics, please visit our Food for Thought page or check out NewPoint’s Patrick Nycz’s book: Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.