Abstract:

It is our opinion that the category management initiative, as a whole, has not unfolded as we had expected 15 years ago. With the benefit of hindsight, it is unlikely that it would proceed in such a fairytale fashion. The road to adoption of category management and the successful application of marketing, sales and research along that road is fraught with obstacles and roadblocks. The purpose of this paper is to discuss those roadblocks, both attempting to identify their causes and propose solutions.