Earn your NACS Certified Convenience Advanced Category Management certification (CCACM) through the completion of this hands-on course. Comprised of key strategic planning and analytical skill-building programs, this 6 -hour interactive course is tailored for experienced category management and merchandising professionals from retailers and suppliers in the convenience and fueling retailing channel.
Learn how to develop a holistic brand strategy and identify points of differentiation for your brand. Discover how to integrate consumer shopping behavior to create winning space and assortment strategies. A deep dive into price elasticity modeling, utilizing some behavioral economic principles, will guide attendees on how to optimize price, promotions, and overall profitability.
Completion of the online NACS Certified Convenience Category Manager (CCCM) course prior to this event is strongly encouraged, as an understanding of basic category management principles are assumed during this Advanced program.
Drawing on the fundamentals included in the online NACS Advanced Category Management curriculum, this in-person course will incorporate industry data and offer collaborative work sessions designed for maximum learning and retention.
Upon completion, each participant will earn an CCACM certificate from NACS and Impact 21.
Objectives
- Importance of a clearly defined brand strategy & developing points of differentiation
- Optimize your price and promotional strategies thru a deeper understanding of category roles & strategies, elasticity modeling, comprehensive analysis, and behavioral economic theories
- Utilize a broad set of consumer data from loyalty, manufacturer, and syndicated sources to better understand shopper behavior and optimize category performance
- Improve your space management and assortment strategies by incorporating the right set of data, utilizing productivity & placement fundamentals, and ensuring a sound execution and analytical review process
A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Space is limited to 60 attendees.
Brand Strategy: Define your brand strategy and develop points of differentiation
- Latest trends shaping the convenience customer
- Three primary segments of brand strategy: Points of differentiation, Operational Excellence and People
- Six pillars of merchandising differentiation
- Aligning category roles and strategies to brand strategy
- Category grid concept (work session)
Pricing & Promotional Strategies: Develop a deeper understanding of price elasticity modeling and promotional strategies
- Foundation for building a pricing architecture
- Factors for setting price: brand strategy, category roles & strategies, competition, & elasticity
- Promotional strategies, scorecards, and communication
- Promotional strategies: various types & when to use them
- Promotional communication: location & vehicles and style
- Measuring promotional success thru a holistic, category scorecard
- Incorporating behavioral economic principles into price & promotion
Understanding Shopper Behavior: Utilize a broad set of consumer data pts from loyalty, manufacturer, and syndicated sources to better understand shopper behavior and optimize category performance.
- Incorporating relevant data points into category strategies & tactics
Assortment Analysis and Space Planning: Optimize assortment and space management strategies by incorporating the right set of data, utilizing productivity & placement fundamentals, and ensuring a sound execution & analytical review process
- Common shelf management measures and approach to balancing productivity and assortment goals
- Category space allocation – factors for determining optimal space by category and measurement for comparing performance
- Merchandising solutions to maximize space and enhance product presentation
- Optimizing planogram performance
- Factors and metrics for selecting additions and deletions
- Balancing variety, capacity, profitability, and shopper preferences
- Utilizing market level data and customer segmentation
- Importance of location: product shelf placement, category adjacencies and location with store
Liza brings innovative leadership to Impact 21, inspiring teams to think differently and push the boundaries of traditional industry norms. She taps into her expertise in small format merchandising, marketing, branding, and business strategy to help companies realize their business objectives. Liza’s deep background in merchandising, paired with her knack for strategic thinking, enable her to lead merchandising and marketing strategy that results in achieved sales and gross profit goals. Liza extends her expertise, particularly in fresh food program development, as a NACS speaker.
Show More...
Liza applied her aptitude for guiding staff and clients, along with her industry savvy, to several senior leadership roles. She served as Senior Director of Brand Concept Development at Sunoco, with past experience as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Merchandising at Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores and various senior merchandising roles at Giant Eagle.
Native to Pennsylvania, Liza graduated from Indiana University of PA with both a Bachelor of Science in Finance and an MBA. She has attended many business leadership programs from the following universities: Duquense, Carnegie Mellon, and Cornell. Liza has returned to her home state of PA, though her career first led her to Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Liza believes in playing an active role to improve living conditions to those that are most in need. She founded Zaden, connecting the world to the exquisite hand-embroidered clothing designs of Kashmir India one stitch at a time. Her 14- and 15-year-old sons keep her busy between track meets, soccer games, and piano recitals. She finds time for herself through running, yoga, and relaxing with friends by the fire-pit on weekends.

Lesley Saitta has been engaged in the chemical, petroleum and convenience channels as a consultant and retailer for over 35 years. As CEO of Impact 21, Lesley works closely with both domestic and international retailers, consumer goods companies, software providers and industry associations. Lesley’s focus on leadership, organization, infrastructure and change management transforms companies and yields significant returns. Lesley is a recognized voice in her industry. She is active in NACS and is currently on the Supplier Manpower Committee, spent 7 years on the Convention Committee and is a regular speaker and moderator for the NACS Show, Outlook Leadership and many other industry events. She is also a member of the Network of Executive Women.
Show More...
Prior to forming Impact 21, Lesley was VP of Marketing for Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, responsible for Marketing, Branding, Category Management, Foodservice, Customer Engagement, Merchandising and Distribution. Lesley began her career in the chemical industry and held senior management roles in sales, marketing, business development, strategic planning and product management in both international and domestic operations at Ashland, Inc. and the Dow Chemical Company. Lesley graduated from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business with a B.S. in Marketing/Management and an Executive MBA.
As the founder of a company owned by women, a wife, and mother of two fine men, Lesley is a mentor to many successful retail executives and entrepreneurs and is committed to expanding equality and diversity in the workplace. Her passion for reading, championing children with learning differences and personal work with Make-A-Wish keep her both humbled and inspired.
Sign up below to be notified when 2024 registration opens.