ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The NACS Advanced Category Management Certification workshop is back again at this year’s NACS Show. Workshop attendees can earn their NACS Certified Convenience Advanced Category Management certification from NACS and Impact 21 by completing this hands-on, six-hour education session on Saturday, October 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. PDT.
“We received a fantastic response from last year’s category management program attendees, so we are bringing it back for 2022,” said Doug Spencer, director, NACS Solution Center. “This hands-on training will allow attendees to improve brand strategy, integrate customer behavior into merchandise planning and so much more—all without missing a minute of the NACS Show.”
Comprised of key strategic planning and analytical skill-building, the interactive workshop is tailored for experienced category management and merchandising professionals from retailer and supplier companies. Drawing on the fundamentals included in the online NACS Advanced Category Management curriculum, the program will incorporate NACS State of the Industry data and offer collaborative work sessions.
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.
Attendees will learn how to develop a holistic brand strategy and identify points of differentiation. They will discover how to integrate consumer shopping behavior to create winning space and assortment strategies—with an emphasis on how COVID-19 has impacted the industry. A deep dive into price elasticity modeling, utilizing some behavioral economic principles, will guide attendees on how to optimize price, promotions and overall profitability.
Attendees will learn how to:
- Understand the importance of a clearly defined brand strategy and developing points of differentiation
- Optimize price and promotional strategies through a deeper understanding of category roles and strategies, elasticity modeling, comprehensive analysis and behavioral economic theories
- Utilize a broad set of consumer data from loyalty, manufacture and syndicated sources to better understand shopper behavior and optimize category performance
- Improve space management and assortment strategies by incorporating the right set of data, utilizing productivity and placement fundamentals, and ensuring a sound execution and analytical review process
Speakers include Liza Salaria, senior principal consultant, Impact 21, and Lucia Romanello Crater, executive vice president, sales and business development, Impact 21.
The program is limited to 60 participants and is open to buyers and suppliers. Pre-registration is required, and the cost is $499 for NACS Show attendees and $599 for NACS Show exhibit staff.