Exploring the effects of manufacturers' influence strategies and control on category performance in the grocery goods sector

Abstract

Category management (CM) has been promoted as a joint business process between manufacturers and retailers to produce enhanced business results by focusing on delivering better value to end consumers. But do the business partners involved in CM really recognize which particular CM arrangements generate these results, what possibilities do they have to influence CM collaboration, and does CM most benefit the more powerful channel members? To address these issues, our aim is to explore the effects of manufacturers' influence strategies (consumer-oriented activities, information exchange supporting category plan implementation, and incentives) and control over CM on category performance. The data consist of 206 responses to a survey of food manufacturers in Finland and Sweden. Our findings indicate that plan implementation and control enhance most manufacturers' category performance, and that control is contingent on a manufacturer's category position. Category leaders, and to a smaller extent, category supporters tend to have most influence in CM collaboration. Finnish and Swedish manufacturers also had significant differences in their influence strategy–category performance profiles.

Keywords:

• category management
• manufacturers' influence and control
• category performance
• grocery goods