CMKG’s quarterly newsletter dedicated to keeping our category management community up-to-date by providing useful ways to proactively improve your knowledge and skills — today and in the future.

I often talk about the importance of continuous learning and I challenge my CMKG team, our partners, our students, and MYSELF to continually learn and stay ahead of everything that’s changing in retail, CPG, online, with data and technology, and with the Shopper.

Keeping up can certainly seem overwhelming!

A few months ago, I facilitated nine educational sessions at the CMA/SIMA conference, with topics varying from soft skills and PowerPoint tips, to shopper insights and e-commerce, to on-premise and storytelling and storyboarding, to category management in 2019… it was a BLAST!

The topics were as varied as the audiences who participated (although some folks did attend pretty much every session). As an industry-leading training company, my team has to continue to build our knowledge and skills in areas that directly and indirectly affect YOU (our customers, students, and network) in order to achieve success in our business. It’s the same for you – take on the challenge to cultivate and expand your knowledge and skills!

Regardless of your level of experience, your role or your career aspirations, it’s to your advantage to keep yourself relevant so you can achieve YOUR success (whatever that looks like!).

With the right guidance, tools, and resources — it doesn’t have to be difficult!

If I asked you what business success looked like for YOU in the next year, and the next 5 years, your response would vary greatly from other folks based on age, tenure, career aspirations, and what you have a passion for.

You might aspire to be the next President / CEO,  just want to stay relevant in your role to succeed until your retirement, get a promotion to a position with greater responsibility, change roles to something that you are more interested in, completely change your career, and/or simply pursue a different direction.

The unfortunate thing is that for most, we don’t take any time – even just a few moments a week – to keep building our skills to ensure our personal success in achieving our goals. 

Helping people succeed is paramount to me and my CMKG team – there’s nothing more enjoyable than working with individuals to help them achieve success in their roles, regardless of who they are, what their role is, or what SUCCESS means to them.

So this newsletter edition is dedicated to growing YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL. In this issue I share materials and perspectives to help you achieve success (primarily focused on your short-term successes within the data & analytics and category management areas).

I’m also excited to be introducing new complimentary coaching webinars based on your experience level if you are looking for more ways to create opportunities for your success (keep reading for details).

Happy learning!

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Sue Nicholls, CPSA • President & Founder, CMKG
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Become the best version of your work SELF!

Are you looking for, but aren't sure how to achieve, more “success” for YOU in your career? Have you taken the time to consider what your definition of success is?

One of my very favorite things to do is to coach individuals toward their path to success — and let me tell you that SUCCESS is defined across a spectrum of outcomes, amounts of responsibility, titles, levels of freedom, and more. Whether you are part of a team, leading a team, or venturing out on your own, it is important to define the outcome you want to achieve.

That’s what our upcoming Coaching Sessions are all about and why they are  FREE to register for & attend  !

REGISTER NOW to become your best:

  1. Individuals with less than 5 years experience (Level 1)
  2. Individuals with greater than 5 years experience (Level 2)

Over a couple of decades, I have had the privilege and opportunity to work with Retailers, Manufacturers, Solution Partners, and Universities in pursuing EXCELLENCE in category management education and training. And, while there is more training to come, it is time to step back and make sure that individuals — as many as possible — are helping me move our industry forward, for all of us.

Coaching can be an important part of supporting and developing you as an individual. Together, we’ll focus on developing YOU through a short-term action plan. Register for the Level 1 or Level 2 session that best reflects your number of years experience.

I encourage you to share with others if you’re unable to attend.

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Keep ahead of your peers and competitors and stay relevant through CMKG’s Category Management Learning Membership.

Membership is the easiest way to start and keep learning 365 days a year. CMKG’s Annual Learning Subscription membership gives you access to a library of 30+ educational webinar recordings, an updated glossary with over 1300 definitions, relevant news articles, and a searchable resource library to access the most relevant industry whitepapers for your role.

Screen Shot 2019-06-18 at 07.08.15 AMAbove: Online Training & Resource Center Dashboard for Premium Members found at readytolearn.cmkg.org

Want to learn but lacking $?

Learn with CMKG. Start for Free! 

 
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Reading and staying “in the know” can be as simple as taking a few minutes each day to update yourself on what’s going on, and occasionally reading a great whitepaper.

📆 Every week we post relevant and important news and those whitepaper gems (not generated by us but that we find through our sources) and share through LinkedIn, Facebook, and CMKG's Online Training & Resource Center (readytolearn.cmkg.org).

Infographic

From The Hartman Group: Here's a cool infographic that breaks down the most popular food information sources across different generations. This partially explains why the shopper journey is so complex in today's world.

Download PDF

*MUST READ FOR 2019*

2019 Grocery Tech Trends Study

From Progressive Grocer: Check out this gem with loads of great insights into what’s most important in Grocery in the upcoming years. 2019 Grocery Tech Trends Study | Progressive Grocer

Read More

Not Your Boomer’s Basket: Capturing the Growing FMCG Spend of U.S. Millennials

From Nielsen: Here's some great information on the Millennial shopper — they are going to continue to grow in importance as the Boomers move on. Take the time to dig into this ethnically diverse group.

Read More

 RESOURCE 

Hartman Group Infographics

From Hartman Group: If you're looking for some great Shopper (and other) insights in all different categories (Food & Bev, CPG, Private Label, etc.), check out these HUNDREDS of infographics from Hartman Group. 

Read More

 

6 Reasons Bringing Beer to the Front of the Store Grows Your Business

From Convenience Store News: #1. Beer is one of the biggest reasons people come into c-stores. Make sure you have it visible and in-stock for shoppers.

Read More

Who is the Sustainable Shopper?

From Nielsen: Sales of sustainable products are up across the board. In the U.S. alone, we expect that U.S. sustainably minded shoppers will spend up to $150 billion on sustainable fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) by 2021.

 

Read More

HOT TOPIC: BUYING LOCAL

How Americans Will Shop: What Products Do Consumers Care About When Buying Local?

From Nielsen: While we used to associate reading with the library and famous novelists, it’s quickly become a big part of the shopping experience. That’s because, as consumers seek out products that align with their personal beliefs, inspecting labels and assessing product attributes is on the rise. As a result, manufacturers and retailers are amplifying the attributes of their offerings by touting their key features.

Read More

Macro Trends Impacting Food & Beverage Innovation in 2019

From Prepared Foods: Here are some macro trends from Prepared Foods. Which of these primarily Shopper trends do think might impact your business in the short- and long-term? And what are you planning to do about it?  

Read More

 

GROW. LEARN. REPEAT. 

There are SOOOO many ways for you to learn on an ongoing basis. 

While you may have more or fewer options at work based on company, management, or budget — remember:

Having great managers, mentors, and/or coaches can support you on your learning journey and on-the-job. That’s why we help coach our students as they complete their formal training - we mentor them through our student webinars and I am launching a new coaching program for individuals that you can take advantage of.

On the job learning is critical. The case studies and examples throughout our training help individuals and teams apply the knowledge they acquire to real-life problems.

Learning every day is essential. Whether you browse blogs, news articles, whitepapers, books, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc., keeping on top of what’s happening and the process of learning is what keeps us engaged and interested in work and life. The tough part is trying to sift through all the unrelated materials and find the ones that really resonate for you. We do much of the “sifting” for our students and network. You can learn for free from our 100+ videos on our YouTube Channel which has nearly 1600 subscribers or our CMKG Category Management Learning Forum on LinkedIn with 10,500+ members. We also put resources at your fingertips for Premium Category Management Members and current students.

Choosing training courses or programs that align with your goals. There are online courses, live classroom training, night school, additional post-secondary education, and more options. It’s no secret that we offer a host of category management and related training in many formats (online, webinars, classroom, tools, etc.).

Get thought leadership in your inbox —

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Resource Update

Given the new technologies, we’ve revamped our interactive glossary inside our Online Training & Resource Center, which includes more audio and video, more links, and more definitions based on additions from e-commerce, big data, and new tech.

Thanks to our students and LinkedIn Learning Forum Members who send us suggestions on ways to improve this tool, it now has over 1300 terms and definitions! Anyone who’s an active student or Premium Category Management Learning Member can access this expanding and evolving glossary and much more.

Try out the limited glossary below:

Want to watch the latest Category Management Member webinar?

Focused topics for continuous knowledge increases and skill upgrades …

 
MOST RECENT SKILL-BUILDING WEBINAR IS AVAILABLE.

Data Visualization, Part 1

There are more than 20 additional webinar recordings that cover Shopper, Category Management, Analytics, Presentations & Storytelling, and Soft Skills in CMKG’s Online Training & Resource Center.

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How can you watch?

This webinar and previous skill-building webinars are available in our online Training & Resource Center as recordings for all Premium Category Management Members.

You can watch the latest recording by signing up for our Free-Level Membership, where you’ll also be able to check out other training resources.

Sign up now

NEXT WEBINAR:
September 13, 2019 (11am EST)

Developing Data Visualization Skills for Better Storytelling, Part 2

A follow-up to our very popular May 2019 webinar on data visualization. Details to be announced. In the meantime, check out the Data Visualization Example (below) from our last webinar where we looked at how to fix a chart to help tell more of the story.

 

 

Six times a year, CMKG presents and hosts these highly-rated and popular educational webinars for our students enrolled in courses and programs. Individuals or teams not currently enrolled can attend live webinars or watch the recordings by becoming Category Management Members of our Training and Resource Center. In addition to webinars, Category Management Members also have a wealth of resources at their fingertips, including on-the-job resources, articles, and news items we hand select for people in retail, manufacturing, and solution provider organizations. 
What’s coming up? Topics are chosen and communicated 1 to 2 months in advanced of webinars dates and will be announced in this newsletter. 
SUBSCRIBE NOW

What’s so great about student webinars?
Here’s what our students say …

A few months ago, we surveyed our students on everything about the webinars – with a focus on what they find useful, suggested new topics, and ways to improve the webinars. They even gave us some wonderful compliments — that we helped them learn — and areas to improve on!

The trainings have been very informative and easy to translate to buyer meetings and day-to-day work - please keep them coming!

I find it difficult to translate the high-level training to my day to day sometimes. (Could just be a function of the types of courses or webinars I have viewed.)

I know my answers may not have been very helpful, but that is because you do a great job and I have a team that I have in mind when answering. Each one of these might not be “extremely useful" to everyone, but collectively they are.

No, everything is great about the webinars, and I also love the CMKG training platform and all the great learning I have absorbed over the past 4 years!

When we asked what they found most useful in the webinars, we were thrilled to see that, well, pretty much EVERYTHING is highly valuable to students. Check out the amazing results below! We are dedicated to continuing to improve the areas that were rated lowest, while focusing on the most important and useful areas (including knowledgeable content experts, quizzes, and additional resources/tools/materials).

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Become a Premium Member to access 20+ skill-building webinars & more!

 

We also asked what topics would be helpful for future webinars — thank you for your responses!

In fact, one of the suggestions was implemented right away. Our June 2019 webinar was on “Data Visualization” (which was highly attended with great feedback from participants). Here are the rest of the topics and how they were rated (we will be sure to use these suggestions for our upcoming webinars):

Topic Suggestions, As Preferred by Student Participants

TOPIC AREA % Very to Somewhat interested
Data Visualization — learn effective ways to graphically represent information and data through charts and graphs to understand and explain trends, outliers, and patterns in data. 97.6%
Trends Analysis — uncover ways to find trends in your business for growth opportunities. 97.6%
Predictive Analytics — learn how to leverage data in more predictive ways. 97.5%
Storytelling — hone storytelling skills through applicational practice. 90.7%
Advanced Shopper Insights — learn how to further dive into Shopper data for better insights and Shopper-focused recommendations. 90.7%
Case Studies — complete hands-on case studies that showcase examples of data to insights to a category plan. 85.7%
E-Commerce — learn how to analyze e-commerce data for insights. 85.7%
Excel tools and tricks — learn ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness of your Excel workbooks through hands-on workshops. 83.7%
Presentation Tools & Tips — build your presentation skills for advanced storytelling. 76.2%

 

And last, but not least — We’re LIVE!

A lot of people don’t know it, but we develop and run live training sessions – in-house, in the classroom, or through online webinars. If you’re looking for topics for an upcoming team meeting, or have a specific void you want filled (buzz topics this year are storytelling, data to insights, and shopper analytics), contact me to discuss some different options and approaches that meet your budget and your needs.

EMAIL SUE@CMKG.ORG ABOUT LIVE TRAINING

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