June 2019
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!
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).
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:
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 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% |
We're a global training company in Canada, dedicated to retailers, suppliers and solution providers. Whether you're a category manager or part of a sales or marketing team, our personalized programs, for organizations, teams and individuals, are tailored to elevate your skills.