Category Captainship
Solving the retail puzzle with pizzazz.
Getting the right product on the right shelf at the right time – make that hundreds of shelves – isn’t just a math equation. It’s a 3D puzzle that might span the country, and solving it takes a deep understanding of your customer, the unique profile of your business, and what’s happening in the marketplace, including online. We not only manage it all with style, we bring our personal zest and zeal to the job, offering unexpected insights and show-stopping results.
What partnership means to us
CIBA Solutions understands what you need in your Category Captains. We don’t want to be a one-time fixer, we want to be your wingman – a fellow retail expert who complements your skills and insights. We want to be your eyes and ears, your meta data provider, your secret weapon – all in the service of getting your share of the marketplace through actionable insights.
We start with the shopper, using data, qualitative research, shopalongs and more to understand what makes them tick.
We build an ideal category “story” as a pathway for growth so our vision isn’t limited by past performance.
We crunch all the numbers, including hidden data and insights, and present them in ways that help you do your job.
We are faster and nimbler thanks to our personal relationships and our custom software that streamlines reports.
Case Study
Reimagining a Dairy Category
Our team in former lives helped three retailers reimagine their dairy cases. Using a consumer decision tree, we uncovered what customers were really looking for, then sold in a plan that expanded one dairy category from a single store-brand facing to a highly-productive three-foot section, regionally adapted and still in use today.
Key Services as a Category Captain
Category Insights
We use all the tools of the trade – art, science, and intuition – to provide detailed, revolutionary, and actionable insights driven by your customer. This includes marketplace analysis, consumer panels, shopalongs, trendspotting, surveys, and more.
Transitions
Each transition for seasonal and product mix updates is an opportunity to use every foot efficiently and productively. We segment stores to a T, work with planners and buyers, and manage regionalization, inventory management, and reporting and insights.
Planograms
Making products make sense on the shelves is where the rubber hits the road in a transition. Bringing order to the chaos of retail shelves is what an effective planogram is all about.
Market Segmentation
When brands want to know how to reach niche audiences in new and relevant ways, CIBA uses detailed data we can slice down to the smallest submarket, and provide insight into what will stick – and what won’t.
Reporting and Analysis
Our proprietary inSITE software helps us turn a firehose of data into insights and a forecast. inSITE helps the team work efficiently and focus personal attention where needed. We can plan how many units of a SKU to have on hand, and use metadata and segmentation data to see how tweaks can affect sales.
Going Above and Beyond
And at the end of the day, we do what it takes to help you succeed, with innovative ideas beyond what’s required. Breakthrough ideas can come from unexpected inspiration. We never turn off our creativity, and never stop bringing you ideas.
“Whether it’s ad hoc data or developing multi-year strategies CIBA has been able to strike the perfect balance between driving growth for customers and the total category.”
– Director of Sales selling into a Major Retailer
Case Study
Natural Cleaning Store Brand Launch
When one major client was preparing to launch a new store brand of natural, sustainability-focused cleaning and home products, the company needed a partner it could trust to help get the right products on the shelves in the right mix. They turned to CIBA founder Brad Bock as one of the very few external partners with a hand in the successful launch.
