Creating a Category Vision for Growth

By Kerry Juhl

Managing a business is non-stop, full-time leadership. Typically, 90% of a leader’s workday is focused on the daily needs of employees, customers, supply chain, marketing, sales, financials… and the list goes on.  However, it is also a leader’s job to present their team with a vision for the future, a “north star” that provides direction and goals for the organization, allowing them to compete effectively and transform opportunities into growth.

Category Vision: Assessing Your Market and Consumer

A great step in looking toward the future is to take stock of the landscape that you operate within, especially when there are changing dynamics in the external environment. The future growth of your business requires you to have a point of view on how your business will be impacted by changing consumer behaviors and preferences, the actions of your competitive set and external partners, and possibly the impact of new technologies. In other words, you need to have a vision of what your category/industry will look like in 5+ years to remain relevant in that future state and capitalize on future growth opportunities.

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Our team at SIVO has experience with helping clients build their category vision of the future.  In fact, we have developed a step-by-step process that results in a defined Future-State Category Map to inform the Category Vision and Key Strategies for growth.  A Category Vision not only demonstrates category leadership and anticipates the future, but it allows clients to take control and literally create their own destiny…a future where the business can thrive.

The High-Level Process for Developing a Category Vision:

• Define Current State
• Incorporate Data/Trends Signaling Future State 
• Articulate Future State
• Create a Vision & Strategies to Build Future State

Define Current State: 

Clients need to define the space that they currently play in.  For some it might be narrow, for example, Skin Care.  For others it might be broad, for example, Beauty Products.  (There are pros and cons for how narrow or broad your category definition is and SIVO can guide your team to get to a definition that is relevant and actionable through our consumer insights solutions).

Incorporate Data/Trends Signaling Future State 

This step requires the gathering of category, competitive and consumer intelligence from a variety of sources, to answer questions, like:

• What is happening in the industry or category that my business competes in?
• What segments are growing or declining?
• What are the signs or hints of new segments emerging?
• Are there new consumer behaviors that signal the need to operate differently in the future to remain competitive in this category/industry?

Articulate Future State:

SIVO facilitates the client team through a small series of assignments and working sessions to envision the Future State of the category and to prioritize where to “place bets” within the category to maximize growth.

Create a Vision & Strategies to build Future State:

With the future state of the category defined, SIVO facilitates client teams through the creation of a Category Vision that serves as the “North Star”, and Growth Strategies that the organization can put into action to drive category and brand growth for years to come.

Schedule a Discovery Call Today for Strategic Category Vision Consulting

A solid process with proven success. Are you ready to help your business create a category vision for the future?  Schedule a discovery call today or reach out at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to develop strategies and plans that not only anticipate the future but create it!