Category Management Stories: Reframed
“Once upon a time there lived a little girl called Red Riding Hood”, sound familiar? Of course it does, the story is comforting and feels safe; we have heard it thousands of times. It rarely changes; it’s a good story.
A good category manager knows their category story fluently. They know how shoppers feel, act and spend. Category managers will tell their story frequently, usually through different retailer lenses. That’s what we do, it’s what we love. Eventually, the story will become abridged, edited and sadly diluted.
What if we change the story? We don’t always have to start with “once upon a time.”
Margaret Atwood shows us how to change a story, (she wrote ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ amongst other great books). In her version of little Red Riding Hood, the story starts “It was dark inside the wolf”, absolutely no mention of “once upon a time”.
Turning a traditional or familiar tale on its head instantly creates a spark. Imagine your category story completely reframed. Instead of looking back at your category, look forward, focus on what will happen, not what has happened.
What if, instead of labelling a category as commoditised, emerging, mature, high churn or any of the other labels we use as Category Managers, we reimagine the story. The story may remain the same but how we imagine it, how we talk about it and how we engage with the retailer can be different and always re-energised.
Collective Stories will work with you to reimagine your business stories. Not just another category dashboard; not just another category review; not just another pitch.
