Talking Shop at the 2019 CMA/SIMA Conference

The Category Management and Shopper Insights Management Associations’ joint Annual Conference (CMA/SIMA) is just a couple short weeks away (February 25-27 in Las Vegas). For people in the grocery business planning their trip, there is a lot to look forward to, from trend watching to the latest approaches to analytics to solution provider demos. One feature of the conference that’s sure to grab interest is the variety of presentations from peers in the grocery category.

The CMA/SIMA Conference will feature a number of speakers from the store side and the CPG side of the grocery category. Here are 10 sessions from those category managers and shopper insights pros that shouldn’t be missed:

Pinnacle Foods

The more data stores have, the more resources are needed to mine for insights. Pinnacle’s Dan Brody will share how they’ve developed tools to manage that data and make it work for them in his presentation “Making Store-Level Data Work for You.”

Red Bull

Laura-Lynn Freck from Red Bull talks about the company’s success with a behavioral-based approach to shopper segmentation in her breakout session “Leveraging Behavioral Shopper Segments to Unlock Growth.”

General Mills

Sara Reeves has been a thought leader in the CPG industry for the last 23 years. Now the current leader of the Snacks Category Management team at General Mills, her keynote presentation will give attendees a unique look at “The Evolution of Category Management.”

T. Marzetti Company

Building out category management as a new capability within an organization is similar to launching a startup. It requires an entrepreneurial spirit and a tenacious pursuit of resources.  Chrissy Peplinski of T. Marzetti Company will talk about how to create a roadmap for success in her presentation “Category Management: A Start-up Approach”.

KIND

In Jon Israelite and Peter Naumann’s presentation “Chocolate Meets Peanut Butter: The Category Management and Revenue Management Partnership,” they will talk about how revenue management teams can collaborate with category managers to bring ideas further through the value chain, and how category managers can tap into revenue management teams that are working more consistently with deep analytics.

Campbell Soup Co. & Numerator

Tanya Vaughn of Campbell Soup Company teams up with Jake Grocholski from Numerator to show attendees a great case study in leveraging data to move the needle in their presentation, “How Campbells Uses Numerator Data to Drive Growth with Retail Partners.”

Weis Markets, Kantar & Mondelez

Ed Sheedy, from Pennsylvania-based Weis Markets, teams with Diana Sheehan from Kantar Consulting and Linda Coleman from Mondelez International for a presentation on “The Importance of Shopper Insights and Why it is Critical in Today’s Organizations.” For stores not already leveraging shopper insights, be sure not to miss this one!

Albersons and Advantage Solutions

Mark Hawthorne from Albertsons will be joined by Lori Stillman and Nick Sabala from Advantage Solutions bring conference goers another must-see case study on shopper insights with their presentation “How Shopper Insights are Accelerating the Growth Engine for Albertsons.”

Whole Foods and Nielsen

As the competition for health-focused items rises, which product characteristics are important to shoppers and which ones are they willing to pay more for? Join Nielsen’s Bob Owens and Whole Foods Market’s Evan Orsak as they share how they built a consumer-centric pricing structure based on product characteristics in their presentation “Building a Characteristic-Driven Pricing Structure: What are Your Customers Really Willing to Pay For?”

PepsiCo & 84.51°  

JP Bittencourt, Michael Gervasio and Jeremy Schmid from PepsiCo will be teaming up with Michael Schuh and Bari Watkins from cutting-edge data analytics firm 84.51° in the final keynote of the show “Delivering on the Promise of Personalization.”

Of course, this is just a small sampling from three full days packed with training, keynotes, breakout sessions, panels and networking events. Make sure to check out the full agenda for the 2019 Category Management and Shopper Insights Management Associations' joint Annual Conference for other sessions that might be of interest.