Label Insight Introduces Best-in-Class Solution to Power New Innovations in Next-Generation Category Management

CHICAGO, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Label Insight, the market leader for transparency, today introduced a best-in-class solution for next-generation category management. Explore Plus for Category Management enables Label Insight's unique high-order attribute data, images and unmasked information on private brand products to be combined with market measurement tools to deliver insights on specific product attributes that are driving growth. As a result, category managers can identify growth opportunities, discover attribute-driven category insights, and create a strategy focused on category-specific trends.

"Consumer demand for product information has evolved beyond what traditional product attribute data can deliver, requiring category management practitioners to look at product data in a new way," said Tom McDonald, Team Leader of Best Practices and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Category Management Association. "High-order attributes provide the 'why' to explain consumer purchase decisions. These attributes allow analysts to highlight key opportunities and identify emerging trends."

Explore Plus makes the industry's largest set of on-package, off-package and derived product attributes visible on the Label Insight platform, including unmasked Private Label product information, available for export via download or API. The platform features a unique Compare Tool allowing for multiple products and attributes to be reviewed side-by-side, and with high-quality images of the packaging in-line to the data, users can see how attributes are activated in marketing and physical packaging in one interface.  Combining the depth and breadth of Explore Plus capabilities with total market measurement solutions, such as Nielsen Answers OnDemand, enables brands to power innovations in the Category Management 2.0 framework, including the development of decision trees, attribute driven assortment optimization, what and why phase analysis and scorecard development. 

For example, data from Nielsen Product Insider powered by Label Insight shows that the ice cream category grew a mere 1.6 percent in the last year. It also identified a growing trend toward protein, which accounted for only 3 percent of category dollars but experienced more than 50 percent growth. The data also uncovered a key emerging trend for milk-free options. While this group only accounts for 3 percent of total ice cream category dollars, sales of milk-free ice cream products grew by nearly 20 percent in the last year. Armed with this data, the category manager can create an effective strategy for growing revenue. 

"Addressing consumer transparency requires the ability to identify multiple and specific attributes at the product level, and this granular view of product attributes is necessary to reveal which ones are driving sales," said Gordon Wade, a leading authority on category management. "Moving beyond the 'what' of category assessment and gaining an understanding of the 'why' is critical to developing a plan that maximizes growth opportunities for any category. When analyzed alongside market measurement data, Label Insight's high-order attributes offer the most informed way to build a category growth strategy."

With Explore Plus, category managers can unlock growth opportunities and react quickly to changing buying behaviors. By including product features, characteristics, and marketing factors into the "why" assessment, category managers can discover hidden shopper personalities and form a more complete picture of how buyers are purchasing within the category. Leveraging attributes that consumers are buying is critical to category success.

"Changing shopper attitudes and behaviors are creating unprecedented disruption in the CPG industry," said Ronak Sheth, Chief Executive Officer for Label Insight. "Most categories across the store are experiencing flat or declining sales and major brands are losing share, volume or margins. As such, the market is ripe for a new type of data to power innovative analytics and drive category management frameworks. Adding Label Insight high-order attributes to total market measurement tools can unlock category growth while supporting the product transparency that consumers are demanding."

The Category Management Association and Label Insight have partnered to launch a new whitepaper by Gordon Wade exploring the practical applications and implications of high-order attribute data on the existing practices and frameworks of category management. The paper will be the subject of an upcoming webinar with the CMA on Nov. 30, 2018.

About Label Insight
Label Insight is creating transparency at the intersection of retailers, brands, and consumers, with an industry-leading platform for CPG product attribute data covering more than 80 percent of top-selling food, pet, and personal care items in the U.S. The company's technology combines supply chain and on-package product information and employs patented data science and machine learning capabilities to create more than 22,000 high order attributes per product. This solution set delivers transparency to consumers and powers digital transformation through analytics, marketing, merchandising and e-commerce solutions for leading organizations across the Retail, Brand Manufacturer, Government and Technology industries. For more information, visit http://www.labelinsight.com.

SOURCE Label Insight

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