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Presentation for the AMI Conference 2022

Category management is a collaborative approach between food manufacturers and retailers to manage product categories rather than individual brands. It operates at both strategic and operational levels and seeks to create value ultimately for the consumer. The paper contributes to the literature and practice. It uses a qualitative interview study of twenty five senior practitioners and explores the role of private label products within UK grocery categories as consumers continue to switch due to lower prices and comparable quality to the traditional brands. The research also examines how private label manufacturers can create value within the category management relationship and how they can aspire to category captainship if they generate retailer specific and differentiated category strategies. The paper accepts its limitations and explains how further research in this important field of retailing is necessary to update the literature and help practitioners navigate their way through turbulent sector change.

Extended Abstract\ud Following research in category management relationships within the UK grocery market (Benson (2019); Benson et al. (2019); Benson, et al. (2019a); Benson (2018); Benson (2018a); Benson, et al. (2018) it has emerged that there is a lack of research into the nature of value creation in UK category management supplier and retailer collaborations, specifically within the chilled food retail sector. Kantar (2019) reveals the significance of private label within chilled food categories and report private label is skewed more towards fresh, with total grocery at 52.7% in contrast to produce (97.3%), chilled bakery (96%), and fresh meat (92.4%).\ud The research will explore the capacity of category management collaborations to create value within chilled private label. In addition, the research will seek to reveal the ways in which value is created for the chilled food manufacturer (supplier) within the category management collaboration. Category management is a collective approach between food suppliers and retailers to manage product categories rather than individual brands (IGD, 2019; Gooner et al., 2011; Hubner, 2011; Nielsen, 2006). Category decision making is a fundamental aspect and output of category management and this process is now used extensively in the UK grocery and chilled sectors. There is growing acceptance that private label is equivalent to traditional branded products. Kantar (2019); IGD (2019); Shopper Intelligence (2019); Mintel (2019) state consumers are switching to private label products at an exponential rate to take advantage of lower price and improved quality. IGD (2019) state shoppers are changing to private label in all three of the retail product marketing tiers (basic, standard and premium). In some cases private label goods have moved into the premium product territory due to continued improvements in actual and perceived consumer quality (Lincoln and Thomassen 2008; Dunne and Narasimhan 1999). For example, UK premium supermarket Booths (2019) state that their fresh (private label) ready meals range is of a higher quality than branded equivalents (Benson, 2019a). Makkonen and Olkkonen (2017) state that value is created, or not, in collaborative business relationships, and have begun to explore and map the relationship between value co-creation, no creation and co-destruction in inter-organisational relationships. Category management collaborations are an excellent example of these relationships.\ud This research investigates to what extent value is co-created for chilled private-label suppliers in category management collaborations. As the UK grocery sector has experienced a significant shift from branded to private label the findings will be of interest to category management practitioners looking to increase chilled food market share. The research employs a qualitative study using long interviews with senior decision makers within leading UK chilled suppliers. In response to recommendations made by Lindbolm and Olkkonen (2008) this study encapsulates privileged data due to the seniority of the participants. Early findings suggest that value is co-created by suppliers recommending new category innovations targeted at the retailer consumer profiles. The data suggests that the supplier recommendations need to be more entrepreneurial in nature rather than the traditional data led interventions currently provided by branded suppliers. In support of previous research (Benson, 2019a) the data suggests that the co-creation of value by chilled private label suppliers contributes to a strong category management relationship in the same way as those enjoyed by traditional branded suppliers. Furthermore, it may well lead to the chilled private label supplier being appointed as the category captain.\ud The research is grounded in phenomenology and uses participant discourse analysis. Cassell and Symon (2011) state discourse analysis is concerned with how individuals use language in specific social contexts including the workplace. They state that research participants are able to produce an explanation of themselves, their world and construct their own realities. In this research it enables the participants to openly explain what they believe to be their individual reality within category management activities, and how they negotiate value. The research was conducted interviewing suppliers using semi-structured questions to allow the participants to freely discuss their day to day activities from the privileged position of a decision maker within the chilled supply chain. The participants varied from senior operational managers to strategic decision makers, including main board level. The verbatim data transcripts will be transcribed from voice recordings by the authors, and then coded using Nvivo software. It is envisaged that by the time the paper is presented at the Value Conference in May 2019 the findings will be complete with recommendations, contribution, management implications and further research. Following the presentation and feedback the authors will submit a full paper to the Journal of Creating Value.

This scoping paper is developed in response to Akaka, Vargo & Lusch's (2013) call for more contextualised studies of value creation that deeply explore how value is derived and determined across varied institutional arrangements. The conceptual mapping undertaken herein, positions UK Higher Degree Apprenticeships (HDA's) in relation to an emerging theoretical framework in the SDL tradition (Service Dominant Logic); namely the Service Eco-System View (Vargo, Akaka and Vaughan, 2017; Akaka and Vargo, 2015). As such this research project aims to offer insight into value creation in this particular context, as well as cast light on the complexity and contingencies involved in delivering new forms of Higher Education in the UK.

Category management is a collaborative approach between food manufacturers and retailers to manage product categories rather than individual brands. The purpose of the research is to explore value creation within category management and category partnership relationships through data resource sharing to meet changing consumer needs. Consumers are switching to unbranded label products in food retail categories for improved value. The research focuses on creating value in a collaborative relationship comparing branded and non-branded suppliers. It looks at the situation from both the manufacturer and retailer perspectives, and the pilot research findings have shown the role of the category captain is changing and becoming an integral part of the research. Category management is evolving to meet changing consumer and shopper needs. The shopper is the person who purchases the product on behalf of the final consumer. The role played by all the suppliers' is changing and the data findings are uncovering that a trusted relationship with the supplier is becoming more important than the traditional reliance on the category captain who was always seen as the most knowledgeable and trusted supplier. An understanding of retailer needs through a stronger collaborative relationship focused predominantly around the retailer strategies, along with the provision of more detailed and consumer focused insight are emerging as the secret to a long and collaborative category management relationship. Literature reviews had previously revealed the importance of data sharing from the growth in the use of technology by both the supplier and the retailer, however the interviews are starting to reveal that direct shopper feedback from face to face discussions is providing more valuable and meaningful insight to underpin the traditional quantitative data. The research methodology is taking a phenomenological stance using predominantly qualitative interviews. The pilot findings have indicated the need for deeper research using 'participant observation' by observing the supplier category manager and the retail buyer in their natural working environments, and tracing the relationship process from the activity at the supplier end through to the final meeting with the retail buyer. The author who is a newcomer to research is also completing an interview diary after each interview to assess his own performance and seek to make ongoing improvements to the interviews. There will be 20 interviews completed by Easter 2017, half with suppliers and the remainder with the full tier range of retailers. The analysis is currently in progress alongside further interviews and planned to be completed by September 2017. The final thesis write-up will be completed by December 2017, and the DBA viva planned for March 2018.

This thesis explores the nature of value, and value co-creation within the context of\ud collaborative category management relationships in the UK grocery sector. Category\ud management is the process which involves a collaboration between food manufacturers\ud (suppliers) and retailers to manage the needs of shoppers. Research into category\ud management is very timely as the retailing industry is currently facing one of its greatest\ud challenges. Shoppers are becoming more demanding and expect better value from their\ud purchases.\ud The research reveals that shoppers are switching from branded to private label products\ud following on from the recent success of Discounters. This has created opportunities for\ud all category suppliers including private label and smaller niche suppliers, if they produce\ud retailer specific innovative and creative ideas. It was also found that the role of the\ud category captain was abandoned five years ago, despite being the focus of the category\ud management literature even today. The role now known as ‘preferred supplier’ is\ud available to any category supplier and is no longer the exclusive right of the largest\ud branded supplier.\ud The current research study has involved UK based food industry supplier category\ud managers and retail buyers, to understand if category management collaborations created\ud value. Following a phenomenological approach using long qualitative interviews, the\ud findings were controversial in that both the suppliers and retailers were not completely\ud satisfied with the category management relationship, and that value was not always\ud created. This finding contradicts existing research, and indeed the rhetoric that normally\ud purveysin practice. The researcher anticipatesthat the thesis will alert practitioners to the\ud underlying issues that exist and encourage them to find ways of working closer together,\ud without fear of displeasing the other partner. It will no doubt spark reformist debates\ud between suppliers and retailers, as well as update the category management literature.\ud The research findings move the category management conversation forward from an\ud objective to a subjective explanation of value creation. Finally, it introduces the\ud importance of Service-Dominant Logic S-DL in creating value through the lens of the\ud five axioms of S-DL. It also adds further insight from a supplier’s perspective based on\ud confidential testaments of practitioners on the front-line.

This study examines how service worker identity is mediated through global cultural flows and the consumption practices of elite clients within beauty stores in Nigeria.\ud With a social constructionist approach and Foucault’s theoretical perspectives on power, subject and technologies of the self, I used qualitative methods involving fieldwork such as participant observation and interviews for the data collection.\ud The findings of the study expose how inequalities that go deeper than differences in wealth and economic status shape the experiences and subject positions taken by the service workers in this context; symbolic meanings and values attached to global brands are embedded within socio-historical discourses and class differentiations; lastly, stigma is found to be a significant driver of behaviour as the workers collectively and consistently express a deep sense of inferiority in relation to their client's status, as well as relaying stories of struggle and striving for their acceptance. Thus, in seeking to manage these social asymmetries, western brands are used to mask the perceived subjugated identities experienced by the workers.\ud The findings extend Fanon’s and Spivak’s postcolonial theoretical perspectives by examining how workers' identities are transformed through the internalization of inferiority within the context of beauty salons in Nigeria. Also, it enhances the overall theoretical perspectives of brands in the marketplace, especially in postcolonial settings like Nigeria.\ud The implication of this study provides more insights into the socio-cultural context of global brands, which offers new business opportunities for emerging markets such as Nigeria. This is relevant because the success of most big firms from developed economies within the emerging markets is crucial, particularly as they are already operating in a saturated business environment.