Are the Category Captains Still in Charge?

I remember the term as used in early days in CPG.  But is the decision  intelligence now migrating elsewhere?   I see it every day in my local Kroger.

Should grocers just say ‘no’ to big CPG brands when it comes to shelf decisions?   by Tom Ryan in Retailwire, pointing to a WSJ report.  With further expert comment.

With proprietary data and software that measure “walk rates” in stores, grocers are increasingly taking greater control over what goes on the shelf and where, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

In many cases, legacy brands are losing shelf space to either private labels, which offer grocers higher margins, or products from emerging brands that better address natural and healthy trends. Carrying more retailer-owned and niche brands helps stores to differentiate.

Perhaps the biggest news in the article is that the use of category captains has diminished over the last 18 months. More grocers are also becoming open to foregoing slotting fees with confidence their in-house insights are creating an optimal shelf mix.

In response, bigger brands, from General Mills to Clorox and Hershey, are stepping up their respective analytical capabilities to again prove they have deeper insights into categories in an effort to recapture some shelf influence, according to the Journal’s reporting. .... "