CMA 2025 Conference
Why Brands Need to Embrace a Fanatical Purpose
Read, react, and discuss on LinkedIn!
At the CMA Conference hosted by Category Management Association, Doug Stephens, founder of Retail Prophet and a leading expert on the future of retail, shared a powerful message:
Traditional ways of competing in retail are dead. Competing on selection, convenience, pricing, or product? That’s table stakes. With Amazon, Costco, Walmart, and an explosion of brands, these are no longer differentiators. The brands that win have something bigger: a fanatical purpose.
So, what does that actually mean?
A brand is more than a logo or tagline. It’s both visible through product, packaging, and marketing, and invisible, embedded in culture, supply chain, and customer experience.
To bring this purpose to life, brands must dominate in one of four areas:
1. Culture: Standing for something bigger than the product. E.g., Patagonia, aligning deeply with environmental values.
2. Entertainment: Creating immersive, joy-filled experiences. E.g., CAMP, where shopping feels like stepping into a theme park.
3. Expertise: Being the absolute authority in your space. E.g., Dyson, setting the standard in vacuum tech and air filtration.
4. Design: Leading through innovation and aesthetics. E.g., OLIPOP, reimagining soda as a modern, health-conscious lifestyle brand.
Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, winning brands choose one and master it.
But having a purpose isn’t enough. Brands need to bring it to life by:
- Communicating it relentlessly across every touchpoint in the buyer’s journey.
- Living it internally, embedding it in people, processes, and every business decision.
What does this mean for Cat Man teams?
Doug’s message got me thinking: Could category management play a bigger role in shaping brand purpose?
Too often, category teams are brought in late, reacting to brand decisions instead of shaping them. But what if marketing, category management, and insights worked together earlier to align brand purpose with real shopper behavior?
Category teams understand retailer priorities and category dynamics, insights that could help define a brand’s vision, not just support it.
How do we break silos and collaborate better? What if category leaders weren’t just executing brand strategies but helping build them?
I’d love to hear your take. Should category management have a bigger voice in shaping brand purpose, or should they stay in their lane and focus on what they’ve traditionally influenced? Feel free to share your thoughts at [email protected].
3-2-1 From The #CMAConference
3 quotes, 2 ideas, and 1 question—all heard at the CMA 2025 Conference.
3 Quotes:
- “Be a good neighbor. The category is your neighborhood.” – Russ Onish, Vista Grande and a seasoned leader in category management. Love this mindset!
- “Early, often, open!” That’s how Leslie Newlee, Category & Insights – Red Bull, summed up the best approach to internal collaboration.
- “Best marketers don’t just know their brands, they know their category.” – Anne Bell, Marketing – Central Garden & Pet. Great reminder!
2 Ideas:
- Want better CoPilot results? Try the GCSE framework. The Microsoft team shared this smart method to maximize AI’s potential. Learn more.
- Private Label is winning. 53% of retailers say it’s their #1 growth driver. Time to rethink your strategy? (Source: NIQ, The Changing Retail Landscape – A Shopper-Driven Evolution)
1 Question:
How can retailers and manufacturers make shopping more women-friendly?
More women are becoming primary household earners every day but retail hasn’t caught up to this fact. Paco Underhill, a shopper behavior guru, posed this challenge to the audience.
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