ACHIEVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF CATEGORY MANAGEMENT IN LEADING RETAIL COMPANIES OF THE WEST BALKAN REGION

Abstract

In many modern companies, managing a product or a product range is the task and responsibility of individuals who are called category managers. Accordingly, category management is a system consisting of management of individual products, product ranges, brands or product categories. Category management is applicable in many different types of companies and different types of organizational structures, no matter if it is about consumer goods, industry products, services or something else. Category management can also be defined as achievement of goals connected with products in an efficient way through planning, organization and control. Modern companies change their organizational structures based on products by introducing category managers. Product category is a group of products within one product family, which are believed to have a certain functional coherence. Affiliation of a product with a category requires some elements of equality it can have with the other products within the same category, but the emphasis is on its elements of diversity compared to other products.

Some retail companies from former Yugoslavia region, have already completed or are still going through the process of transition. Some have become the key players in the market. In recent years, retail companies from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have started introducing the concept of category management . International retail chains which are increasingly present in these countries apply the same concept. First results of the introduction of category management, in spite of all obstacles and limitations, are certainly encouraging.