Before the late 1980s, retailers made most merchandising decisions independently. Brands supplied product and hoped for good placement. Then Procter and Gamble, working with Walmart, introduced a different model: treating a product group like a single business unit managed collaboratively between retailer and supplier.
The 1990s formalization
By 1992, Brian Harris had published what became the foundational eight-step category management process. It covered defining the category, assigning a role to it, assessing performance, setting targets, choosing strategies, selecting tactics, implementing the plan, and reviewing results. Retailers began hiring category managers as dedicated roles. The language became standard across grocery, pharmacy, and home improvement retail through the mid-1990s.
What the term means in practice
Category management treats a group of products, say, breakfast cereals or hair care, as one unit from the consumer's perspective. Decisions about which products to stock, how to price them, and how to arrange them on shelf are made with the whole category in mind, not individual SKUs in isolation.
The freelance angle
Brands that lack internal category management resources often hire freelance analysts or consultants to build category reviews for retailer meetings. These documents typically include sales trend data, market share analysis, and shelf recommendations. If you can read Nielsen or IQVIA data and translate it into a clear story, this is a repeatable project type with steady demand from mid-size brands.