Meet the 2018 CSNews Category Captains

NATIONAL REPORT — It’s all about the data. At least that seems to be a key component among this year’s winners in the Convenience Store News Category Captains awards program.

The power of data is everything — it bolsters convenience stores’ capacity to personalize the customer experience, increase sales, and drive brand loyalty. Category Captains know a data-driven business achieves a sustainable competitive advantage and delivers greater value to c-store retailers in every way.

This year’s Category Captains honorees are helping c-stores capture more than their share of consumers’ attention and dollars. The 12 suppliers recognized as 2018 CSNews Category Captains have earned convenience store retailers’ trust.

Now in its fifth year, the CSNews Category Captains awards program honors outstanding category management initiatives implemented in the convenience channel over the past year. All entries were judged based on the following criteria:

• Product innovation;
• Creativity in merchandising, marketing, promotion and advertising;
• Use of consumer insights to drive category sales;
• Innovative and dynamic category management tools;
• Demonstrated commitment to meeting the specific needs of retailer customers;
• Efficiently lifting sales for the entire product category; and
• Fact-based evidence of market-specific or account-specific results.

Past Times Marketing, a consumer research and product evaluation firm based in New York, once again judged the entries based on information supplied by participating companies.

Here are spotlights on this year's winners: