Go-To-Market Solutions

Business Challenge

  • No. 3 player in beverage industry was desperate to find ways to grow. Largest competitor with 40% market share vs 10% market share would always outspend  smaller industry players to retain market position.

  • Challenge was to find a way to level the playing field and grow share differentially.

Strategy

  • Grow key portfolio brand or brands based on local market insights and activations by creating a measurable process for uncovering influential micro-targets and opportunities; then tracking marketplace success.

Process

  • A Go-To-Market strategy was designed that incorporated locally relevant push and pull tactics for each individual market.

  • SmartThink in collaboration with the national sales team devised a method for analyzing individual markets based on consumer insights, retail strength, and local partner enthusiasm.

  • A scorecard was developed that incorporated consumer perceptions, sales data, in-market tactics and national ad spending

  • A discovery phase (which leveraged focus group and ethnographic insights) was designed and implemented to create alignment and determine best way(s) to leverage market presence, retail support, and key micro-targets to grow business differentially

  • A “tracking and maintenance” program was created to hold gains (scorecard developed for both management and field sales).

Results

  • Year 1 and 2 growth in all Tier I markets ranged from 10-23%.

Brand Revitalization

Business Challenge

  • Overall company growth was lagging. Stock price was beginning to stall. Leadership mandated that all brands examine innovation as a growth driver. Brand team had to find ways to innovate and grow in a category that was flat and declining.

Strategy

  • Understand the critical motivations and barriers to usage.

  • Examine, in depth, key populations where category was trending positively to understand key drivers.

  • Moms who prepared meals at home but were looking for additional quick but hearty meal time solutions.

  • Leverage insights to develop platform for growth.

Process

  • Select key markets and segments to investigate.

  • Use “mixed methodologies” research approach (focus groups, ethnography, quantitative concept testing) to uncover both rational and emotional underpinnings surrounding drivers for product usage.

  • Facilitate internal ideation session based on findings to determine how this might fuel internal innovation.

  • Launch concept screening qualitative in preparation for quantitative opportunity assessment.

Results

New innovations in retail display, new offer bundles, along with new communications related to uses and usage occasions spurred 5% growth.

Reaching Specific Sub-Groups

Business Challenge

For years, African American women felt that the images of female beauty have excluded them.

  • African American women spend disproportionately on beauty products but had few “high-quality” options.

  • A large packaged goods company felt that there was a significant business opportunity to create products specifically for this target.

Strategy

  • Create a new line of health and beauty products that would appeal to the broad spectrum of women of color in the US and abroad.

Process

  • Used ethnography to tease out the underpinnings of beauty for African American women, both emotionally and physically.

  • Determined products that were seen as best in class (store-level data) and determine drivers of choice (qualitative and quantitative screening).

  • Developed new products that were equal to or better than the top brands in hair care with skincare and make-up to follow.

  • Leveraged insights to develop and test (qualitative and quantitative) resonant and credible positioning options that would excite and empower this consumer.

  • Developed a look and feel that exuded quality and luxury (focus groups and quantitative assessment).

Results

  • The new line was successfully introduced in test markets. However, due to competing internal goals and objectives, the idea was never launched nationally. Insights used to shore up existing brands.

Brand Innovation

Business Challenge

  • No 1 brand in the marketplace was losing share to smaller but agile competitor due to an effective pricing strategy. Simultaneously, the brand was being assailed by a larger company that discovered it could create new, profitable business through leveraging strong out-of-category brand recognition. The challenge was to find a way to hold onto share, change internal perspectives in order to pivot and grow share in a suddenly expanding category.

Strategy

  • Create an internal innovation group tasked with changing company culture through new-to-the-world products and fast to market line extensions in order to defend against further share loss and capitalize on new market opportunities.

Process

  • SmartThink was charged with concept development, positioning refinement qualitative, pre-launch assessment as part of a new product funnel.

  • Introduced the idea of “creative consumers” to collaborate in new product creation.

  • Led qualitative explorations that uncovered unmet/unknown needs.

  • Conducted new-to-the-company qualitative concept testing that fast-tracked concept refinement, positioning development, and optimization prior to BASES testing.

Results

  • Created runway for new product expansion that supported business unit growth from $800M to $1.3B over a 3 year period.