HRCP Case Study:
Pumping up a global brand

Situation

The client had penetrated an international market with products and brands similar to those that enjoyed market dominance in the U.S. However, in this international market, the brand had met with very limited success. Significant distribution problems resulted from weak sales, and the local management was engaged in a series of unproductive and time-consuming fire drills.

Challenge

Henry Rak Consulting Partners was engaged to recommend a new strategy for developing this international market, recognizing that the client had limited funds to invest in the region.

HRCP Advantage

Based on the consumer growth strategy HRCP developed, we recommended the following:

• A new product strategy to address an underserved need state and consumer segment. Our analysis indicated that both the consumer segment and the need state were likely to grow significantly over the next decade.
• A new brand positioning that emphasized benefits with high perceived value and strong emotional connections to the consumer, and moved away from purely functional benefits, to increase appeal to the new consumer segment.
• Focusing the client's resources on key barriers to growth, aligning products and segments against specific usages, and focusing innovation against large, highly incremental areas.

Results

The brand grew revenue and profits…and the country manager was recognized with a big promotion.

• The new positioning improved the brand's price/value perception by shifting the brand benefit to a higher level need.
• This positioning created multiple new products that have led the brand's turnaround. Funds previously spent to sustain the brand in market can now be used for business building activities.
• Growth for this brand has enabled the country to address new growth opportunities in a second category.
• The country manager was promoted to region director based on these results.