Small Private Beverage Alcohol Company
Company Description: Small Private Beverage Alcohol Company in Chicago
Situation: Company had no international business, but a strong brand in the US. Its aim was to expand outside the US through both an export approach, but also by offshoring production to appropriate locations outside the US.
Company Need: Develop a business opportunity assessment and financial pro forma for expansion for both the following calendar year, and for a longer-range period.
Brand Category: Flavored Malt Beverage
Approach: Through significant mining of both our personal network and sales leads, identified Canada as the first country for expansion. Developed an opportunity assessment and business development plan for this initiative, and for expansion into other priority markets. The Plan included setting up local production in Europe to align the flagship brand with legal and regulatory formulation, packaging and financial margin requirements.
Results: In less than three years, we profitably expanded the flagship brand’s presence in more than 15 countries including Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, after 18 month, local production was set up in the UK. International growth made up 100% of the total company’s growth, and International was the company’s most profitable division by Q1, 2014.
Opportunity Assessment and Brand Restructure to Enable Global Expansion - Fortune 500 Company Flagship
Company Description: Fortune 500 consumer beverage company based in the Greater Chicago region.
Situation: The Company’s International Business, though quite profitable, was only growing in the low-single digits. The main challenge was the lack of a separate, and more relevant, international brand strategy. The international strategy had been the same as the domestic brand strategy, despite the potential consumer base being younger and more aspirational outside the US than in it.
Company Need: Develop and restructure the international brand marketing architecture, price position, premise channel strategy and creative advertising campaign for the company’s Global’s flagship brand.
Brand Category: Bourbon Whiskey
Approach: This year-long project required our Associates to first field cross-country marketing research to understand the common elements of the brand’s consumer need, practices and perceptions of the bourbon category. Following completion of the research, we implemented a completely new approach focused on the on-premise (rather than off-premise), a younger consumer target, higher retail pricing versus Scotch Whisky, increased marketing expenses, and the Company’s first-ever series of television and cinema commercials (not available in the Americas Division). The campaign was rolled into over 50 countries.
Results: Over the project’s next 7 years, the international division’s sales and profits quadrupled, for a CAGR of 23%.
New Product and Category Development To Rejeuvenate Fortune 500 Company's Flagship Brand
Company Description: Fortune 500 consumer beverage company based in the Greater Chicago region.
Situation: From research, we noticed that the flagship brand’s international consumer’s average age was increasing, some five years after the launch of the above new campaign.
Company Need: Identify a new product growth engine that could leverage the success of the base campaign.
Approach: Working with the Company’s priority markets, developed cross-country research to assess changing consumer needs and to assess the business feasibility of additional brand segmentation. Subsequently, develop marketing program to leverage any uncovered opportunity. The opportunity was to upscale and extend the brand’s premixed cocktails range into the premium premixed bourbon category, and implement a new marketing communications to support it.
Results: The launch of the Company’s first-ever premium premixed cocktails line generated an additional $5 Million of annual sales for the brand, and an additional $1.5 Million in annual brand profits. The launch across the three priority countries was supported by new television advertising, new point-of-sale, new (higher) retail pricing, a new public relations and distribution strategy.