With nearly 30 years of experience, we realize that 95% of companies have too many products or brands. The 80/20 rule is alive and well in the product and brand space, and the key is to understand which lower volume products or brands are required, while minimizing total offering.
Our research suggests that product and brand strategies are rarely aligned with the rest of the sales and marketing organization, much less other functional areas of the company. We take a holistic approach to developing and implementing product and brand strategies. We start by understanding customer requirements and competitive positioning. If the company can’t articulate their own value proposition, they can’t expect their customers to.
Holistic also means developing product lines that fit well with the operation’s capabilities, as well as creating brand positioning that is reinforced by the sales force’s customer interactions and value selling toolkit. It also means planning promotional campaigns that can be measured and evaluated, and treating the development of product and brand strategies more like science, and less like art.
Our veteran managers and consultants understand how to achieve alignment in strategy and tactics, among internal and external constituents. We know that at the end of the day, the customer votes with their wallet.