Recent Experience in Consumer Packaged Goods and Disposables

Market penetration strategy for a European wine region: A European government agency was concerned that wine sales from its region into the U.S. were not increasing, despite an expensive U.S. newspaper and magazine advertising effort. Hamilton Consultants interviewed retailers, wholesalers, restaurants, and wine writers in eight major U.S. metropolitan regions to determine reactions to the advertising campaign and the image of the region's wines compared to its competition.

As a result of the research, the consulting team recommended a major redirection of the advertising themes, an increase in missionary selling effort coupled with a reduction in advertising, and some fundamental changes in the packaging and branding of the products. The client is currently implementing portions of the recommended strategy.

Channel brand perception study and distribution strategy redesign for a specialty food manufacturer: A Hamilton principal worked with a branded spice and meal-maker manufacturer to stop volume and retail erosion in a highly competitive category. Brokers and retail trade buyers were interviewed to assess brand perception and to understand how decisions about line item authorization, shelf space allocation, and position were differentially made at the broker and retailer levels. Key account requirements, as well as programming and pricing practices, were analyzed on a regional basis to assess efficiency and effectiveness and determine ROI by area.

The project concluded with a redesigned national trade programming effort that focused on deploying funds regionally in order to leverage the brand in growth areas and eliminate unproductive spending. The product portfolio was rationalized to eliminate non-performing sku's, enable focus on high volume items, and develop new products in emerging categories.

Global brand strategy development for a major international snack food manufacturer: A Hamilton principal developed a global branding strategy for a variety of branded potato chips in order to realize advertising efficiencies and facilitate product category introduction in new countries. Qualitative research sessions were conducted in five countries among multiple target groups to identify individual brand equities and determine what commonalities existed that could be leveraged by all the brands. A single positioning platform, applicable for all brands across countries, was developed for potato chips, as well as individual communication strategies to be on a country-specific basis.

Brand repositioning for a soft drink manufacturer: A Hamilton principal assessed the current brand equity of a major branded carbonated soft drink. She determined consumer perceptions and how the brand could be better leveraged vis-a-vis competitive positionings. The consulting team interviewed branded and competitive teen users and conducted qualitative creative sessions. This research was used to learn how to leverage the brand's existing equities for the target consumer group demonstrating the greatest category growth. The team helped design new packaging graphics to better communicate the brand's position and highlight its value to consumers.

Market entry for European fine cigar company: A very successful European manufacturer of expensive cigars asked one of Hamilton's principals to determine the best approaches for entry into the U.S. market. The president of the company was predisposed to mail order, because early experience had indicated traditional U.S. smoke shops were not interested in his company's high-style, glossy-packaged cigars.

The consulting team interviewed retailers, U.S. cigar companies, and other experts in the trade, including the president of the leading cigar mail order company. The team believed that general mail order would not work, because of limited sales potential, and the fact that consumers did not know the brand. The team recommended five different trials, including specialty goods mail order (the unique cigar packaging would stand out in color catalogs) and specialty retail such as high priced hotel gift shops. The hotel gift shops proved later to be a good channel for the company.

Brand repositioning for a food manufacturer: A Hamilton principal led a team that repositioned the second largest branded peanut butter in the U.S. The consulting team ran qualitative focus groups with branded heavy users and brand switchers among three major brands to evaluate effective positionings, determine points of brand differentiation, and assess potential upside opportunities. The consultants identified category gold standards and determined what areas of equity could be owned by the brand. Then the team developed methodologies to reposition the brand to increase consumption among heavy users, and motivate purchase by competitive users, including advertising copy development and packaging graphics changes.

Marketing and distribution strategy for a major oil company: For one of the "Seven Sisters", Hamilton's president led a large study of consumers to determine how present customer buying behavior should impact strategy. Consumer segmentation and purchase sensitivities to price, credit card, brand name, self-service, and other parameters of gasoline purchase were investigated. A major upshot of the study was the determination that brand loyalty in gasoline purchases is very low, and that distribution decisions should be made on the basis of distribution cost and competitive pricing. As a result of the study, the company pulled back from retailing in some markets as a way to improve profitability.

Marketing strategy development for a regional bread manufacturer: For this 100-year-old family-owned baking company, several steps were required to move the organization from a baking/distribution-only orientation to developing a brand-based foundation for marketing program development. In a market characterized by only a few major players, yet with a large number of different brands competing for limited shelf space, the go-to-market strategy needed to be redesigned.

Through the execution of a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups, Hamilton identified which consumers represented the ideal target customer, how the brand was viewed relative to competition, and what were the brand's most leverageable equities. Hamilton developed a brand communication strategy and assisted the advertising agency with a media plan and television commercial production. The project concluded with the development of a plan for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of trade spending on a going-forward basis.

Strategy assessment for a producer of plastic bags: For one of the non-branded producers of plastic food and trash bags, Hamilton evaluated alternatives for growth and profit enhancement. Options considered included focusing on regional branding, focusing on grocery private label, and focusing on specialty markets and specialty products. The strategies were evaluated from the standpoint of financial impact, as well as the capability of the company to implement them in terms of management process and manufacturing capability.