Breakthrough Strategy

The simple aim of all portfolio strategies is to cover as many market opportunities as possible with as few brands as possible. This recipe ensures optimal portfolio efficiency and return on investment . 

Start by identifying the different segments that exist in your category based on the dimension that best explains the different brand or product choices consumers make.

Next quantify the current and future financial size of each segment. Few companies quantify the future size of each segment but making 3-year strategy choices based on the category today is a mistake. Also ensure the segments are quantified in terms of commercial value, not just in terms of the number of users.

Once you have your segmentation review the performance of your brand portfolio in each segment in terms of where each brand has high or low share and how well they fit with the brand choice requirements of each segment. Segment priorities and goals can then be set and brand targeting choices made, including the need for new brands, brand extensions or the deletion of some brands. Brand initiatives can be defined to ensure the needs of each segment are met and the growth ambition can be achieved. 

Business growth requires objectives, strategies and plans to be aligned across all levels of the organisation. Often, they are not, with Market, Region and Global teams having competing objectives or seeing different growth opportunities. Alignment starts by establishing a single view of the category that everyone shares and supports by combining the different data and insights teams have to create a ‘gameboard’ that is accepted by all and which strategies can be played out on.

Next, the short-term commercial targets market teams need to deliver, and the longer-term brand and category goals global teams need to be connected. This can be achieved by linking marketing and sales goals to the consumer behaviours and attitudes that underpin both of them. Once these two elements are in place, strategy where-to-play and how-to-win choices can be mapped out and a common action plan agreed. 

New ideas require change and that pits business leaders against a simple human truth: people don’t like change. Change initiatives often stall through lack of adoption, but change doesn’t happen by being more persuasive or pushing harder. It happens by removing the barriers to change.  

Grow-How® is our approach for doing this.

First, people need a solution that brings existing and new data, into a single unified view they can all agree on. Next,  people need to own the change by testing the new solution on the goals and challenges they are facing. Finally, growth ideas need to be seamlessly connected to existing processes, ways of working, and structures otherwise people will simply default to the current ways that they’re comfortable with.​ 

Most companies have impressive new ideas for growth but struggle to implement them across their business. They know what they need to do, but don’t always know how to get it done. 70% of change efforts fail and its often because business leaders try to transform rather than evolve their businesses. Top-down directives and big steps rarely work. 

Grow-How® is our methodology for successfully implementing strategies. It’s based on our belief that every company depends on an internal ecosystem that is a combination of structures, ways of working, goals and values. We identify key places within that ecosystem where new ideas should be implanted, enabling them to permeate organically throughout the company.  

First, the growth idea needs to be hooked into an ​’a-ha framework’ that reveals the new where-to-play and how-to-win opportunities, but also connects them to existing thinking in order to make adoption easy. Next, teams need to own the framework by applying to live business issues to ‘bring change to life’ and prove its value, as opposed to delivering training. Without this ownership, belief is slow to build, because it’s just theory. Finally, new growth ideas need to be integrated with existing business processes ecosystem, as without this critical mass behind the new idea cannot be reached and people default to existing processes they’re comfortable with.​ 

Weʼve never met a company that doesnʼt want to grow…but the question is: how do we grow? We think about growth in terms of Value Capture and Value Creation. Business growth can be achieved by capturing a greater share of existing category value. This requires a deep analysis of customer needs and the competitive propositions in the market leading to the crafting of differentiated brand and Go-To-Market propositions.

Growth can also come from creating new category value. Most companies have lots of data on what their category looks like today and a clear rear-view mirror view on how it has developed historically, but we believe a robust view of how your category will develop is essential to finding opportunities to create new category. We are not talking about broad trends, we’re talking about quantified opportunities that enable opportunities to be prioritised, choices to be made, and budgets to be allocated. This is what +GROW does with its clients.