An old brand with a new beginning
An iconic commercial paint brand needed to rejuvenate brand equity and revenue generation in a Group portfolio or face market withdrawal by the parent.
For a number of years a leading European paint manufacturer had underinvested management time and resources in one of its portfolio brands to the extent that revenue had diminished more then 80% from its peak; subsequently few people wanted to work for the brand and management were perplexed about how the brand fitted into its long-term growth strategy. That’s when management turned to Focus Solutions for assistance.
A key to brand rejuvenation was to develop a coherent vision of what the brand could be in the future and the positive role it should play in growing Group market share. Our approach was to develop this after first analysing how the market dynamics were changing in ways that favour the brand and better discriminate the brand from others in the portfolio. Market and customer research led to major changes in the value proposition, relationship with intermediaries, and the marketing and sales strategy. Our approach was mindful of the risk of revenue cannibalisation and budgetary constraints.
A central plank in the emergent strategy was to reposition the brand to compete in adjacency markets where competitor attention was distracted and competitive propositions are weaker: whilst competitors focused on maximising yield with large volume customers, the brand focused on meeting the needs of under-served SMEs.
In 2016 the brand enjoyed a 40% uplift in revenue and impressive customer growth. People wanted to join the brand internally and market share stabilised. The brand continues to grow.
