Background and Challenge
A leading health and wellness brand had a fragmented international footprint that had been built opportunistically through distributors. As a result, the brand had limited or no presence in many of the most rapidly growing emerging markets, highlighting a significant opportunity for growth. Already enjoying a strong domestic market position, the company was relying on successful international expansion as a key pillar of its long-term growth strategy. To address this opportunity, the company asked L.E.K. Consulting to develop an international expansion plan to deliver tangible growth in both the near and long-term.
Approach and Recommendations
We approached the project in three steps:
- Macro-level country prioritization – using a broad array of secondary data addressing market size/growth potential, demographic factors, and political/regulatory risk, we created a proprietary scoring system to prioritize the ~15 most attractive markets for further consideration
- Focused country prioritization and sequencing – for each of the 15 priority markets, we used a combination of primary and secondary research to rank each along the dimensions of opportunity (e.g., market structure pricing, local competitive environment, presence of modern trade) and risk (e.g., ease of doing business, ease of selling health and wellness products, registration requirements). This analysis, combined with further consideration around potential entry options and product plays enabled us to identify two markets for immediate expansion and several more for longer-term consideration
- Market entry strategy – for the two markets targeted for immediate expansion, we employed in-market teams to develop actionable market entry plans for the client. The market entry strategy was comprehensive, consisting of the following elements:
- Detailed assessment of market segmentation and sizing, channel and retailer dynamics
- Recommended client product portfolio and positioning for the local market
- Operational and regulatory factors that must be considered
- Best practice case studies of how other companies succeeded in the market
- Detailed financial projections that portrayed the revenue/profit opportunity and investment requirements
Results
Our work provided the client with the roadmap to dramatically increase its business in its two most strategically important overseas markets. For the near term, we helped the client develop an action plan to grow revenue and profit from its current in-market product footprint. For the longer term, we helped the client chart a path to build a much bigger consumer brand and significantly larger business in each market that will contribute meaningfully to overall corporate growth.
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