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LPA Case Examples

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Upskilling Confection Marketing Organization Drives Years of Growth

Industry / Company

Leading Global Confection Company

Challenge

  • Senior marketing leadership needed to overcome “wild west” syndrome including confusing proliferation of brand-building approaches, concepts, tools, and terminology
  • Wanted a singular, signature approach that could galvanize marketing organization behind cutting-edge, digitally-relevant best practices optimized for industry company
  • Right solution would honor thinking that made the company successful, while challenging it to raise its game by meaningfully advancing/updating practices

Solution

  • Created best practices for Brand Building to drive topline growth
  • Tailored to reflect the high impulse nature of Category/importance of winning in store
  • Deliverables included high level framework and click downs on key topics (success principles, watch-outs, case studies, tools/templates to accelerate adoption)
  • Created  approach and materials to drive fast and broad awareness and adoption

Results

  • Achieved unprecedented speed in global adoption
    • 100% of 250 marketers and agency partners within 6 months
  • Among highest company training workshop scores ever
  • Leadership credits this work with contributing to exceptional results over a 3 year period. Revenue up +25% over the 3-years following framework launch
    • Company revenues grew steadily during the three years following broad adoption of new practices designed to drive topline growth
      • Year 1: Revenue +7%
      • Year 2: Revenue +9%
      • Year 3: Revenue +7%

Client Feedback

“We are on the path toward becoming one of the top marketing organizations on the planet. None of this would have been possible without LPA’s counsel, guidance and leadership.”

VP Global Marketing Excellence

“LPA is a leading expert on Marketing and Branding. LPA helped us understand what it meant to be world-class, then helped build the strategy and plan to transform the organization globally.”

VP Global Marketing Excellence
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Product Repositioning Sprint → Breakthrough (Snacking Category)

Industry / Company

Leading manufacturer of snack foods

Challenge

Prior to engaging LPA, company had done a qual and quant research and ideation in an effort to to qualify a restage concept for a rapidly declining snack brand.

  • 30 restage concepts tested including a BASES Restager, most falling in bottom quintiles / none meeting success benchmarks
  • LPA was engaged to collaborate with Insights and Marketing across a 2-month sprint to develop and validate a winning concept for the Brand restage, including packaging and naming

Solution

  • Based on review of historical work and research results plus qualitative research, LPA recommended target audience and hypothesized relaunch options
  • Engaged/briefed creative agency for naming / packaging
  • Created a new set of concepts for conjoint testing
  • All work done in close collaboration with Marketing and Insights leadership

Results

  • Concept significantly outperformed control in conjoint testing and met success benchmarks; this represented a significant breakthrough (in 2-months)  vs. years of past work
  • Successfully qualified a name that outperformed current
  • CMO decided to delay re-launch due to other more pressing investment priorities; Brand was later re-launched successfully with our work/learnings incorporated

Client Feedback

“After many attempts, by partnering with LPA, we were able to unlock the potential of this Brand with a concept that surpassed BASES action standards was consistent with recent successful launches”

Insights Lead
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Value Reframing Enables Premium Pricing on Garage Door Technology

Industry / Company

Leading manufacturer of garage door technology including openers

Challenge

  • Late to game with a technology that significantly improved lighting in garage
  • Superior performing product, but prior efforts to differentiate / establish superiority with both retailers (e.g., Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon) and buyers unsuccessful
  • Desired premium pricing which wasn’t viewed as justified because the superiority was not effectively communicated
  • There was no opportunity to change the product or packaging – client required a breakthrough in communication to convey a strong value proposition even at a premium price

Solution

  • LPA led client and Agency partners through an insight discovery and brainstorming process designed to generate ideas to “reframe value” in marketing and sales communications
  • A truly breakthrough idea emerged – including a renaming of the product and establishment of clear differentiation vs. all the available competitive products (at lower prices)

Results

  • The new product name, benefit, and reason-to-believe scored in top quintile (extremely effective at communicating value) in quantitative testing
  • Client moved aggressively and successfully to market with the launch and was able to sustain premium pricing

Note: LPA has done similar value reframing work across over a dozen categories and we have a very consistent track record of improving value perceptions and driving sales growth without lowering pricing or improving products.

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P/E Owned Personal Health Care: Total Line Restage → Favorable Transaction

Industry / Company

P/E owned Personal Health Care (topical analgesics, crack creams, cold sore remedies)

Challenge

  • P/E owned company with bulk of business in Topical Analgesic market developed breakthrough technology for cold sore treatment
  • Proliferation of products, brands, and sub-brands yielded an unmanageable multi-category portfolio and hindered market potential for innovative technology
  • LPA engaged by P/E owner & CEO to develop positioning platform that would transcend product categories (including cold sore) and unify line-up under one Brand name

Solution

  • Based on in-depth landscape assessment and quantitative research, LPA recommended a total line restage
  • Restage reflected broad trends (importance of “natural”) and a competitive opportunity. New platform included:
    • Fusion of science + nature
    • Pharmacist heritage (leverage roots)
    • Value play (Purex inspired)

Results

  • Quant testing supported significant upside potential behind total line restage / proposed positioning
  • CEO and P/E owner moved forward on aggressive timing, leveraging creative / package redesign partner recommended by LPA; excellent customer response to sell in
  • P/E owner sold company to Japanese conglomerate, well ahead of planned transaction timing
  • LPA participated in presentation to prospective buyer, sharing the total line restage including: new consumer insight, quantitatively confirmed concept, and in-market execution (packaging, advertising, retailer presentations, etc.)

Client Feedback

“LPA led a major Brand revitalization with a portfolio company that resulted in positive impacts across the board —  from consumers + retail partners to a [favorable transaction]. Leonora and her team – research and creative partners — worked well with company leadership & made a big impact quickly.”

P/E Owner
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B2B Wound Care: Portfolio Repositioning Drives Turnaround

Industry / Company

Global healthcare , services, and customized solutions company serving hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical labs, and physician offices.

Challenge

  • Large, rapidly declining wound care portfolio one year post acquisition
  • Complex portfolio comprised of 10 Brands (good / better / best performance options) and >400 products
  • Urgent need to evolve positioning / value proposition to change game and gain advantage
  • Range of customer types and decision-making processes added complexity
  • Industry becoming commoditized

Solution

  • Working with Senior Leadership, designed process to co-create new positioning with multi-functional leadership team
  • Included aligning on a unified commercial insight, deeper understanding of drivers of choice, and ideation to break out of commoditization spiral

Results

New positioning was key driver of a turnaround

Client Feedback

“The LPA team helped our team define a distinctive brand positioning that is contributing to the business turnaround”

Vice President
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Fortune 500 Board-ready Brand Strategy Best Practices (<1 week)

Challenge:

Marketing Leadership had urgent need to share specific Brand Strategy best practices with their Board-of-Directors to address a specific issue/request

What we did:

We combined our extensive experience / expertise in the Brand Strategy areas of interest AND our deep knowledge of the company, and collaborated with client to deliver Board-ready materials in < 1 week

Results:

  • Positive top management and Board response, leading to immediate pilot of the proposed approach on a billion-dollar Brand
  • Pilot completed with positive outcomes, especially in building clarity and alignment around innovation program
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Global Tequila Brand Positioning: A 3-Week Sprint to Success

Industry / Company

Global Tequila Brand (part of a leading global spirits company)

Challenge

  • Image-driven tequila brand in hyper-competitive market needed stronger positioning / differentiation as competing brands were neutralizing its core equity
  • Diverse set of geographies and perspectives got in way of getting to a compelling positioning over the course of 6 months despite meaningful effort and investment
  • LPA hired with 3 weeks available to design and facilitate a global brand positioning renewal to inform critical upcoming milestones – advertising briefing, package design, and innovation plan

Solution

Designed and executed fully customized global, multi-functional workshop that was informed by Brand and competitive landscape assessments and cross-functional/cross-region sensing/interviews. LPA played 3 roles: strategic provocateur, objective voice (in controversial conversation), and expert facilitation

Results

  • A global-team aligned, CMO-aligned, ownable brand positioning was put into immediate use for agency briefings (leading to creative that tested +24% vs. category averages), breakthrough package/bottle design, and focused strategic/innovation planning.
  • Along with the renewed positioning was also a renewed sense of trust between the global team and marketers in the regions, who felt genuinely enrolled in the process.
  • Brand positioning renewal was instrumental in the brand achieving +11% Sales Growth in the US over the following year.

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QSR Brand Revitalization Returns Brand to Growth

Industry / Company

QSR (historically mall based)

Challenge

  • Accelerate results by refining both audience choices and brand strategy/positioning
  • Success looked like both protect current strong business in malls while establishing meaningful growth runway outside of malls
  • Opportunities included moving beyond demographic target definition, a more single-minded promise, better link between functional and emotional benefits, and a more relevant personality
  • Current marketing materials showed inconsistency in core brand message

Solution

  • Developed target audience and brand positioning, working in close collaboration with CMO, COO, Agency partners, and key players in Marketing organization
  • Included guiding client on a highly efficient way to close critical consumer understanding gaps
  • Also included Activation Accelerator work to move swiftly from strategic choices to activation levers/action plans

Results

  • Within months of implementation of key pillars of new brand strategy, business results improved
    • Following 2 years of same store sales declines, business has been growing and CMO sees direct link between our work and growth
  • Entirely new/incremental revenue streams created

Client Feedback

“We have been busy rolling out our new positioning strategy and target to the rest of the organization and the work is being very well received.”

“Our recent results have been strong. We are outpacing QSR benchmarks. Our targeting choice to focus on [specifics deleted] has proved to be right!”

“We closed 2019 with our best results since 2015. Our better targeting is yielding lower costs for media metrics (cost/qualified lead, cost/click).”

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Oral Care Device Innovation: Top Quintile New Product Positioning

Industry / Company

P/E Owned Oral Care Devices

Challenge

  • Dominant market share in a “sleepy” category
  • R&D created two breakthrough products; however, it was difficult to explain benefits to professionals and customers. Internally created concepts were unexciting/unappealing

Solution

  • Working with CEO and a Board Member, LPA developed new concepts based on in-depth consumer, competitive, and company understanding
  • Uncovered new deep human insight as cornerstone for success and gained consumer input on specific articulations of benefits

Results

  • All concepts fell in top quintile for Liking, Value, Uniqueness, and Need Fulfillment, and in 1st or 2nd quintile for Purchase Intent (Vantis testing)
  • Volume potential for top concepts exceeded financial goals
  • Company acquired by >$4 billion revenue public company. Concepts we created a few years ago currently playing prominent role in portfolio, commanding significant price premium, and generating positive customer ratings and reviews
  • High-scoring concepts drove communications, package, and retail plan development

Client Feedback

“I meet a lot of marketing firms who waste my time. With LPA, there was zero waste in the process.”

CEO

“I liked working with A-Players and having A-Players do the work”

CEO
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Global Repositioning of Electronics Master Brand: Foundation for Growth

Industry / Company

Korean manufacturer of electronic components such as memory chips, smart phones, tablet computers, televisions, cameras, and home appliances.

Challenge

  • Company outlined 10-year plan to shrug off image as a budget brand and to become the world’s largest consumer electronics manufacturer.
  • Establishing a new Brand Positioning was a wicked challenge given: (1)wide range of Categories in which Brand competed; (2)very different customer requirements and competitors across the different categories; and (3)global Brand with different customer and competitor landscapes in different markets; and (4)little historical brand equity to leverage.

Solution

  • Working in close collaboration with the Global CMO and a broad Leadership Team, we created a winning positioning for the Brand and then translated it into specific positionings for each of the company’s product categories.
  • Played a key role in enrolling a large and diverse leadership group behind key choices and enabling activation.

Results

Brand Repositioning has contributed to becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of consumer electronics and achieving a market cap in the hundreds of billions.

  • World’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smart phones
  • Leading vendor of tablet computers
  • World’s largest TV manufacturer
  • World’s largest memory chips manufacturer
  • World’s largest semiconductor chip maker

Client Feedback

“We now have a master brand positioning we can take forward and Chief Marketing Officer has very positively bought into the core idea and insight of our lead option. I wanted to express how much I appreciate what we were able to accomplish together – we have come so far in such a short time. Thank you for your great partnership and expertise.”

Senior Vice President, Marketing
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Transforming Capability of a B2B Health Care Marketing Organization

Industry / Company

Global healthcare, services, and customized solutions company serving hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical labs, and physician offices.

Challenge

–SVP Enterprise Marketing identified building a world class marketing capability as key growth driver –Success required adaptation of classic marketing best practices to a complex B2B business –Required linkage to enterprise strategy and elevated role of marketing in delivering growth 

  • SVP Enterprise Marketing identified building a world class marketing capability as key growth driver
  • Success required adaptation of classic marketing best practices to a complex B2B business
  • Required linkage to enterprise strategy and elevated role of marketing in delivering growth

Solution

  • Best practice marketing framework tailored to industry and company
  • Interactive 2-day training workshops delivered to 400 marketers including meaningful time for application of concepts, principles, tools
  • Based on success of Year 1, LPA has for three consecutive subsequent years created deep dives on selected topics
  • Evolved from full live delivery to remote access options to e-learning

Results

  • Year 1 workshops attended by over 400 marketers (>90%), significantly ahead of target – despite a significant acceleration in delivery schedule
  • Word-of-mouth from early sessions fueled additional suction
  • Program highly rated with only 1% of attendees viewing it as not effective
  • Strong evidence that concepts, principles, and tools have been broadly adopted and positively impacting business results
  • Client has continued to invest in the upskilling journey – now in year four — with LPA as a strategic partner throughout

Client Feedback

“Easy to remember framework was presented in an approachable way so marketers across the enterprise could relate, regardless of their prior experience”

“LPA provided a set of clear and concise steps and tools that our team can utilize immediately to enhance our marketing strategies and plans”

“We got very clear on the critical gaps that our teams MUST address in order to improve results.”

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