Introduction

A leading multinational animal health company sought to consolidate the branding of its veterinarian use animal health products in Japan. Ipsos Business Consulting worked with the client to quantity the potential impact on sales after consolidation of brands by taking into consideration the possible reactions from the veterinarian customers and the potential change in competitors' product strategy.

About the Client

The client is a world market leader in animal health products and gained its leadership position in Japan through its multi-brand strategy and through its long-term partnership with a leading animal healthcare products distributor in Japan.

Business Issue

The client anticipated that consolidation of its animal healthcare products would (1) affect overall product portfolio sales, (2) lead to changes in the current distribution strategy, and (3) lead to changes in the competitive market environment. In order to carefully plan for its brand consolidation strategy in Japan, the client approached Ipsos Business Consulting to better understand how customers perceive the current brands in the market, their loyalty towards the current brands and to simulate the impact on competitive market share.

Ipsos Business Consulting Solution

Ipsos Business Consulting used a two-phase approach: providing qualitative insight into brands and usage, and forecasting the potential impact on the client's market share as a result of its brand consolidation and the potential change in the competitive product environment.

The first phase was a qualitative in-depth study of large veterinary clinics to understand their U&A towards animal health products. The result was also used as the basis for the mass-scale second phase U&A study of veterinary clinics across Japan.

The second phase was a quantitative study with animal health product purchase decision makers in veterinary clinics to understand their U&A and buying behaviour. A conjoint-based choice model was used to test the sensitivity of the veterinary clinics towards changes in brands, distributors and prices.

Results

Ipsos Business Consulting provided the client with a thorough analysis of the U&A among veterinary clinics and market share simulation analysis to estimate the impact on the client's market share as a result of consolidation of brands.More importantly, Ipsos Business Consulting highlighted the key concerns and issues that the client needs to face and consider, and what sorts of actions should be taken in order to develop its brand consolidation strategy.