Introduction

A leading multinational dairy manufacturer sought to identify the potential for developing a new brand across four different regions, namely China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the UAE. Ipsos Business Consulting was invited to work closely with client teams to explore the opportunities for brand extension, and eventually formulate a Go-to-Market strategy to suit each target market.

About the Client

The global dairy manufacturer is responsible for more than a quarter of the world's dairy exports, offering a wide range of products from milk powder and cheese to casein and caseinates under different brands.

Business Issue

With the leading market share in China, the client would like to further develop its food service business by building a new brand. At the same time, they are fully aware of the importance of developing key insights into customer markets in target countries. Therefore, they approached Ipsos Business Consulting to carry out a comprehensive study to examine the potential opportunities for developing a sub-brand for the professional channels.

Ipsos Business Consulting Solution

We applied a five-step approach to understand current brand positioning and customer perceptions in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the UAE, and designed a customized value proposition for the sub-brand in each country.

The first step analyzed current brand positioning vs. ideal positioning in the future. Our team conducted a comprehensive study including in-depth discussions with industry experts, channel players, and customers, gathering their feedback to identify brand positioning and levers for the client's brand to move to the ideal position in each country.

The second step designed to understand the most important attributes by brand adoption. Specifically, we tested different attributes with customers across different channels, and distinguished key attributes and rationales behind them.

The third step was to collect customer feedback on the client's brand performance in terms of the most important attributes defined from the previous step. We led in-depth discussions with customers from different segments to understand their feedback on client brand performance on each attribute across different product categories in each target country. We also identified similarities and nuances across different professional channels.

The fourth step analyzed the current competitive landscape. We obtained comprehensive qualitative feedback on competitor performance, benchmarking our client's performance with competitors across different attributes. We therefore developed sound knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of major brands in each target country.

The last step developed a customized Go-to-Market strategy for the client's new brand. We concluded the similarities and nuances across different countries and the implications for the client's business, and suggested the most important attributes for the new brand development and most attractive channels in each target country.

Results

As a result of the study, the client obtained solid understanding of its perceived brand image, and the strengths and weaknesses of its product and services in different channels. Hence, the client was able to prioritize key product attributes which can be further emphasized and improved moving forward. Findings from this study have been adopted in the client's brand strategy development and concept design phase to further shape the foundation of the new brand.