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Case Study: Weyerhaeuser

Challenge

Leader in Residential Wood Products industry at risk of losing its edge.

  • Consolidation, decreasing margins, and new competition commoditizing the category.
  • Company focused inward. Growth stalled.
  • Production not customer-driven and unresponsive to changing market dynamics.

Solution

Transformative business strategy, driving customer preference and commanding a premium in a commodity-driven market.

  • Define new category, “Whole-House Construction.”
  • Build new business-facing brand with renewed commitment to product innovation and customer focus.
  • Organize hundreds of disparate products and brands under a master brand architecture, delivering greater cumulative value.
  • Change from product-centric to solutions-centric business model, for increased performance.
  • Galvanize 16,000 employees into a unified, more confident workforce.

Results

Reinvented leader in saturated market.

  • Business able to protect market share and premium pricing.
  • Assets stabilized, even during housing industry downturn.

Corporate/Product Re-Positioning

Case Study: Experian

Challenge

 Global information services company demerges from parent to trade under its own name.

  • Shift investor perception from reliable vendor to trusted partner.
  • Unify strategic direction after purchasing 60+ businesses over five years.

Solution

 Research-based positioning strategy for clients, investors, and analysts.

  • Interviews with company executives, national/international clients, followed by a global field study of both B2B and B2C customers.
  • Master-brand portfolio organizing 80 brands and 1,000+ products worldwide.
  • New strategy for rebranding, including logo, graphics, and messaging.
  • Deployment plan to motivate the organization around new strategy.

Results

 Stand-alone leader in data-services and analytics category.

  • Opened strongly on London Stock Exchange in 2006.
  • Today is part of FTSE 100 index.

Case Study: Sharebuilder (acquired by ING)

Challenge

Financial services start-up struggles to convert technology for online investment into compelling product.

  • Product value proposition self-limiting, benefit story overly complex.
  • Limited customer appeal and perceived value among target audiences.
  • Venture investors growing restless.

Solution

Re-imagining of business proposition, creating new segment in online investor category.

  • Product reformulation to highlight ease of use and facilitate dollar cost averaging for “Main Street” investors.
  • Redefinition of target audience: from tech-savvy day-traders to broader segment of novice investors looking to invest safely and easily.
  • Repositioning product and messaging architecture to highlight new value proposition and align product benefits to mass consumer audience.

Results

Company launched successfully and grew rapidly, bolstering venture investor confidence and insuring continued funding.

  • Unique, defensible market position and a loyal subscription base of more than 2.1 million.
  • Revenue growth in excess of 850% over past five years.
  • Company sold to #3 financial services firm in 2007.

Case Study: Starbucks

Challenge

Global coffee leader seeks to create and integrate a philanthropic strategy to satisfy multiple objectives.

  • Generate Partner (employee) interest and involvement.
  • Establish core foundation giving priorities while providing local managers with the flexibility to support local causes.
  • Incorporate diverse and competing stakeholder interests (customers, vendors, growers, employees, charitable organizations, etc.).
  • Ensure strategic fit with long-term business and financial objectives.

Solution

Five-year strategic plan to maximize the growth and impact of newly formed corporate foundation.

  • Architecture to guide all facets of charitable contributions and corporate philanthropy.
  • Generate earned income through sale of exclusively licensed merchandise through retail locations.
  • Form strategic partnerships (UPS, ABC, Random House, Scholastic, etc.) to increase program scale and efficiency.
  • Establish key metrics to measure charitable impact on business.

Results

Starbucks Foundation and related charitable programs now regarded as standard-setting model for corporate philanthropy.

  • Partnership model
  • $12 million to more than 700 youth-focused organizations in the United States and Canada since its founding.
  • Earned-income model remains core to Foundation’s success, utilizing proceeds from Ethos Water

Social Enterprise

Case Study: Pura Vida Coffee

Challenge

Rapidly growing coffee company under competition from local, regional, and national roasters.

  • Unique commitment to sustainable coffees and origin farmers creates significant cost disadvantage.
  • Distributors under intense exclusivity pressure.
  • Resources lacking to pursue an aggressive retail location strategy.

Solution

Strategy to build and protect sustainable competitive advantage; turn small size and underdog position from liabilities into competitive assets.

  • Segmentation study that uncovered a lucrative audience – college and university food service customers – underserved by industry giants.
  • Product strategy built on 100% commitment to fairtrade, organic, and sustainable coffee.
  • Value proposition marrying rational and emotional benefits key to establishing strong target loyalty.
  • Brand architecture to support the “leader in sustainable coffee” position.
  • Partnership strategies with leading food management companies insulating small business from exclusivity pressures.

Results

Company growth in excess of 300% since strategic redirection.

  • 2007 sales in excess of 5 million.
  • Secured strategic partnership with world’s largest food management company as the preferred provider of “sustainable and ethical” coffee to 10,000 commercial accounts nationwide.

Case Study: Wing Luke

Challenge

Wing Luke Asian Musuem, cultural cornerstone of a community, expands facility, incurring debt that threatens financial stability and long-term viability.

  • Business plan not sustainable for the future.
  • Organization focused on preserving current visitor loyalty , narrowing potential to attract new members.
  • Mission statement “tired,” limiting board and staff’s ability to bring focus, clarity or strategic guidance to organizational planning.

Solution

Marketing platform driven by hard-hitting, collective information from staff, board members, and stakeholders.

  • Create new mission statement and positioning framework to draw-in new customer base while retaining historical followers.
  • Research, online surveys, executive workshops, and competitive analysis to forge consensus and build recommendation.
  • Evaluate museum business practices and alternative exhibit strategies from leading cultural museums in Europe and the U.S. to support mission re-alignment.
  • Incorporate analysis, comparative analysis, and recommendations in major five-year business plan.

Results

Non-profit thrives on business model that integrates financial success and community involvement at same level.

  • Unanimous board approval of new mission statement.
  • Organization launches new identity campaign and visitor effort based on recommendation.
  • Ford Foundation considers WLAM as one of only 3 cultural museums for expanded grant funding, citing exceptional work on mission statement and business plan.