Building a David vs. Goliath strategy
Situation:
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As a probiotic industry pioneer, with over 20 years of innovation in R&D, sales and marketing, and distribution of probiotic products, Bio-K+ needed to review its strategy for growth. As a family-owned Quebec-based company with strong market share in their home market. How do they position themselves for growth in North America in one of the most crowded, consolidating and fastest growing health and wellness categories?
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Launched as a life science food brand with strong science credentials, they started the distribution in natural health and grocery channels before expanding to pharmacy and hospitals. Over the years, they have gained solid credibility in life science industry as well as the preventative lifestyle product in general health and wellness food channels.
Actions:
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Conducted a multi-stakeholder, multi-channel assessment including a large scale qualitative + quantitative research study in U.S and Canada to gain insights on the awareness, performance and experience of the Bio-K+ brand and its competitive set with healthcare providers, retailers, consumers.
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Conducted a strategic assessment focused on the Bio-K+ brand and the marketplace to better understand the equities and drivers for brand success, including – social media audit, retail audit, and best practices, in Canada and U.S.
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Led the management team through the development of strategic direction and differentiated brand strategy platform: Vision, Mission, Values, DNA, Value Proposition, Positioning and Brand Story.
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Led the development of a marketing plan, and market opportunity analysis for new products/sales approach/services (go-to-market action plan).
Results:
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Helped clarify and focus the organization to leverage Bio-K+’s key equities in life science (research/proven-results) using high quality, distinctive products as key differentiators to create a compelling positioning in the marketplace.
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Worked with the management team to help integrate the strategic foundation consistently across all touch points: HR, sales, marketing, operations, product development, etc.
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Within 2 months of executing the positioning and strategic roadmap, a new marketing plan was approved by the board as well as both communication and media platforms.
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This approach was able to demonstrate significant growth in brand engagement as measured on social media.