Brand Analytics Workshop

Workshop to help brand leaders be better at analytical thinking,
big data and leading through a deep-dive business review
Analytical thinking and the
Business Review

We make brands stronger.
We make brand leaders smarter.
Define
the
Brand
Think
Strategically
Big
Idea
At Beloved Brands, we use a branding approach
Vision Analysis
Key Issues
Strategies
Execution
• Advertising
• In-Store
• Innovation
• Consumers
• Category
• Channels
• Competitors
• Brand
Values, Goals
• Experience
Brand Plan
Create Brand Plans
Inspire
creative
execution
Analyze
performance
Sm
art
Creative
Ideas

We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking
at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand.
• We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help
you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data.
• We teach you the steps to complete a deep-dive Business Review that will help assess
the health and wealth of the brand, looking at the category, consumer, competitors,
channels and brand. We show key formulas you need to know for financial analysis.
• We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the
ideal presentation slide format. We provide a full mock business review, with a
framework and examples of every type of analysis, for you to use on your own brand.
• We show you how to turn your analytical thinking into making projections by
extrapolating data into the future.
Turning data into analytical
story telling that sets up
the strategic choices
Training Workshop
Brand Analytics

We will lead a 360 brand assessment, looking at the
marketplace, consumers, channels, competitors and brand
Deep Dive
Review
Macro view of marketplace
looking at economic,
consumer, technology, trends.
Deﬁne consumer target,
looking at beliefs, buying habits,
growth trends and key insights.
2
5
1
3
4
Understand brand performance and
reputation. Use brand funnel, tracking
results, pricing analysis, distribution
gaps and ﬁnancial results.
Look at channel
performance,
customer
strategies,
distribution gaps,
merchandising
performance.
Dissect closest competitors by looking
at performance, positioning, innovation,
pricing, distribution and reputationSummarize the analysis into drivers and
inhibitors currently facing brand as well as
threats and opportunities for the future.
Drivers Inhibitors
Factors of strength or
inertia that accelerate
your brand’s growth.
Weaknesses or
friction slows brand
down, leak to fixi
Opportunities Threats
Changing consumer
needs, technologies,
channels, legal,
Competitor launch,
trade barriers,
customer preference.
6
Look at macro subsegments or formats
• Some different types of
macro views you want to
look at includes
performance of size,
format or benefit
segments. Look at the
channel performance at
the category level. You
can also look at macro
competitive market share
trends.
• With each chart, you are
looking for a break in the
data to tell a story on the
category.
0"
10"
20"
30"
40"
50"
60"
XL" Large"size" Mid"Size" Travel"size" Overall"
2012"
2013"
2014"
2015"
Healthy(
Whitening(
Freshening(
Repair(
0"
20"
40"
60"
80"
100"
120"
140"
Grocery" Drug" Mass" Club" Overall"
2012"
2013"
2014"
2015"
Size Formats Benefit Segment
Where sold Allergy Category $ Share
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
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2003
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ay
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July
12
2003
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2003
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27
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Feb
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2004
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2004
June
12
2004
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27
2004
Jan
22
2005
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2005
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ay
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Jul9
2005
S
ep
3
2005
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ct29
2005
Reactine Benadryl Claritin Aerius Allegra Chlor-Tripolon C/L
Competitive Market Share
Category
Analysis
The Brand Funnel
Awareness
Familiar
Consider
Purchase
Repeat
Loyal
Unknown
Indifferent
Love It
Like It
Beloved
The Brand Love Curve
0
15
30
45
60
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Gray's Dad's Sue's Devonshire
Competitive market share performance
Customer scorecards
Customer A Scores
Overall Sales Dollars 39
Share of Category 11%
% dollar change +19.1%
Your Brand Share 33%
% change +3.3 points
Share Index 105
Your brand’s avg Price $6.33
% change +3.3%
Price Index 125
Share of Co-Op Ads 33%
% change +18%
Co Op Index 143
Share of Merch 25%
% change -2%
March Index 111
Customer scorecards
Customer A Scores
Share Index 105
% change +3.3%
Price Index 125
% change +18%
Co Op Index 143
Share of Merch 25%
% change -2%
March Index 111
and versus other periods.
Pricing Differences by Channel
First, look at the average price and change versus year
for each channel. Match up the data to what the sales
colleagues are saying about the different prices for each ch
Depending on channel/brand, you should be looking at
deal pricing, % on deal and coop ad points. Compare ea
the channels and compare to prior years.
Food Drug Mass Club
Avg Price $6.55 $6.47 $6.62 $6.54
% change vya -6.4% -2% +3.1% -1.9%
Avg Price on Deal 5.99 6.59 5.29 5.49
% change vya +8.3% -12.3% +1.7% +2.7%
% on deal 32% 22% 38% 20%
+/- vya +7 pts +1 pt +10 pts -2 pts
A
B
We make
We make brand
Distribution gap analysis
Tops Kroger CVS Club A&P Safeway 7-1
Gray’s
8 ct Choc Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Choc
Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Lemon
W
We ma
Tops Kroger CVS Club A&P Safewa
Gray’s
8 ct Choc Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Choc
Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Lemon
W
We mak
Draw conclusions. Compare how you're doing in each channel
and versus other periods.
We
We make
Pricing Differences by Channel
First, look at the average price and change versus year ago,
for each channel. Match up the data to what the sales
colleagues are saying about the different prices for each channel.
Depending on channel/brand, you should be looking at the
deal pricing, % on deal and coop ad points. Compare each of
the channels and compare to prior years.
Food Drug Mass Club
Avg Price $6.55 $6.47 $6.62 $6.54
% change vya -6.4% -2% +3.1% -1.9%
Avg Price on Deal 5.99 6.59 5.29 5.49
% change vya +8.3% -12.3% +1.7% +2.7%
% on deal 32% 22% 38% 20%
A
A
B
B
We make brands stron
We make brand leaders sma
Gray’s
8 ct Choc Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Choc
Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Lemon
We make b
We make brand l
Gray’s
8 ct Choc Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Choc
Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Lemon
Program tracking shows how well you are
doing behind key marketing activities
• Program tracking or testing results
can compare how well the program
has done against key measures.
• You will also be able to get scores
that match up to the brand funnel
such as Awareness (aided,
unaided), purchase scores (share
of last 5 purchases) and purchase
intention.
Tracking Results Gray’s Norm
Aided Recall 38 62
Unaided Recall 30 46
Brand Recognition 10 23
Brand Link .33 .50
Main Message 64 60
Uniqueness 38 22
Purchase Intent 10 9
Ad Tracking
Brand
Analysis

Data
Information
Knowledge
Wisdom
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?
Why?
Context
Understanding
Doing a deep-dive business review helps you to gain a
deeper and richer understanding of what’s happening.
Data is only valuable
when turned into stories
that can share the
wisdom gained from the
data.Think slowly through
your analysis to avoid
making snap instinctual
decisions on one data
point without gaining the
understanding of the
richness in underlying
insight and cause.

“Give me six hours
to chop down a
tree, and I will
spend the first four
sharpening the axe”
Abraham Lincoln

1
2
3
4
5
Analytics workshop agenda
Principles of smart analytics
Building the deep dive business review
Deep dive analysis looking at category,
consumers, channels competitors and the brand
Analysis turns fact into insight and data breaks
sets up strategic choices
Turn analytical thinking into projections
extrapolating data into the future.
How to write analytical stories for management.6

1
Principles of smart
analytics
Gain more support for your analysis by
telling analytical stories through data.

1
2
3
4
6
7
Eight principles of smart analytical thinking
Use facts to support
opinions or else what
you say comes across
as an empty opinion that
leaves a room divided.
Analysis should start by
posing conclusions that
answer “Where are we”
and “Why are we here”
Like an old school
reporter, two source of
data or two data points on
the trend line validates the
truth of the story.
The analytical story
comes to life when you
see a break in the data.
Always find comparisons.
Absolute numbers by
themselves are useless.
Use tools that can help organize
and force deep dive actionable
thinking.
Facts
Comparison
Data Breaks
Two Sources
Hypothesis
Summary Tools
5
Map out what do we know,
against what do we assume
and what do we need to find
out, to help focus deep dive.
Data Gathering
Driver&#1:&Taste&drives&a&high&conversion&of&Trial&to&Purchase&
(65%&vs.&norm&of&50%).&
19&
•  In#a#blind#taste#test,#Gray’s#
performed##equal#to#the#consumer’s#
regular#cookie.##When#Consumers#
found#out#it#was#a#low#fat,#low#calorie#
op?on,#they#said#they#would#make#it#
their#regular#cookie.##
•  In#the#market,#Gray’s#has#a#very#high&
conversion&to&purchase&bea?ng#the#
norm#(65%#to#50%)#and#considerably#
higher#than#the#other#two#‘healthy’#
cookies#(Dad’s#and#Sarah’s)#
•  Gray’s#taste#helps#drive#a#high&repeat&
%,#bea?ng#norm#40%#to#25%.###
19&
Conversion&%&to&Purchase&
Repeat&%&
0& 20& 40& 60& 80&
Gray's&
Norm&
Dad's&
Sarah's&
65&
50&
38&
33&
0& 10& 20& 30& 40&
Gray's&
Norm&
Dad's&
Sarah's&
40&
25&
22&
33&
ConMnue&to&look&to&opportuniMes&to&&drive&trial,&
because&of&the&high&conversion&to&purchase.&
8 Presentation
Turning analysis into story
for management decisions
Process
Graphic

Use facts to support opinions or else what you say comes
across as an empty opinion that leaves a room divided.
Gray’s needs better distribution at health food stores (HFS)
Gray’s only has 22% distribution at HFS, and Dad’s has 73%.
If we got our distribution up to 60%, we’d add $6M in sales
It would take 30 reps to get 60% distribution, sales of $6M
Cost of 30 reps is $3M to generate a profit margin of $2M/year.
Mass is a more efficient channel, with a faster payback. 5 reps
at $500K, generate $5.4M in sales, and gross margin of $1.8M
Gray should focus on going after Mass Merch channel. It
generates strong growth, faster payback, smaller staff
against a less expensive option
1st So What
2nd So What
3rd So What
4th So What
5th So What
Opinion at the
Surface level
Deeper fact
based reco
Principle #1:
Fact based
Ask yourself 5 times “so what does this mean?” You will see opinion turn into a fact based insight that
can align a team and drive action. Build a hypothesis, look for data to supports or challenges the opinion.

Only when given a relative nature to something important
do you find the data break that tells a story.
Last
Year
Other  
Brands
Category
vs Norm
Plan
Or LE
Prior
Month
Data
Point
What do we usually make
comparisons with:
• You might want to look at all these
things and like an investigator, start
to see if there are breaks that start
to tell a story.
• If no data break, then no need to
blindly keep telling the story using
that anchor.
Principle #2:
Comparisons
Absolute numbers by themselves are
useless. Always find comparisons.

Comparative indexes and cross tabulations can really bring
out the data breaks and gaps that can really tell a story.
• Every time you talk about a number, you have to talk about in relative terms, comparing it
to something that is grounded: vs last year, vs last month, vs another brand, vs norm or
vs England’s share. Is it up down, or flat?
• Never give a number without a relative nature, or your listener won’t have a clue if it’s a
good number
Bad Writing Better Writing
“tastes great” score is at an
amazing score of 83%.
“tastes great” score has fallen in the
past 2 years from 97% to 83%.
Freshmint distribution at C
stores is only 44%.
Freshmint just launched at C stores and
has 44% after only 8 weeks--twice as
fast as the Cherry launch from last year.
Tests show that Citrus
expected to deliver $18MM—
which is fantastic.
Citrus forecast of $18MM is far below
the hurdle rate of $50MM.
Principle #3:
Find data breaks Analytical story comes to life when you see data breaks

Brand Strategy Questions
1. What is your current
competitive position?
2. What is the core strength
your brand can win on?
3. How tightly connected is your
consumer to the brand?
4. What is the current business
situation your brand faces?
Thinking Time and Asking Questions
Summarizing the Plan
1. Where are we?
2. Why are we here?
3. Where could we be?
4. How can we get there?
5. What do we need to do?
Principle #4:
Make Hypothesis
The analysis should answer “where are we” and “why are we here”, but to go deeper,
we push you to look at competitive position, core strength, consumer connection and situation.

One of the best ways to separate your analysis is to divide things into:
1. What do we know? Fact based and you know it for sure.
2. What do we assume? Your educated/knowledge based conclusion that
helps us bridge between fact, and speculation.
3. What we think? Based on facts, and assumptions, you should be able to
say what we think will happen.
4. What do we need to find out? There may be unknowns still.
5. What are we going to do? action that comes out of this thinking.
It forces you to start grouping your learning, forces you to start drawing
conclusions and it enables your reader to separate fact (the back ground
information) from opinion (where you are trying to take them)
Example:
• What do we know: Purchase frequency has decreased.
• What do we assume: As it’s no longer new, consumer usage falling.
• What do we think: Price is a barrier to regular purchases.
• What do we need to find out? Would smaller pack size drive frequency.
• What are we going to do? Launch a smaller count size test market.
Thinking time: What do we know?
Principle #5:
Gathering Info

Like an old school reporter, two source of data or two
data points on the trend line help frame the story.
• Dig around until you can find a convergence of data that leads to an answer. Look to find
2-3 facts that start to tell a story, and allows you to draw a conclusion. Good pure logic in
an argument uses “premise, premise conclusion”.
• Three big analytical flaws outlined below: only one data point, jumping to conclusions
and a point in time data point that course corrects and diminishes your story.
Bad Logic Better Logic
Share down among “new moms”
• Only one data point. No Story.
• Maybe moms aren’t the target.
Kellogg's “kids” product up to a 10% share.
“New Moms” prefer Post Kids 2-1 vs us.
Need to Improve Kids Line.
Need to do better with “new moms”
• Jumps to a conclusion by making
a big assumption.
“New Moms” is only 1% of our sales.
Continue with our core Teen Target.
Share in Dec down among “new
moms” Do new ad to “new moms”
• Point in time data, may not hold.
Share in Dec down among “new moms”
Share in Jan for “new moms” back to norm.
Keep monitoring to see data trend break.
Principle #6:
Two sources
Avoid taking one piece of data and making it the basis of your
entire brand strategy. Make sure it’s a real trend.

Use tools that can help organize and force
deep dive thinking in key areas.
Principle #7:
Summarizing Ideas
SWOTs or Force Field type tools help organize your thinking and frame the discussion for others. 
Strengths Weaknesses
What are the things you have
going for you? Where are you
better then the competition?
Patents, brand name, reputation,
cost advantages, distribution
advantages, product advantages.
What is your Achilles heal? Where are
you exposed. Same issues around lack
of patent, reputation etc. Weakness of
efficacy, side effects, a sub
performance measures or exposure
against something we can’t do.
Areas you could take advantage
that would accelerate growth. They
are real, or exploratory areas. No
pipe dreams. Unfulfilled needs,
new technologies, regulation
changes, new channels, any
removal of trade barriers.
They are real, but have not yet
happened. If they did, they would be an
inhibitor. No laundry lists. Changing
consumer needs, threat of substitutes,
barriers to trade, customer preference,
potential channel actions.

Driver&#1:&Taste&drives&a&high&conversion&of&Trial&to&Purchase&
(65%&vs.&norm&of&50%).&
19&
•  In#a#blind#taste#test,#Gray’s#
performed##equal#to#the#consumer’s#
regular#cookie.##When#Consumers#
found#out#it#was#a#low#fat,#low#calorie#
op?on,#they#said#they#would#make#it#
their#regular#cookie.##
•  In#the#market,#Gray’s#has#a#very#high&
conversion&to&purchase&bea?ng#the#
norm#(65%#to#50%)#and#considerably#
higher#than#the#other#two#‘healthy’#
cookies#(Dad’s#and#Sarah’s)#
•  Gray’s#taste#helps#drive#a#high&repeat&
%,#bea?ng#norm#40%#to#25%.###
19&
Conversion&%&to&Purchase&
Repeat&%&
0& 20& 40& 60& 80&
Gray's&
Norm&
Dad's&
Sarah's&
65&
50&
38&
33&
0& 10& 20& 30& 40&
Gray's&
Norm&
Dad's&
Sarah's&
40&
25&
22&
33&
ConMnue&to&look&to&opportuniMes&to&&drive&trial,&
because&of&the&high&conversion&to&purchase.&
Know how to write an analytical slide that can help
convince management of your analysis
AnalysisAnalysis
Your analytical
conclusion
The story in 2-3
key points
What you recommend doing
as a result of the analysis
Supporting
visuals to tell
the story
Principle #8:
Presentation

2
Building the deep dive
Business Review
Assess brand situation looking category,
consumer, channels, brand and competitors

1. Brainstorm what’s going on: For each of the 5 deep dive sections (category, consumer,
competitors, channels and brand), we recommend that you brainstorm a list of things that
you think are are driving and getting in the way, potential opportunity areas and risks to
avoid. Base these on your knowledge of the brand, what you might be hearing or seeing
and what your instincts are telling you. Keep a running list and even use your hypothesis
with others on your team to see what they think.
2. Drawing conclusions: Narrow the brainstorm list down to top 3-5 “opinions” that you
should list as your “straw-dog conclusion statements”. You need these statements to know
where to begin looking.
3. Looking for the right data: For each of the statements, list out the information you need
that will either support, alter or refute the straw dog statement. Using the data you find, look
for breaks in the data and begin piecing together 2-3 main support points and with your new
knowledge, begin to re-write the conclusion statement.
4. Continue to modify the story: Keep modifying both the conclusions and support points as
you will keep tightening the story.
Process for how to build an analytical story
Building the analytical stories is an iterative process where
you build your story based on instincts and facts, so that we
can turn our instinct opinions into fact based stories.

How we build the Business Review Presentation
For each of the 5 sections, map out 3-5 key
slides, with a conclusion headline, key visual,
2-3 key points and a recommendation.
A B Each of the conclusion statements should
move to a summary slide, and from there, draw
one big challenge statement for that section.
Process
Graphic

Explore options to reach the specialty market,
which could add incremental sales volume.
• While Gray’s is exceptionally
strong in Food, it is equally
weak in the Specialty channels,
with only 16% distribution
compared to Dad’s at 72%.
• In Specialty, Gray’s focuses on
national listings but there are
very few national accounts.
Dad’s uses 210 part time
merchandisers to reach the
Specialty channel.
Low specialty stores at only 16%. Poor sales coverage.
Case
Study Example of how we build analytical slides
Category

Case
Study Example of how we build analytical slides
Brand
Brand Funnel scores show we are still a niche player (low familiar),
but have yet to turn our sales into strong following (low loyalty)
• Skinny Brand Funnel shows a lot of gaps,
pointing to the lack of marketing success in
generating awareness,
• Year 6, Gray’s still has very low Brand
Awareness (33% vs. 60% norm).
• Poor Ad tracking shows low Attention (30%
vs. norm of 50%) and poor Brand Link ratio
(.32 vs. .55 norm)
Both ends of funnel need fixing. Need
to choose between either building
awareness or driving loyalty.

Business
Review
Example of how the summary slide for the
Category Review section should look
1. Flattening Cookie sales have created a war among major
competitors—lower prices and margins
2. Category growth and Gray’s growth coming from the West, lagging
in Southern region.
3. America continually looking at variations of diet—low calorie, low
carb, low fat, gluten free—yet consumers remain confused.
Gray’s Cookies should continue to grow in the brand’s high
growth areas, to establish a strong share position to defend
against new entrants from traditional cookie brands.
Case
Study

How we build the Business Review Presentation
For each of the
5 sections, we
take the major
challenge you
created and
move those to
an overall
summary
document
C
D
With a conclusion for each of the 5
sections on the summary page, then draw
a major brand challenge from the review
Process
Graphic

Key
Issues
Example of how we turn each section
theme into a Major Brand Challenge
• Consumer: New consumers attracted to Gray’s
“guilt free” positioning, but conversion to loyalty
is due to the great taste.
• Category: As America’s eating habits are
changing the cookie category is shrinking, while
the good-for-you segment thrives.
• Channels: Gray’s has many distribution gaps,
but needs to be mindful of choices, to maintain
investment in driving consumer demand.
• Competitors: Grays has an opportunity to
dominate the good for you competitors before
traditional brands enter segment.
• Brand: Growth has come from product quality,
but new “guilt free” position will connect deeper
and fuel demand
It is time to transition Gray’s from
a product-led brand into an idea-
led brand by connecting with
consumers by owning the idea of
“guilt free” snacking, rather than
just selling a great tasting cookie.
Begin to dominate and lead the
“good for you” cookie segment.
Themes of each section
Major Brand Challenge
Case
Study

Business
Review
It is time to transition Gray’s from a product-led brand
into an idea-led brand by connecting with consumers by
owning the idea of “guilt free” snacking, rather than just
selling a great tasting cookie. Begin to dominate and
lead the “good for you” cookie segment.
Case
Study
Major Brand Challenge
Example of a Major Brand Challenge that can
be used to frame the Strategic Brand Plan

3
Deep dive analysis to
assess the health and
wealth of the brand
Assess brand situation looking at the category,
consumer, channels, brand and competitors

• Category: Start by looking at the overall category performance to gain a macro view of all major
issues. Dig in on the factors impacting category growth, including economic indicators, consumer
behavior, technology changes, shopper trends, political regulations or what is happening in other
related categories that could impact your own category.
• Consumer: Define your consumer target, digging deep on the consumer’s underlying beliefs,
buying habits, growth trends, consumer enemies and key insights. Use a consumer buying
system analysis and leaky bucket analysis to uncover how they shop the category and your
brand. Uncover consumer perceptions through tracking data or market research.
• Channels: Look at the performance of all potential distribution channels and every major
customer in the category. Understand your channel customer’s strategies, as well as the
available tools and programs your customers have, so your brand can align your brand with
each customer and find a pathway to success within each channel.
• Competitors: Dissect your closest competitors by looking at their performance indicators, brand
positioning, innovation pipeline, pricing strategies, distribution and the perceptions of the brand
through the eyes of their consumers. Map out a strategic Brand Plan for all major competitors to
help predict what they might do next, and know how you might counter in your own brand plan.
• Brand: Understand the reputation of your brand through the lens of consumers, customers and
employees. Use brand funnel data, market research, marketing program tracking results, pricing
analysis, distribution gaps and financial analysis. Look at the internal health and wealth (inside
the company) as well as the external health and wealth of the brand (in the market place).
Agenda for the deep dive Business Review

Category: start off with a macro look
First, look at the trend line for both sales dollars and units. Compare growth rates
against local economy or other similar categories. In this case we see more dramatic
double digit growth rate swings from +19.% to -13.5%. Also compare the growth rates of
dollars and units to see if there are any dramatic changes.
Then, look at the trend line on price, and compare to inflation rates. In this case,
price swings has seem minor swings, but are not as dramatic as volume swings.
2012 2013 2014 2015
Sales Dollars 878 760 791 803
% change +19.1% -13.5% +4.8% -0.7%
Units 134.0 117.5 119.5 122.7
% change +28.3% -12.35 +1.7% +2.7%
Avg Price $6.55 $6.47 $6.62 $6.54
% change -6.4% -2% +3.1% -1.9%
A
A
B
B
Once you see the trend line, come up with 3 factors driving category
growth and 3 factors holding the category back. Explain within each of
the years, major things happening to explain the up/down.
Category
Analysis

Category: look at the regional breaks
The next important dimension is to look at the regional performance. Start by
understanding the size of each region and the relative growth rates of those regions.
The combined size and growth rate may influence your investment into each region.
Then, look at the relative size of each region. Two ways to look at it could be the
share of the national business or to use a development index relative to either
population or a bigger category that this sub-category plays within. (e.g. cereal
relative to grocery food)
Your performance within each region. While this is still the macro category, it’s
useful to get a read on how your brand is doing at the macro level of the regions.
A
B
Northeast Midwest South West
Regional Sales Dollars 350 50 100 302
Regional % change +12% -3% +3% -11%
Share of Nat’l Business 44% 6% 12% 38%
Development Index to pop 115 75 122 97
Brand Share 22% 9% 27% 23%
% brand growth -2.4% +11% +2% -1.9%
A
B
C
C
Category
Analysis

Look at macro subsegments or formats
• Some different types of
macro views you want to
look at includes
performance of size,
format or benefit
segments. Look at the
channel performance at
the category level. You
can also look at macro
competitive market share
trends.
• With each chart, you are
looking for a break in the
data to tell a story on the
category.
0"
10"
20"
30"
40"
50"
60"
XL" Large"size" Mid"Size" Travel"size" Overall"
2012"
2013"
2014"
2015"
Healthy(
Whitening(
Freshening(
Repair(
0"
20"
40"
60"
80"
100"
120"
140"
Grocery" Drug" Mass" Club" Overall"
2012"
2013"
2014"
2015"
Size Formats Benefit Segment
Where sold Allergy Category $ Share
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
P
E
D
ec
29
01
P
E
F
eb
23
02
P
E
A
pr20
02
P
E
June
15
02
P
E
A
ug
10
02
P
E
O
ct05
02
P
E
N
ov
30
02
Jan
25
2003
M
ar22
2003
M
ay
17
2003
July
12
2003
S
ept06
2003
N
ov
01
2003
D
ec
27
2003
Feb
21
2004
A
pr17
2004
June
12
2004
A
ug
07
2004
O
ct02
2004
N
ov
27
2004
Jan
22
2005
M
ar20
2005
M
ay
14
205
Jul9
2005
S
ep
3
2005
O
ct29
2005
Reactine Benadryl Claritin Aerius Allegra Chlor-Tripolon C/L
Competitive Market Share
Category
Analysis

Political Economic
Government impact: regulatory, tax
changes, trade restrictions, political
climate. Could be local or international.
Restrictions in how we do business.
Growing political trends and hot buttons
that could impact your own brand or
partner brands.
Economic factors, like employment,
inflation, exchange rates. The key one for
us is PL cost cutting vs our premium
priced brands during tough economic
periods. Keeping pace with inflation
because the trade resists price increases.
Social Technology
Trends, Age Demographics, change in
consumer mindset, or even shifts in what’s
important. Use of media impacts
marketing, behavioral changes that are
underlying the use of your brand.
New advancements in the category, new
molecules, new formats and deliveries.
Also, new media (Facebook), new
distribution points (Amazon).
PEST: Political, Economical, Social, Technology
A good way to dig in on the macro factors that might be impacting the overall category
Category
Analysis

Questions to understand the category you play in
1. How is the category doing relative to the economy?
2. Look at the last 5 years and explain each of the ups and downs in the category.
3. What is driving category growth? What is holding the category back? What are the big
open opportunities to take advantage of? What are the risks to the categories in the
next few years?
4. What category segments are growing, declining or emerging?
5. What macro trends are influencing/changing this category?
6. What’s the role of innovation? How fast does it change? What innovations are
transforming the category?
7. What are you seeing in terms of regional or geographic trends?
8. Who holds the balance of power in the category: brands, channels or consumers?
9. Look at other issues: Operations, inventory, mergers, technology, innovation.
10. What is the overall value of the category How is the category performing financially?
Any price changes? Major cost change?
Category
Analysis

Define and measure your target
• As you figure out where you are playing,
defining who you are serving and who you
aren’t serving helps provide focus.
• Ongoing measurement and adjusting should
look at how well you are doing versus your
target in terms of share, preference, purchase
intention, brand funnel scores and panel data.
As well you should track your research against
the target and mass population.
• In terms of choosing target segments, you can
break it out on the following:
• Demographics
• Behavioral or Psychographic
• Geographic
• Usage occasion
Target
Everyone
NotNot
A good target not only decides who is in your
target but who is not in your target.
Consumer
Analysis

Consumer Target Profile Target
Consumer
Target Name Pro-Active Preventers
Demographic
Description
• Suburban working women, 35-40, who are willing to do whatever it takes to stay healthy.
They run, workout and eat right. For many, Food can be a bit of a stress-reliever and escape.
Their needs • Great tasting food, satisfy craving, healthy choices, maintain weight.
Their enemy • Guilt, failure, out of control diet, temptation.
Insights that
tell their story
• “I have tremendous will-power. I work out 3x a week, watch what I eat to maintain my figure.
But we all have weaknesses and cookies are mine. I just wish they were less bad for you”
• “I read labels of everything I eat. I stick to 1500 calories per day, and will find my own ways
to achieve that balance.”
What do they
think now?
• I have only recently heard of Gray’s Cookies. I’ve tried them a few times and did like them. I
wouldn’t say I use them all the time.
How are they
buying?
• Most have been influenced by friends who have tried. Those who are buying, still do so less
frequently than their normal favorite cookies. The household has yet to adopt the product.
The mom uses it when she’s trying to diet.
We want them
to think/feel/do
• Think: Gray’s might be a healthy alternative to my favorite cookies.
• Do: We want them to try Grays to see if they like the great taste.
• Feel: We want them to feel more in control, with less guilt.
Consumer
Analysis

Use consumer tracking to understand
consumers and relationship to brand
Panel or Scan Data
• Measures what’s going on in the
marketplace and will match up to what’s
happening at the store level.
• It can be used to track performance
against: Penetration rates, Buying Rate,
Purchase Frequency and Purchase Size
in either dollars or units.
• Best to look at it on an annual or
quarterly basis year over year.
• You can use it to measure and adjust
your strategy or even help to re-assure
your sales forecast.
• Caution: There are some accuracy
issues to it due to sample sizes in
certain markets or segments.
Brand Funnel Tracking
• Measures what’s going on in the
consumers brain and will match up to
what’s happening at in your consumer
buying system.
• It measures awareness, consideration,
search, purchase, repeat and loyalty.
• Every Funnel should look different and
it is best used to find gaps versus prior
year or versus competitors.
• Best to look at it on an annual basis
unless measuring a dramatic change in
your strategy or programs.
• If costs are an issue, a Trial and
Repeat study can also help the
tracking.
Consumer
Analysis

Use consumer tracking to set up your strategies
Penetration: % of households who purchased a
product, shopped in a certain channel or retailer at
least once during the measured period.
Buying rate or sales per buyer: Total amount of
product purchased by the average buying
household over an entire analysis period,
expressed in dollars, units or EQ volume.
Purchase frequency or trips per buyer: number
of times the average buying household purchases
your product over a whole time period (usually a
year). Purchase Frequency remains the same
regardless of which sales measure is used (dollars,
units or EQ volume)
Purchase size or sales per trip: Average amount
of product purchased on a single shopping trip by
your average buyer. Like the buying rate, purchase
size can be calculated in terms of dollars, units or
How many HH’s
are buying my
brand?
(Penetration)
How much is
each HH
buying?
(Buying Rate)
How much do
they buy each
time?
(Sales per trip)
How often
does each
HH buy?
(Frequency)
What’s driving the
sales of my brand?
Sales = (Total Number of HH x Penetration) x Buying Rate
A
DC
B
A
D
C
B
Consumer
Analysis

Strategic flaw of most brand plans
is trying to drive penetration &
usage frequency at the same time.
Penetration Strategy gets
someone with very little
experience with your brand to
likely consider dropping their
current brand to try you once
and see if they like it.
Usage Frequency Strategy
gets someone who knows
your brand to change their
behavior in relationship to
your brand, either changing
their current life routine or
substituting your brand into a
higher share of the occasions.

Tracking consumer results through panel data
• Penetration vs. Frequency is not only a
great comparison to track but great strategic
choices to make.
• Brand leaders have mistakenly convinced
themselves that they can drive both
PENETRATION and FREQUENCY at the
same time. Make the choice because you
just dilute your resources by trying to do both.
• It might feel like we can move both numbers,
but they are different:
➢ Penetration is about pushing your
product to a group of new consumers,
many times unaware, or resistant to your
brand in the past
➢ Frequency is about taking consumers
who have already bought in and change
their behavior, or build a routine.
Penetration vs. Frequency
A very tough question we fail to answer:
Do you want to get more people to eat,
or do you want to get those that are
already eating to eat more?
0"
10"
20"
Penetra+on" Frequency"
2010" 2011" 2012"
Consumer
Analysis

Regardless of the measure, you can track it over time, against
competitors or even in comparison against key target segments. The idea
is to look at each way until you start to see a data gap that tells a story.
Tracking consumer results through panel data
Usage Frequency Frequency among Loyalists
0"
2"
4"
6"
8"
Gray's" Norm" Dad's"
2.2"
7.3"
6.8"
Gray's'
Norm'
5"
18"
45"
32"
weekly"
monthly"
4x"per"year"
1x"per"year"
Consumer
Analysis

Measuring the brand love, to determine the love,
power and profit progress of the brand
• Brand funnels becomes thicker as the brand
becomes more loved. It’s not just about driving
particular numbers but about moving them from
one stage to the next.
• To drive TRIAL you need to gain
CONSIDERATION first (the brain) and then you
need to move the consumer towards purchase and
through the experience. To drive LOYALTY (the
heart) you need to create experiences that deliver
the promise and use tools to create an emotional
bond with the consumer.
• AWARENESS is never enough, anyone can get
that. But consideration is the point you start to see
that your brand idea starts to connect and move
the consumer.
Use the brand funnel to measure health
Awareness
Familiar
Consider
Purchase
Repeat
Loyal
Consumer
Analysis

Use brand funnels to look beneath the surface
and see the health of the brand
B
A
Ratio
Scores
• First take a look at the absolute
brand funnel scores, compare
them to last year, compare to
competitors and versus the
category norms.
• Then you want to look the brand
funnel ratios, finding the
percent conversion from one
stage to the next. To create the
ratios, divide the absolute
number by the number above it
on the funnel.
A
B
93%
87%
82%
63%
16%
2%
Awareness
Familiar
Consider
Purchase
Repeat
Loyal
91%
94%
77%
25%
12%
Absolute
Scores
Analytical Process
Consumer
Analysis

What’s most useful is to
compare the ratios of your
Brand to the ratios of your
nearest competitor. In this
second part of the analysis,
the ratio becomes the focus.
Compare the ratios, finding
the gap at each of the stages.
You will start to see where
your ratio will either be
stronger or weaker than the
comparison brand.
Analyzing the difference
between the 2 brands finds
the biggest gaps and tells a
strategic story for the gap.
C
D
E
Use brand funnels to look beneath the surface
Aware Familiar Consider Purchase Repeat Loyal
Your
Brand
95 87 82 63 16 2
Brand
x
98 96 85 73 35 20
91% 94% 12%25%77%
98% 88% 63%48%86%
Gap -7% + 6% -9% -23% -51%
C
Ratio
Scores
D
Ratio
Gaps
E
Analyzing the
biggest gaps
Consumer
Analysis

Using the brand funnel in your analytics
You can track the funnel versus separate
target segments break outs to isolate gaps.
Brand Funnel Scores Preventers vs. Overall Conversion % to Purchase
You can also track the funnel versus
separate target segments to isolate gaps.
0"
10"
20"
30"
40"
50"
60"
70"
80"
Awareness( Familiar( Consider( Purchase( Repeat( Loyal(
80(
70(
50(
40(
15(
7(
33(
20(
15(
10(
2( 0.5(
60(
48(
40(
20(
5(
2(
Preventers(
Overall(
Norm(
0" 50" 100"
Gray's"
Norm"
Dad's"
Sarah's"
65"
50"
38"
33"
0" 20" 40"
Gray's"
Norm"
Dad's"
Sarah's"
40"
25"
22"
33"
Repeat %
Consumer
Analysis

Use brand funnels to track how well the Marketing is
helping to move consumers through the purchase moment
nd funnels to look beneath the surface
Ratio
Scores
First take a look at the absolute
brand funnel scores, compare
them to last year, compare to
93%
87%
82%
63%
16%
2%
Awareness
Familiar
Consider
Purchase
Repeat
Loyal
91%
94%
77%
25%
12%
Absolute
Scores
Analytical Process
We m
We make br
Consider
Aware
Fan
Loyal
Repeat
Satisﬁed
Buy
Search
Assess how consumer’s shop, to know potential triggers
them along the Consumer Buying System
Consumer
• Brand funnels becomes thicker as the brand becomes more loved. It’s not just about driving particular
numbers but about moving them from one stage to the next.
• To drive TRIAL you need to gain CONSIDERATION first (the brain) and then you need to move the
consumer towards purchase and through the experience. To drive LOYALTY (the heart) you need to
create experiences that deliver the promise and use tools to create an emotional bond with the consumer.
• AWARENESS is never enough, anyone can get that. But consideration is the point you start to see that
your brand idea starts to connect and move the consumer.
Consumer
Analysis

Consider
Aware
Fan
Loyal
Repeat
Satisfied
Buy
Search
Moving consumers from passively
aware to consideration is related
to an event that triggers need or
life stage need.
Need for search driven by
high risk or reward of
purchase, complexity of
decision, or the importance
to the consumer.
Consumer decision making
driven by rational needs and
emotional deal closers.
Consumers will determine
if performance and
experience matches up to
the original brand promise.
Indifferent
Like ItLove It
Beloved
Begin seeing brand as a
favorite choice, turning
into ritual that’s part of
their life that becomes a
favorite part of their day.
Fully satisfied consumers
do not even consider
other brands, begin to
build into life’s routine.
Purchase cycle determined by
needs, but consumer’s overall
happiness drives higher share
of requirements in future.
Outspoken loyalists begin
to drive awareness and
influence friends, through
social media.
Assess how consumer’s shop, to know potential triggers
to move them along the Consumer Buying System
Consumer
Consumer
Analysis

Questions to help understand consumers
1. Who are your possible target market consumer segments? Are they growing? How are you
measuring them?
2. Who are the most motivated consumers by what you have to offer?
3. Who is your current target? How have you determined demographics, behavioral or
psychographic, geographic and usage occasion? Generational trends?
4. How is your brand performing against the target segment? Share, sales, panel data, funnel
data, tracking scores? By channel or geography?
5. What drives consumer choice? What are the main need states? How so these needs line up
to your brand assets?
6. Map out the buying system and assess your brand’s performance in moving through each
stage. Are consumers changing at stages? Are you failing at stages?
7. What are the emerging consumer trends? How does your brand match up, to potentially
exploit? Where would your competitors win?
8. What is the ideal brand experience and unmet needs we can attach the brand to?
9. What are the emotional and functional benefits? How is the brand performing against them?
How are you doing in tracking studies to meet these benefits?
10.What are consumers’ perceptions of your brand and your competitors?
Consumer
Analysis

0"
20"
40"
60"
80"
100"
Food" Drug" Mass" Specialty" Overall""
90"
72" 70"
16"
62"60"
72"
44"
72"
62" Gray's'
Dad's'
0"
50"
100"
Gray's' Dad's' Category'
73'
40' 38'
Start with the major data breaks
• A great simple chart for highlighting
your differences in channel
strength and gaps is to look at your
distribution by channel.
• Compare your brand to a
competitor or versus the category.
Distribution % By Channel
Share of Business from Food
• Share of business by each channel
either in comparison to other
channels or within one specific
channel can help isolate data breaks.
Channel
Analysis

Mapping out the opportunity
• For each channel, chart the key insights and
main issues they are facing, then brainstorm
opportunities for your brand as well as the risks.
• From there, you can start to think about the
Impact on your brand.
Drug Channel Insights/Issues Opportunity/Risks Where you can impact
• Insight: consumers see food at
Drug as a convenient option. It’s
not real groceries but good for
items you forget.
• Issues: How does Drug use
Cookies to drive more volume
into their same store sales?
• Opportunities: first mover
advantage to use high volume
cookies to drive traffic into the
food aisles. High volume
promotions.
• Risks: ROI on promo offers at
drug may not pay out as fast as
Grocery. Don’t start price war.
• Gain added distribution strength,
using drug to compliment our
grocery strength.
• Ability to capture “healthy”
consumers with a “healthy”
message.
• Drug channel more efficient than
specialty health stores.
Channel
Analysis

Look at how the tools are being utilized
Another good deep dive is to look at each channel and look at your market share in
comparison to how well you are doing on co-op ads and display ratings to see if
you are getting your fair share.
The FSI is your fair share index. (share of activity divided by your market share)
See if you under or over-developed against a certain activity. Draw conclusions.
Compare how you're doing in each channel and versus other periods.
Brands $ Share
Share of
Co-op
Share of
Display
Co-op
FSI
Display
FSI
Gray’s 24.7 21.9 22.9 89 93
Dad’s 21.9 20.7 20.7 94 95
Stan’s 14.8 14.8 13.6 100 92
Devonshire 13.5 16.6 17.8 123 132
A
A
B
B
C
C
Channel
Analysis

Looking at Pricing Differences by Channel
First, look at the average price and change versus year ago, for each channel.
Match up the data to what the sales colleagues are saying about the different prices for
each channel.
Depending on channel/brand, you should be looking at the deal pricing, % on
deal and coop ad points. Compare each of the channels and compare to prior years.
Food Drug Mass Club
Avg Price $6.55 $6.47 $6.62 $6.54
% change vya -6.4% -2% +3.1% -1.9%
Avg Price on Deal 5.99 6.59 5.29 5.49
% change vya +8.3% -12.3% +1.7% +2.7%
% on deal 32% 22% 38% 20%
A
A
B
B
Once you see data breaks or major swings, explain the ups/down,
validating the information with the sales people or buyers. Can supplement
with channel strategy or any examples of executions in the market.
Channel
Analysis

Distribution Gap Analysis
Gray’s
8 ct Choc Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Choc
Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
16 ct Mint Chip
Gray’s
8 ct Lemon
Gray’s
48 ct Variety
Channel
Analysis

Create Customer Scorecards
Customer A Scores
Share Index 105
% change +3.3%
Price Index 125
% change +18%
Co Op Index 143
Share of Merch 25%
% change -2%
March Index 111
A
A
B
B
First, look at how well the customer is
performing, looking at growth rates and
share of category.
How is your brand performing with the
customer? Market share or growth?
Then look at pricing, compare to either
your average price or the customers
average category price. Make sure it
matches to your brand’s pricing
strategy.
Then look at the tools of the customer
to see how you are doing on both coop
and merchandising indexes to see if
they match up to your share index.
C
C
D
D
Channel
Analysis

Questions to help learn about channels
1. How are the channels performing? Are there regional differences by channel? Are
there any channel shifts happening?
2. Are there new/emerging channels? Are there existing channels not being developed?
3. What are the strengths/weaknesses of each channel?
4. Do you understand the strategies of the channel partners?
5. Do you have the competencies to service the channel partners?
6. Who are your primarily and secondary customers? Have you segmented and
prioritized on growth vs opportunity? How large are they? What are their growth rates?
7. How is each channel performing?
8. How are brands doing within each channel? What are the main reasons for each
brand’s channel strength/weakness?
9. Who is the category captain within your key accounts and why?
10.Who are the top 5 customers? Main strategies? How do we fit into that strategy?
Channel
Analysis

1. Power Players: This is reserved for the leader of the category. These brands have a power
over the category and over competitors. They can defend their territory by attacking itself or
even attacking back at an aggressive competitor.
2. Challenger Brand: Challenger’s attack on the leader to exploit a weakness or build on your
own strength. The best offensive attack is to actually find weakness within the leader’s
strengths. One very powerful strategy is to turn a perceived strength of the leader around by
making it a weakness.
3. Island Brand: Goes into the unknown areas: An attack in an open area where the Leader is
not that well established. Island Brands go to uncontested areas, in the safety where the
leader is not competing.
4. Rebel Brand: Goes against the category: Going into an area where it’s too small for the
Leaders to take notice or are unable to attack back. Pick a segment small enough that it
won’t be noticed and you’ll be able to defend it.
What is your current COMPETITIVE position?
Cluttered Brands are typically stuck in competitive dog-fights with no
defined point of difference, nothing to own, nothing that connects.
Competitive
Analysis

Competitive dissection goes through  
everything on the other brand
The Plan: when in a real
competitive battle, map out the
competitor’s brand plan as best
you can: Vision, Analysis,
Strategies, Tactics and even
assumed budget levels.
Brand Plan of
key competitor
5-10 years of
market share
Competitive
Analysis
• Analysis: Look at their market share over
the past 5-10 years and analyze what you
think are the top 3 factors driving and
inhibiting their success.
• Explain the ups and downs whether it was
new launches, changes in strategies or
impact of a competitor to your competitor.
0
15
30
45
60
2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
55 53 50
45 45
40
35
30
20 20 21
15
Gray's Dad's Sue's Devonshire

Competitive Pricing
First, look at the average price and change versus year ago, for each competitor.
Match up the data to what the sales colleagues are saying about the different prices for
each channel.
Depending on channel/brand, you should be looking at the deal pricing, % on deal
and coop ad points. Compare each of the channels and compare to prior years.
Gray’s Dad’s Devon’s Club
Avg Price $6.55 $6.47 $6.62 $6.54
% change vya -6.4% -2% +3.1% -1.9%
Avg Price on Deal 5.99 6.59 5.29 5.49
% change vya +8.3% -12.3% +1.7% +2.7%
% on deal 32% 22% 38% 20%
A
A
B
B
Once you see data breaks or major swings, explain the ups/down,
validating the information with the sales people or buyers. Can supplement
with channel strategy or any examples of executions in the market.
Competitive
Analysis

• Focus all your resources to appear bigger and stronger than you are. Focus on the
target most likely to quickly act, focus on the messaging most likely to motivate
and focus on areas you can win. Drawn out dogfights slow down brand growth.
Never fight two wars at once. You have to realize that speed of attack matters.
Surprise attacks, but sustained speed in the market is a competitive advantage.
• Be organized and efficient in your management. To operate at a higher degree of
speed, ensure that surprise attacks work without flaw, be mobile enough.
• Use early wins to keep momentum going and gain quick positional power you can
maintain and defend counter-attacks. Think it through thoroughly. Map out
potential responses by competitors.
• Execution matters. Quick breakthrough requires creativity in your approach and
quality in execution. Expect the unexpected.
Lessons for Competitive Strategy
Focus, speed, smart, self-confidence.

Questions on the competitors
1. Who are the main competitors? How are they positioning themselves?
2. What is their communication, new products and go-to-market strategy? How are they
effectively executing against it?
3. What are the competitors operating models, culture and organization? What brands
are they focused on as a company?
4. What are your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats?
5. How are they doing in terms of customer share, market share, P&L, margins,
innovation, culture, regulatory advantage
6. Map out the competitors brand plan: vision, goals, strategies and tactics.
7. What is the culture at your competitor and what is the role of the brand in this culture?
8. What is the investment stance and the expected growth trajectory of competitor’s
brand? How/where do they invest in their brand What is the marketing and
commercial focus? What is their ROI?
9. What is the competitors brand strength/equity? What drivers/attributes do they own?
10.Any public materials about the competitor, including strategy and financial results?
Competitive
Analysis

Benefit sort research helps to match up your
assets to consumer need states
• After defining your target market, you can use market research to begin matching up your
target market’s need states against your brand assets.
• This can be found through market research tools, including need state analysis, U&A,
tracking data or even qualitative methods.
Brand Assets Consumer Need States
Liquid
Format
Safe
Sugar
Free
24
hours
35 years
Tastes
Great
Complete
Relief
Doctor
Reco
Long
Lasting
Made in
USA
ADA
approved
Zero
Carbs
All
Family
Popular
Dietary
Brand History
Key Features
Functional Benefits
Superiority Claims
Emotional Benefits
Key Indicators
Brand Imagery
Target Ownership
Brand Icons
New Uses 
Line Extensions
Good Match
to Needs
Poor Match
to Needs
Fast
Acting
Brand
Analysis

Where do consumer needs match up against
what you and your competitor does best
What
consumers
want
What your
competitor
does best
What
your brand
does best
Losing Zone:
competitor meets
consumers needs
better than you
Risky Zone:
equally meet consumer
needs. You win through
speed, innovation and
emotional connection
Dumb Zone:
Competitive battle
where consumer
doesn’t care at all
Winning Zone:
your brand’s clear
difference matters to
consumers
Brand
Analysis

Use our ladders model to find the emotional benefits
Once you match up the needs to assets, you then want to find the best
benefit statement, either rational, emotional or a combination. This is best
done through concept testing to find that optimized positioning.
Brand
Analysis

Find the benefits that are most motivating to
consumers and own-able for your brand.
How OWN-ABLE is this
benefit for your brand
How MOTIVATED
are consumers by
your benefit
High
High
Low
Low
Losing Zone Winning Zone
Dumb Zone Risky Zone
Guilt Free
Alternative
Low
Calorie
Less Fat
All Natural
Ingredients
Lose 5
pound in 2
weeks
Feel
Smarter
about food
Feel in
control of
your
weight
Feel more
confident
Feel more
comfort in
choices
New
Favorite
Cookie
Brand
Analysis

Brand analytics can help indicate where your
brand sits on the Brand Love Curve
INDIFFERENT
LIKE IT
LOVE IT
BELOVED
Voice of Consumer Market Indicators Strategic Focus
No opinion, low interest, low
importance. Don’t care, have
doubt or anger.
Skinny brand funnel, share
squeeze, low unaided
awareness, shrinking margins.
Focus on the MIND, to separate
brand, drive consideration &
purchase. New positioning or re-
positioning.
Have basic idea what it
stands for, but no connection.
See it as ordinary, not different.
Low conversion to sales, high
% bought on deal, low loyalty,
strong private label share.
Focus on moving FEET, by
create an idea, layered with
emotional benefits, to connect
and build a following.
See it as better, high loyalty
and satisfaction and willing to
recommend to a friend.
Robust brand funnel, healthy
tracking scores, share gains,
share of requirements.
Focus on the HEART, to drive
deeper emotional bond, turning
the experience into a ritual.
Close every brand leak.
Outspoken fans who see
everything about the brand
(product, experience, service)
as better.
Dominant share, net promoter
scores, usage frequency and
recommendations
Focus on the SOUL, mobilize
outspoken loyalists to sell brand.
Broaden audience and offering.
Attack yourself.
Brand
Analysis

Program tracking shows how well you are
doing behind key marketing activities
• Program tracking or testing results
can compare how well the program
has done against key measures.
• You will also be able to get scores
that match up to the brand funnel
such as Awareness (aided,
unaided), purchase scores (share
of last 5 purchases) and purchase
intention.
Tracking Results Gray’s Norm
Aided Recall 38 62
Unaided Recall 30 46
Brand Recognition 10 23
Brand Link .33 .50
Main Message 64 60
Uniqueness 38 22
Purchase Intent 10 9
Ad Tracking
Brand
Analysis

Usage and Attitude studies
• Broad view of the who, what, when, where and how overall consumer dynamics of your
category or market.
• Identify what the consumer may see as your brand’s core strength: product, promise,
experience and price.
• Identify what are the key drivers of both trial and brand loyalty
• Understand how consumer behavior and usage changes by brand
• Why consumers buy specific brands and what it is that makes those brands distinctive,
outlining the rational and emotional benefits.
• Identify any perceived gaps in the consumers mind between the brand promise,
consumer expectation and the overall brand performance.
• How does the brand match up in the consumers’ mind, relative to the other competitors.
• Overall vantage of various consumer segments, looking at lifestyle and demographic
dimensions, how they consume media, overall attitudes on key drivers or brand benefits.
• Map out the consumer buying system looking at how they become aware, what makes
them consider, what type of search they do, factors they use to decide, what influences
repeat purchase, how they build products into their routines and what triggers them to
become brand fans.
Brand
Analysis

Use Brand Funnels as your underlying measurement
of brand health and leaks that need closing.
The brand funnel data helps tell where you are on Brand Love Curve:
◆ Indifferent: Skinny funnels throughout. Fuel awareness to kick start the funnel.
◆ Like It: Funnel narrows at purchase. Close leak by getting message closer to sale.
◆ Love It: Robust funnels, but may have a leak at loyal. Continue to feed the love
among loyalists.
◆ Beloved Brands have ideal funnels, but should track and attack any weakness
before it is seen by others.
Brand Funnels help you analyze where your brand
stands, whether looking at absolute scores, ratios,
comparisons with competitors or tracking over time.
Brand
Analysis

Leaky Bucket matches brand experience to the buying
system to discover brand problems to address
Unaware Noticed Interested Bought Satisfied Repeater Fan Outspoken
I have never
heard of the
brand before.
I have heard
of brand but
do not know
much about it
I’m impressed
and will
consider
buying in the
future.
I recently
bought the
brand. Seems
cool. Hope I
made the
right decision.
I like it so far,
will likely buy
it again.
I have had
good luck
with brand
and will keep
buying it.
I’m a big fan
of the brand. I
own multiple
products and
love them all.
I love the brand
and I’m always
telling my
friends about it.
Your brand is not the one for
me. I’ll stick to my current
brand.
I have heard of the brand but I
was uncertain, so I went for
my more trusted brand.
I bought your brand but I
wasn’t satisfied so I won’t buy
it again.
I was a big fan, but the brand
hasn't kept up with technology
so I switched my brand.
Indifferent Like It Love It Beloved
Consumer
views
Reasons for
rejection
Establish brand in the
consumers mind through high
awareness programs.
Focus on specific benefits—
both rational and emotional.
Improve product quality and
service innovation to get back
lost customers.
Focus on improving product
technology and build a VIP
program for long term users.
Plan for
closing
the leak
Brand
Analysis

Questions to better understand your brand
1. Where do you play? How do you win? What is your current point of difference? Is it
own-able, unique and motivating for consumers?
2. What is your biggest gain versus prior periods? What is your biggest gap?
3. What is your market share? Regionally? By Channel? Where is your strength?
Where is your gap?
4. How are you doing on key brand tracking panel data? Penetration? Frequency?
Sales per Buyer? Dollars per trip?
5. What are your scores against the brand funnel?
6. How is your program tracking data doing? Where could you improve?
7. How far can you “stretch” your brand into other opportunities?
8. What is your current operating model?
9. What is your culture? To what extent does your culture enable and support your
brand and business strategy? Is there an alignment to the brand promise and
strategy by employees?
10. What is the new product development process in the organization? What is the
innovative capability of the organization?
Brand
Analysis

8 ways brand leaders can drive brand profit
Brand&Profit&=&(Price&–&Cost&)&x&(Market&Share&x&Market&Size)&
Price
Market SizeShare
Cost
1
Premium
Pricing
2
Trading
Up
3
Lower
cost of
goods
4
Efficient
Program
Spending
5
Stealing
Share
6
Get loyal users
to use more
7
Enter
new
markets
8
Find new
uses
Higher Margin %
Higher Volume
Brand
Finance

Doing some very simple math
shows three potential major
problems right away.
• Gross Margin is falling each
year—dig in to find problem
with either price or COGs?
• Contribution Margin falling—
Gross Margins, Spend
Increases.
• Spend growing faster than
sales. Investment mode?
1
3
2
1
2
3
2008 2009 2010
Net Sales 21,978 24,616 27,569
Cost of Goods Sold 12,866 14,925 17,313
Gross Margin 9,482 9,862 10,256
Research Development 346 352 360
Total Spend 3,444 4,202 5,127
Ad Merch 568 858 1,296
TV - - 175
On Line 28 70 175
Print 57 75 100
PR 59 77 100
Sampling 3 13 50
Sponsorship 132 73 40
Research 200 100 5
Packaging 133 100 75
Display 4 29 200
Trade 426 400 376
Other SG&A 2,172 1,433 989
Contribution Income 5,763 5,244 4,772
12%
22%
Look at the Wealth of the Brand by knowing
how to use the Financial Statements
Brand
Finance

Look at Gross Margins % by dividing the
overall gross margin by the overall sales.
• We can see the gross margin is down from 43%
to 37%. Either overall pricing has been cut or
the costs are up. Dig in deeper.
Quick assessment of Brand Finances
2008 2009 2010
Sales 21978 24616 27569
Gross Margin 9482 9862 10225
Gross Margin % 43% 40% 37%
Look at Contribution Margins % by dividing
overall contribution income by overall sales.
• We can see the % falling from 26% to 17%. Not
only is there is there a problem at the top line
margin, but gross margin is not covering off the
increase in spend.
2008 2009 2010
Sales 21978 24616 27569
ContribuHon Income 5763 5244 4772
ContribuHon Margin % 26% 21% 17%
One other quick tool is to compare the sales
growth versus the spend growth.
• We can see here that sales are growing at a healthy
12%, however total spend is outpacing sales growth
with 22% spend increase. We are now seeing two
issues with profits: Above the falling gross margin
plus the high increases in below the line spend.
2008 2009 2010 Growth %
Sales 21978 24616 27569 12%
Total Spend 3444 4202 5127 22%
1 2
3
Brand
Finance

The economics and accounting of how beloved
brands turn power into stronger growth and proﬁt
Price&
Quan+ty&
Supply&
Demand'
Increased'
Demand'
$400$
$250$
10M$ 15M$
Quan%ty(
Current'Users'
using'more'
Find'New'
Uses'
Penetrate'
New'Users'
Enter'New'
Categories'
Market(
Share(
Expand'
Category'Size'
Market(
Size(Margin'
Premium'
price'
Cost'of'
Goods'
Over'
head'
Selling'
Price'
Trading''
Consumers'Up'
Marke;ng'
Costs'
Selling'
Costs'
Costs'
Driving demand gives your
brand the ability to drive the
price up, and higher quantities
gives better economies of scale.
Proﬁtability = Margin x Quantity
Brand
Finance

Using LOVE and POWER to drive PROFITS with increased
prices, lower costs, share gains and entering new markets
Price
Costs
Share
Market Size
Premium Price
• Perceived quality allows you to
command price pricing
Trading up/down
• Take loyalists up to a better premium-
priced version of brand
Lower cost of goods
• Economies of scale and use your
power over suppliers.
Efﬁcient marketing
• Higher volume helps spend ratios,
use the media power.
Stealing Share
• Use brand momentum to gain tipping
point.
Higher usage
• Get loyal users to use more, building
routines/rituals.
Enter new markets
• Take brand idea to new products,
getting loyalists to follow.
Find new uses
• Increase the ways that your brand can
ﬁt into the consumers life.
Higher
Margins %
Higher
Volumes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Brand
Finance

Pricing is a weapon a powerful brand can
wield to drive more margin
• Increases: If the market or
brand allows you. Passing
along cost increases. Healthy
brand, healthy market, power
vs competition and channel.
• Decreases: Fighting off
competitor, sluggish economy,
channel pressure.
• Trading Up: Can you carve
out a meaningful difference
that goes beyond your current
brand? Does your brand
image/ratings allow it?
• Trading Down: Risky, but you
see un-served market, with
minimal damage to image/
reputation of the brand.
• Difficult to execute because it has to
go through retailers. Understand
power relationships.
• Competitors will (over) react. So your
assumptions you used to go will
change right after.
• It’s not easy to change back.
• Premium skus, can feel orphaned at
retail world—missing ads or displays.
• Managing two pricing levels can be
difficult—what to support, price
differences etc.
• Don’t lose focus on your core
business. Can’t be all things to
everyone.
• Image risk, especially when trading
downward.
When to use What to watch out for
Price
Trading up
or down
Premium
Pricing
1
2
Brand
Finance

Formulas in detail – The price increase
10% price increase against a 10% volume decrease
Current New
Price 2.50 2.75
COGS 1.00 1.00
Margin 1.50 1.75
Margin % 60% 64%
Unit Forecast 100,000 90,000
Impact On Revenue $250,000 $247,500
Impact on Profit $150,000 $157,500
Formulas:
Impact on Revenue
Price x Units
Current: 2.5 x 100 = $250k
New: 2.75 x 90 = $247.5k
Impact on Profit
Margin x Units
Current: 100 x 1.5 = $150k
New: 90 x 1.75 = $157.5k
When looking at a price increase it is crucial to make assumptions as to what will happen
to the unit volumes and then do the overall resulting revenue and profit for the options.
Brand
Finance

Pricing Waterfall analysis
StatedPrice
InvoicePrice
ActualPrice
Gross
Margin
Retailer program
discounts
Off-Invoice Discounts or Rebates
Prom
otional Price
discounts
Cost of Freight
Custom
Packaging
or displays
Cost of Programs
Package Returns Cost
Cost of Goods Sold
Service
Costs
Volum
e
Discount
Transactional and cost to
serve the customer
Target Price to
the customer
BasePrice
Segm
ent
Geography/Regions
Channel
Base value
of product
sold
Marketing Sales
Stated Price on
the customer’s
invoice
Actual Price
(less discounts
and cost to
serve)
Actual
Gross
Margin
Brand
Finance

Define your Pricing Strategy in
alignment with your business
strategy and business objectives
and based on a deep understanding
of your own competitive position,
customer insight and cost-to-serve
1. Pricing
Strategy
Implement Pricing Strategy and
Price Determination framework
into daily sales activities and
transactional processing
3. Price
Execution
Operationalize Pricing Strategy in
marketing activities and generate
all required input for Price
Execution
2. Price
Determination
Enable pricing
capability by
monitoring and
provision of tools,
systems and
processes related to
pricing in an
integrated manner
5. Monitoring and System Support
Pricing Management System
Define pricing
capabilities and skill
sets, establish pricing
organization and
assure consideration
of legal requirements
4. Governance
Brand
Finance

Pricing Management System
• Annual Rates
• One-time charge
• Cost-plus pricing
• Price for Value
• Maintenance Charges
• Usage rental (by the
hour)
• Bundled Pricing
• Market Price
• Value Price
• Strategic Price
• Life Time Value (LTV)
Pricing
• Short vs. Long-term
Revenue Pricing
• Portfolio Pricing (Price
Points)
• Competitor Responses
• Not-in-Kind (NIK)
Replacements
• Reduce/Increase
attractiveness of business
• Keep out competition
• Setting Visible Market
prices
• Customer Reaction
Product Pricing
Cannibalization
• Buying Power
• Supplier Power
• Place in the Value Chain
• Price Elasticity
• Global vs. Local Supply
and Demand
• Capacity
• Substitute products
1. How do you Price?
2. What Price Should  
you Charge?
3. What is the effect  
of your Price on the
Market?
4. What Ability do you
have to Control Price?
Business Strategy
• How does your Pricing Strategy support the overall Business Strategy?
Brand
Finance

Pricing Quality Relationships
Indifferent
Like It
Beloved
relative perceived valuelow high
relative
perceived
price
low
high
Risk of losing  
customers and
related volume
Under-pricing vs
potential, loses
margins
Brand
Finance

• COGs Decreases: power over
suppliers, potential raw material
change, process improvement,
off-shore manufacturing.
• COGs Increases: suppliers
pass along costs, new
technology, investing in brand’s
improved image, going after
higher end, new benefit or a
format change.
• Selling Cost Decrease: to
counter changes in the P&L
(price, volume or cost), short
term P&L management, change
in go-to-market model, product
life cycle
• Selling Cost Increase:
Investment mode, proven
payback in higher sales,
defensive move to hold share.
• With cuts, make sure the product
change is not significantly noticeable.
• Understand consumer impact on your
brand’s performance and image.
• Can the P&L cover these costs, either
increased sales or efficiency
elsewhere.
• Always be in an ROI mindset: Manage
your marketing costs as though every
DOLLAR has to efficiently drive sales.
• Short term cuts can carry longer term
impact.
• Competitive reaction can influence the
impact of investment stance.
Cost
Marketing
Costs
Product
Costs
Cost decreases come from economies of
scale and power over suppliers
3
4
Brand
Finance

Formulas in Detail – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
Direct Materials $1.30
Direct Labor cost $0.90
Manufacturing Overhead $0.50

Cost of Goods Sold $2.70
Formulas:
Per Unit Cost of Goods = direct materials + direct labor + manufacturing overhead
1.30 + 0.90 + 0.50 = 2.70
Overall Cost of Goods = beginning inventory + manufacturing cost - ending work in process inventory
10,500 + 23,000 - 5,500 = 28,000
Gross Margin = Sales - COGS
500 – 300 = 200
Gross Margin % = (Sales – COGS) / Sales
(500 – 300)/500 = 40%
Per Unit COGS
Beginning Inventory Cost $10,500
Manufacturing Cost for year $23,000
Ending Work in Process Costs $5,500

Cost of Goods Sold $28,000
Inventory COGS
Sales $ 500
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) $ 300
Gross Margin $ 200

Gross Margin % 40%
Gross Margin
Brand
Finance

Marketers always face
limited resources…
Target Market
Brand Positioning
Strategic Options
New Product Ideas
Execution Activities
Financial Time
People Partnerships
…as they deploy against an
unlimited list of choices
We need to make decisions to limit the choices to match the
limited resources we can deploy against those choices.
Brand
Finance

Focus your marketing activities by prioritizing on
return on investment and effort (ROI and ROE)
For each strategy, you
want to find the “Big Easy”
• Put all of the ideas on to post it
notes, then map each idea onto
the grid as to whether they will
have a BIG versus SMALL
impact on the business, and
whether they are EASY versus
DIFFICULT.
• The top ideas will be in the BIG
EASY top right corner.
JUST DO IT
Brainstorm ways to make
these ideas even bigger
THE BIG EASY
Big Wins, Easy to do
AVOID
Bad ROE, drain on resources
MAKE EASIER
Brainstorm easier ways to get
it done
Easy
Difficult
Small Win Big Win
Implementation
Business Impact
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea
Brand
Finance

Formulas in Detail – Program ROI (Return on Investment)
Program
Incremental Sales Volume $5000
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) $3000
Gross Margin $2000
Gross Margin % 40%

Total Spend $1500
Contribution Income $500
Formulas:
Gross Margin = Revenue - COGS
5000 - 3000 = 2000
Contribution Margin = Gross Margin – Spend
2000 - 1500 = 500
Option 1: Against just the Spend
ROI = Contribution Margin/Spend
500/1500 = 33%
Option 2: Against the Total Investment
ROI = Contribution Margin / (COGS + Investment)
500/(1500+3000) = 11%
Companies seem to measure ROI differently. Ask Your Finance Person how
they Measure and Calculate ROI
Assumes program cost of $1500 generates $5000 in incremental revenue
Brand
Finance

• Offensive: Competitive
Advantage, Untapped Needs,
Opportunistic, first mover
advantage on new technology.
• Defensive: Hold the fort until
you can catch up on
technology, maintain
profitability, loyal base of
followers needs protecting.
• When there is an opportunity to
turn loyal users into creating a
potential routine. Changing
behaviors is more difficult than
enticing trial.
• When getting further trial might
be capped out.
• Attacking competitors can be difficult.
It could just become an spend
escalation. After the war, no winners,
just losers.
• Brand loyalty, trade-offs beyond
unsatisfied area or just habit.
• Channel could play one competitor
against another for their own gain.
• There has to be a real benefit
connected to using more or it might
look hollow/shallow.
• Driving routines is a challenge. Even
with “life saving” medicines, the
biggest issue is compliance.
• Find something in their current life to
help either ground it or latch onto.
(brushing routine)
Market
Share
Get users to
use more
Steal other
users
Share and volume game are traditional tools for
brand. Either an offensive or a defensive game.
5
6
Brand
Finance

Formulas in Detail – Compound Annual Growth Rate
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
Revenue $500,000 $600,000 $650,000 $700,000 $800,000
Annual Growth 20% 8% 8% 14%
Formulas:
Average Growth Rate
= ((Y5 – Y1)/Y1))/# of years
((800 – 500)/500)/5 = 12%
CAGR
= ((Y5 / Y 1) to the power of (1/#years)) – 1
(800/500 to the power of 1/5) – 1 = 9.85%
Knowing the compound
annual growth rate is a
crucial volume step to the
ROI calculation. Scared off
by Math, use the online
CAGR Calculator at the
Investopedia website
Brand
Finance

86%
82%
63%
16%
2%
98%
96%
85%
43%
4%
Like It Brand Beloved Brand
25%
95%
50%
98%
77%
88%
DirectionImplication
Aided Awareness
Familiarity
(Unaided)
Consideration
Purchase
Loyalty
2
1
2
1
12%
9%
Leaky Funnel: Consumers falling out at
consideration stage. Brand X is a “new” brand.
Consumers’ go with trusted usual brand.
Focus awareness at first point of consideration. Invest
in on-line to keep consumer engaged
In-store Switching: Significant drop off at
purchase stage means Consumers are
moved to other brands as they go in-store.
Manage the shopping experience through purchase
phase.
1
2
How the Brand Funnel can showcase brand issues.
Tracking via Brand Funnel is a great tool to show relative
strength of one brand vs another. Highlights leaks.
Brand
Finance

• When there is an untapped
or underserved need.
• Changing demographic that
impacts your base.
• You’re able to translate/
transfer your reputation to a
new user group.
• Format Line Extensions that
take your experience or
name elsewhere .
• Able to leverage same
benefit in convenient “on the
go” offering.
• There should be something within your
product/brand that helps fuel the brand
post trial.
• Trial without repeat, means you’ll get
the spike but then bust.
• Substantial investment required. Don’t
let it distract from protecting the base
loyal users.
• Make sure current brand is in order
before you divert attention, funding
and focus on expansion area.
• Investment needed, could divert from
spend on base business.
• Legendary stories (Arm and Hammer)
don’t come along as much as we
hope.
Market
Size
Create new
uses
Find New
Users
Game Changers are about finding new
users or even new uses for the consumer.
7
8
Brand
Finance

Formulas in Detail – Launch ROI (Return on Investment)
Year 1
New Product Sales $500
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) $300
Gross Margin $200
Gross Margin % 40%

Total Spend $150
Contribution Income $50
Formulas:
Gross Margin = Revenue - COGS
500 - 300 = 200
Contribution Margin = Gross Margin – Total Spend
200 - 150 = 50
Option 1: Against just the spend
ROI = Contribution Margin/spend
50/150 = 33%
Option 2: Against total investment
= Contribution Margin / (COGS + Investment)
50/(150+300) = 11%
Many companies seem to measure ROI differently. Ask Your Finance
Person how they Measure and Calculate ROI
Brand
Finance

How to dig in on the 8 areas on the Profit
Statements to help uncover the story for your brand
Pricing Price cut? Customer discounts to drive volume?
Trading Up/Down Product Mix Changed? More lower margin sales?
Product Costs COGs went up due to supplier or materials?
Marketing Costs Spend is up? Launching? Stealing share?
Stealing Other Users Investing to steal competitive users? Defensive stance?
Get Users to Use More Discounts to encourage volume per customer?
New Category Investment to Enter into a new category?
New Uses Education investment on potential uses?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
The Good News: to simplify your thinking and make it easier on you,
these are eight key levers of the P&L that you need to focus on.
Brand
Finance

As you make investment decisions on your portfolio
of brands, first look EXTERNALLY to the market
How strong is your brand’s competitive position in the market?
Major Investment
to grow brand
Invest strengthen
the brand
Investment to
grow category
Leverage power
of leadership
Maintain brand
performance
Focus on niche
you can own
Re-focus around
niche stance
Divest, milk or
exit
Maintain share,
milk brand
How attractive is
the market?
High
Medium
Low
HighMediumLow
Invest Maintain Divest
Brand
Finance

As you make investment decisions on your portfolio
of brands, then look INTERNALLY to the profitability
How healthy are the profit margins?
Invest to
leverage growth
Invest to grow
brand
Invest to grow
brand
Maintain share
and growth level
Maintain, smartly
manage costs
Increase prices to
drive up margins
Reduce costs,
consider price
Milk brand with
minimal spend
How strong is
the brand
growth?
High
Medium
Low
HighMediumLow
Invest Maintain Divest
Divest, milk or
exit
Brand
Finance

Questions to understand the financials of the brand
1. Your CAGR? (Compound Annual Growth Rate)
2. What are your contribution margins over last 5
years? Margins broken out by product line?
3. What is your budget breakout? Working dollars
versus non-working dollars? Media versus
production? Consumer versus trade?
4. Pricing Elasticity studies?
5. How are you performing overall and by line of
business?
6. What are your current brand/business
performance measures?
7. What programs are driving the highest ROI?
8. What is driving your profit? What are you focusing
on right now?
9. What are your forecasting error rates? Fill rates?
10. What are the financial pressures you face?
Quarterly results?
Brand
Finance

4
Building analytical stories
to get decision makers to
“what do you think” stage
Analysis turns fact into insight and data breaks
form the story that sets up strategic choices.

• What’s driving growth? Focus on the top factors of strength, positional
power or market inertia that has a proven link to driving growth behind your
brand. Your Brand Plan will be built on continuing to fuel these drivers.

• What’s inhibiting growth? Focus on the top factors of weakness,
unaddressed gaps or market friction that can be proven to be holding back
the growth of your brand. Your Brand Plan should focus on reducing or
reversing these inhibitors to your growth.

• Opportunities for growth: Speciﬁc untapped areas in the market that
would fuel future growth, based on unfulﬁlled consumer needs, new
technologies on the horizon, regulation changes, new distribution channels
or the removal of trade barriers. Plan should take advantage of these
opportunities in the future.

• Risk to future growth: Changing circumstances including consumer
needs, new technologies, competitive activity, distribution changes or
potential barriers to trade create potential risk to your growth. Build your
Brand Plans to minimize the impact of these risks.
Turning the Business Review into a Summary Analysis

Brand
Plan
Example of how to lay out your Summary Analysis
Drivers Inhibitors
• Taste drives a high conversion of Trial to
Purchase (65% vs. norm of 50%).
• Strong Listings has driven strong Distribution
in Food Channels (95%)
• Exceptional brand health scores among Early
Adopters (“Proactive Preventers”) making it a
highly Beloved Brand among the niche.
• Awareness among mainstream target (20%)
held back due to weak Advertising scores. Low
Attention scores and Brand Link scores.
• Low distribution at specialty stores at only 16%.
Poor sales coverage.
• Low Purchase Frequency (2.2 boxes/yr vs. 7.3
norm) even among most loyal early adopters.
• R&D has 5 new flavors in development. Could
launch Peanut Butter in Q4 of 2013 (top 15%
in testing), Chocolate Chunks in Q2 of 2014
(top 50%)
• Sales broker could specifically target specialty
stores, which are in high growth (+15%/year)
• Explore social media to convert strong loyal
following into more mainstream mass appeal
• Mainstream cookie brands could enter the
‘health’ segment through R&D or Acquisition.
Rumors that Pepperidge Farms will launch in Q1
2014, and Nabisco Q3 2014.
• De-listing of our 2 weakest skus (Oatmeal and
Cranberry) because of POS thresholds, could
weaken our in-store presence down to 3 skus.
• Legal Challenge to “tastes as good as your
favorite cookie”.
Case
Study

“Where you are” helps to set up what you need
to do, to get where you want to go?
Continue/Enhance
• Stay focused on things going right, accelerate
against them. Continuous improvement.
Minimize/Reverse
• Close the leaks, develop turnaround plans or
re-focus the team against the trend.
Take Advantage of
• Build plans to mobilize the brand to see if the
opportunity is a winning space for the brand.
Avoid/Contingency
• Identify and measure the risk, explore plans to
avoid. Fill the gap before a competitor.
What’s driving
the growth?
What are
the threats?
What are the
untapped
opportunities?
What’s inhibiting
the growth?

To determine where are we, you need to look at
health, as a signal to the future wealth of the Brand.
Brand Health
WEALTH measures what you can easily see. HEALTH are those
measures you can’t easily see. Looking deeper uncovers new questions.
Brand Wealth
Sales
Market
Share
ROI
Profit
Stock
Prices
Growth
Rate
Price
Premium
Share
Position
Brand Funnel
Competitive
Advantages
Voice of
Customer
Regulatory
Satisfaction
Scores
New
Products
Internal
Alignment
Market
Trends

Internal Health:
What is the internal beacon that helps all
employees understand and live the brand?
How much has been communicated about the
strategy? The idea of the brand has to be
embedded right into the culture in a consistent
manner. They have to realize their impact of
the brand on the end customer.
Internal Wealth:
Everyone focused on Profit and Value. Assets,
IP, culture, contracts, ownership. Lining up and
delivering the brand promise to a clear set of
objectives, helps employees see that they are
contributing to and sharing in the brand wealth.
Everyone should understand where and how
they impact profitability.
External Wealth:
Healthy win in the marketplace. Beloved
Brands can leverage success into power
and drive wealth. Beloved Brands are
more efficient, higher sales, lower costs,
better margins, higher over all profits.
External Health:
Connecting with consumers is a source of
power for brands. Understand the brand
funnel and how your consumer sees your
brand, going through the brand funnel
through awareness, trial, repeat to brand
loyalty. Build on your strengths and attack
your weaknesses
Brand Wealth
Brand Health
Assess situation, looking at health and wealth
of the brand, both internally and externally
Internal External

Brand
Plan
Example of how to lay out the brand health and wealth
Internal Health:
Divided team on whether to go after new users
or drive frequency among core users.
Advertising programs has not created
awareness. Channel strength has not reached
beyond Food. Innovation has not been
consistent.
External Health:
Gray’s is a beloved brand among a core niche
(“Preventers”) but relatively indifferent and
unknown among broader audience. Even
among loyalists, frequency is very weak. Gray’s
is a special treat rather than a usual brand.
Internal Wealth:
Gray’s has a unique recipe. With marketing
investment, profit margins have fallen from 12%
to 9%, without seeing the growth ROI from the
programs. Debate on whether Gray’s should
focus on channel growth vs. marketing led
programs.
External Wealth:
Gray’s has a strong growth rate at +20%
CAGR. Sales of $25Million with a 48% gross
margins, above category norm of 42%. Gray’s
has achieved a 3.3% share at grocery but only
0.4% in the other channels.
Internal
Brand Wealth
External
Brand Health
Case
Study

Building an argument through story telling:
Point, Proof, Discuss, Conclusion
• In writing a summary or recommendation report, always
start off with a clean statement of your opinion point,
which is either something you are trying to sell as a reco or
instill as knowledge that can be helpful to your cause.
• The proof, is usually the back up facts that help to support
and tell the story. Like the cause and effect technique, the
proof can help to ground the reader in your story. In a
presentation, you can find a key visual or chart.
• Once you have your point and proof, it enables you to go
through a brief discussion of the options of how to support
your point. While the proof shows you have done the
reasonable logic check, the discussion enables the reader
to see that you have thought out the various options, and
how you narrowed down to your final reco. We recommend
that you only stick to 2-3 main points of discussion.
• The conclusion should be a repeat of your original point
but this time draw it to a recommendation.

5
Turn analytical thinking
into projections
Extrapolating data into the future, starts with
what you are see in the current.

Brand
Plan
Example of how you fill out the Profit Projections
2014 2015 2016
$ g% $ g% $ g% Comments
Net Sales 21,978 44% 27,354 24% 30,385 11% With 2 competitors launching, growth will slow to +11%
Cost of Goods Sold 10,333 40% 12,606 22% 13,237 5% New plant production has given lower cost of goods.
Gross Margin 11,645 49% 14,748 27% 17,148 16% Gross margins continue to make efficiency gains.
GM % 53% 54% 56%
R&D 346 3% 352 2% 360 2% Holding steady R&D flavor innovation budget.
Marketing Budget 5,528 22% 7,962 44% 8,850 11% Spending up in line with the sales forecast.
Ad Merchandisers 568 22% 855 51% 850 -1%
TV 1200 42% 900 -25% 1200 33% Increased budget as part of defense plan
On Line 233 3% 480 106% 900 88% Staying competitive with shift to on line.
Print 1355 22% 1050 -86% 1000 -100% Continued use of specialty health magazines
PR 59 15% 77 31% 200 160%
Sampling 500 4% 1200 140% 1400 17% Sampling is part of the mix to drive trial. Defense Plan.
Sponsorship 100 33% 500 400% 0 -100%
Research 200 55% 300 50% 500 67% Added tracking of two competitive launches.
Packaging 133 66% 100 -25% 50 -50%
Display 430 44% 1300 202% 1400 8% Lock up displays during the competitive launches.
Trade 750 1200 60% 1350 13% Increased trade spend to stay competitive.
Other SG&A 2,000 22% 289 -86% 989 242%
Contribution
Income 3,771 22% 6,145 63% 6,949 13% Gains coming from production efficiencies.
CI % 17% 22% 23%
Case
Study

What’s involved in the Brand’s annual financial forecast?
• Sales: Project the growth rate for the year, and break it out on a quarterly basis, and then
depending on the business a monthly sales forecast.
• Market Share: This is like showing your work on the math test. It’s important that you map
out the category size with related market share movement that helps to back up the sales
call.
• Product Costs: Roll up of plant manufacturing costs, related to the materials, production,
shipping. Brands heavily reliant on materials that fluctuate on costs should flag the risk
potential.
• Marketing Spend: Mostly incremental spend by activity versus last year. It could be to
support new product launch, an awareness building campaign or a defensive spend versus
a competitor. Where it’s not incremental, you could do a specific test market with spend or
use a comparable brand as a reference point.
• Other Forecasts: Overhead, Headcount, Seasonal needs, R&D costs, Partnerships or
Royalties and one-time investments that could be capitalized.

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