Japan: Reversing the Decline and Restoring Market Share Growth
The Challenge
Clorets, a leading chewing gum brand in Japan, had been experiencing declining revenue and profit in a stagnant category. The brand also was hemorrhaging market share without really understanding why it was happening. Discussions revolving around the issue often resulted in anecdotal theories and varying personal stories across stakeholders.
The lack of understanding resulted in frenzied and often knee-jerk reaction devoid of clear strategy. The business had launched several new products, which failed to survive in the marketplace for more than 12 weeks on-shelf and costed the company millions of dollars. In addition, the marketing budget became increasingly fragmented across sub-brands and was not connected with other parts of the business, such as sales in-store execution.
The Turnaround Process
Theories, hypotheses, and assumptions ran rampant in the organization, some of which had merit, while others were more mythical. As with any project, it was essential to understand all perspectives before jumping into the problem. Comprehensive stakeholder discussions took place.
It was clear that people were not operating on a common fact basis. The next step was therefore, to gather the essential data and get the stakeholders to look at it together. The problem was management didn't have time to look at reams of data. Tableau Desktop was used to look at the information as a group in rapid (and fun) fashion, quickly debunk myths and build insight along the way. Further desk analysis took place over the following weeks to ascertain the true problems underlying the performance.
The essential drivers were assembled using a more structured, data-guided approach, which was then distilled into three primary focus areas for the brand to work on:
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Consolidation of investments to channels with the greatest reach
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Re-focusing the brand on the core equities the consumers knew
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Rationalizing the number of products and focusing on the core top three.
Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. By focusing the business on what mattered most to consumers, the brand was re-charged for growth.
The Outcome - Record-High Market Share
Clarify breeds confident. The team was energized and motivated to mobilize around the root causes that were discovered. By balancing decisions based on experience with the hard facts, emotions were held in check as the business re-organized its strategy.
The brand reversed the decline and ultimately, re-grew market share over subsequent consecutive quarters, resulting in a record-high market share in less than 12-months by going "back to basics".
