Consumer Goods
“I could not believe how different NECG was from other consulting firms. I have not experienced such a sense of collaboration and winning together since my days at P&G.”
-President, Food & Beverage Company
Our Clients
Our Expertise
Innovation
It is a fact that the vast majority of consumer packaged goods products fail despite huge time, capital, and research investments. At the New England Consulting Group, we bring decades of experience to every new product innovation process and project, which results in a much higher rate of new product success and far less risk of failure.
Specifically, for the world’s largest snack food company, we used our analogue modeling process to help launch dozens of successful new products over several decades, all of which are still in the marketplace today, and can count only two failures, both of which were quickly discontinued as a result of market research or test marketing.
“New England is the first place to go for a Second Opinion, on any business initiative, particularly risky new product innovations that are difficult to research.”
-CEO of the world’s largest CPG company
Portfolio
The greatest driver of total shareholder return is corporate portfolio. But if the portfolio doesn’t change with some degree of frequency, the enterprise is unlikely to outperform the market or its peer group. That’s why best practice CPGs are constantly acquiring faster growing and more profitable brands/categories and divesting those that are weighing performance down.
For one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, we conducted a global analysis of current and prospective categories, companies and brands to identify a string of acquisition pearls that were consummated over the next decade, and several divestitures including the first modern day reverse Morris trust to exit businesses that were not pulling their weight.
“I was impressed not only by New England’s analytic skills, but also their deep insights into the categories, the countries, the channels and the competitors of not only the businesses we were in, but also the ones we have since entered as a result of our work together.”
-CEO of top 10 global food and beverage company
Positioning
Many older legacy brands have lost their relevance today as smaller craft competitors and private label brands have taken share of market and mind with more compelling strategies and more nimble executions, leaving these once market leading brands classically stuck in the middle.
For an old established brand whose share had suffered, we repositioned every element of the brand’s go-to-market strategy from product and packaging to marketing and sales, and even the brand name itself, making it the fastest growing brand in the category and eventually overtaking the market leader.
“New England restored growth and profitability to a brand my management had given up on and maxed out my bonus and helped get me promoted from brand manager to general manager and president of the division.”
-Division President of leading CPG company
Wargaming
Most consumer categories today are not growing, requiring any new entry into an established category to take share from others to be successful and do so profitably in order to achieve corporate objectives.
For the consumer division of a major healthcare company entering a category dominated by several of the world’s largest consumer healthcare companies, in addition to private labels, we conducted a wargaming exercise which in a month’s time accurately predicted competitive strategies and tactics that enabled our client to become the #1 brand in Year 2 after launch and become net profitable in Year 3.
“New England’s team not only knew our competitors better than we did, but they also documented previous defensive activities that permitted us to anticipate their marketing activity with a high degree of accuracy and adjust our plans to be far more effective and even more efficient than they would have been otherwise.”
-President of major healthcare company’s consumer division
Pricing
In recent years, pricing has gone from a rather formulaic calculation to a strategic variable in competition with super premium and premium brands, popularly priced brands that dominate most markets and price brands and private labels, which grow precipitously during periods of economic distress.
For a commoditized food brand in a highly price sensitive category, competing with two larger national brands and a dominant private label segment of the market, we identified a trigger price point at which most product moved, but was unaffordable on a permanent basis until we changed the packaging/sizing to enable a pack to price point rather than price to pack size and become the growing market leader in the first year after launch, and an over 50% share brand today.
“These guys changed our business model and go-to-market strategy 180° and caught our competitors flatfooted permitting us to grow sales, shares and profits in the 18 months it took competition to respond, by which time it was too late.”
-Division manager of a top 25 global CPG
Private Label
In our lifetime, private labels and store brands have gone from cheap and cheerful to challenger brands in virtually every country, CPG category and channel.
For a leading private label supplier with a few national brands, we helped our client become the second largest manufacturer in several categories heretofore dominated by global/national brands and growing both their private label and national brand businesses simultaneously.
“I’ve worked with all the leading consulting, advertising and research firms and never before experienced such deep insights into consumer, customer and competitor behavior.”
-CEO of multibillion dollar private label and national brand manufacturer
Insights
Reimagining Packaged Cereal
For years now, the cereal industry has been declining and many of the nation’s leading food marketers have been experiencing significant declines in their packaged cereal businesses. True, fresh, natural, organic, etc. is in and processed is out. But in many cases the...
The Pitfalls of “Purpose”
The power of purpose has been widely covered, but far less has been written about its pitfalls. There’s no question that we all, as consumers and businesses, can be motivated and inspired by a noble or aspirational purpose. As human beings we all find extra energy and...
The Perils of Misaligned Brand Strategy
In the ever-evolving landscape of corporate giants and market dynamics, the adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" rings truer than ever. Recent events, such as the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and the haunting echoes of Lehman Brothers' collapse, serve as...
