STARTING POINT
A firm specialized in making home decor products decides to relaunch its home fragrances product line, first launched on the market over 10 years ago as a concentric diversification of its core traditional business.

After initially positive results, the product line had been kept in the catalogs but had been technically discontinued as it lacked a specific sales drive.

Prior to embarking on drafting a solution, we took the time to analyze the original range of products and its context as well as how the product launch was developed and executed. In addition, we undertook an analysis of current market conditions, purchasing drivers for the different segments, competitive clusters and their product characteristics, prices, distribution channels and sales point experiences.

An initial overview indicated that many of the products in the catalog had not had the expected sales results.

Customer and distributor surveys revealed that the product concept was not easily understood.

What’s more, the product features were not perceived as an added value when compared to what the competition offers in same price range.

In addition, the product distribution across the regions had been mainly limited to the firm’s traditional channels, which were foreign to the home fragrances line.

“You can not untie a knot without knowing how it is done”

(Aristotle)

 

At the sales points, packaging was not homogeneous across the product family and the differences in sizes within the family made storage cumbersome.

Within the whole product range, the fragrances and materials used were consistent, but their look and feel were not in tune with the brand identity.

A framework agreement reached with a single material supplier did not facilitate alternative suppliers with whom a simplified supply logistics could reduce product costs.

ROLLING UP OUR SLEEVES
An immersion in the customer organization and its day-to-day activities allowed us to define which elements in the brand identity should be absolutely needed in the offering.

We immersed ourselves in their savoir-faire, allowing us to define a new product concept, which also according to the latest trends in the Home Fragrances sector pointed to be innovative providing a distinctive added value.

Consolidating these to preliminary market data, we visualized a product-positioning map identifying market gaps, which adapted to customer profiles and provide additional commercial appeal to the offer.

In collaboration with the design and creativity teams, a briefing was generated which visually displayed the key ideas of the new product concept and positioning.

After testing different designs and prototypes, the final ideas were approved by the firm.

We devised a launch plan establishing target prices, delineating the core message for communication and defining key aspects for the packaging design and PoS materials.

Thus, while keeping logistics and operative issues in mind, the brand identity was reinforced and the differentiating elements of the new offer highlighted

New suppliers were selected who could provide quality, pricing and services options that could adapt to customer needs.

We worked with these suppliers to produce final prototypes and adapt them to the assembly line.

An internal communication package was circulated around key departments involved in product roll-out and workshops were organized to train the sales force.

Finally, a product launch calendar defined the pace for the introduction of successive product novelties, reinforcing the product line and avoiding the risk of future product cannibalizations.

STARTING POINT
This luxury product manufacturer has a competitive advantage by mastering handcrafted techniques using exquisite raw material, supported by numerous patents and trade secrets passed on from generation to generation. As with its production, its product development is purely handcrafted.
 
The production of new designs involves the development of models, patterns, molds and auxiliary dies by expert handcraftsmen using techniques that are almost obsolete.

At the same time, social and market trends are starting to impact its business: new habits and ways of life are directly impacting the potential sales of each new model, while there is more and more of an opportunity of applying their raw material expertise to other industries.

OUR FIRST STEPS
Market changes offered the possibility of diversification and/or production of new articles for other industries, but in each sector their uniqueness was also restrictive: their development times were far longer than those in any other sector; their high development costs translated into prices totally out of the market in other sectors; sequential product development meant that each product decision, made at any step, would need to be unaltered until the end of the cycle; in addition, the weight of a limited, highly specialized labor force restricted task assignment, further worsening development cycle planning.

 

ROLLING UP OUR SLEEVES
We immersed ourselves in each step of the development cycle until we mapped the what, how, who and why of the process and evaluated the implications for its human, economic, organizational and strategic dimensions.

We focused our efforts on devising an alternative development process, aiming at combining the irreplaceable handcraftsmen pool with 3D technology in order to replace costly, laborious, routine tasks in a quick and efficient way.

We defined those aspects in the process that should remain unaltered for each model and established the “dividing lines” of quality that should absolutely not be crossed.

Through different tests, we determined the ideal setup for the customer, taking into account the wide range of models and finishes.

We carried out comparative trials in order to be 100% sure that the outcome of the new process would be comparable to the quality delivered by the traditional process.

We managed to reduce development times for certain models by as much as 25% to 50% compared to the standard times.

At worst, we reduced development costs by half.

Implementing design changes from the original idea at any step of the process did not mean having to start over again.

Changes could be performed within hours or days instead of months, as had been the case before.

We opened windows to diversification, customization, on-demand orders and third party production.