Overview
Evolving consumer needs and product innovation are rapidly shifting the landscape for household products, making the need to understand consumers’ behaviors and preferences — and to develop the best strategies for reaching consumers — more urgent than ever.
L.E.K. Consulting is a leading strategic advisor to retailers, manufacturers, marketers and investors within household durables and consumables across a range of subsectors, from mattress manufacturers to cleaning supply brands to automotive aftermarket brands, as well as private-label suppliers.
Our leaders and experts have supported household brands across a range of critical business issues, such as growth strategy development, channel and distribution evaluation, competitive landscape assessment, customer awareness and marketing planning, product development, business plan improvements, and investment support. We consistently transform insights into actionable change, thereby creating value for our clients.
Key Questions and Challenges
Our experienced professionals have a deep understanding of key business challenges in today’s household products marketplace, and we encourage our clients to consider these key questions:
- What are the expectations for growth in our underlying market? To what degree is our market affected by the macroeconomic environment? How will our brand be affected by the underlying market?
- Where should we prioritize distribution? How should we adapt channel strategy to omnichannel retailers, ecommerce players and emerging channels?
- What are the most attractive domestic and international growth opportunities to pursue?
- How can we optimize our product portfolio and develop a price pack architecture strategy to maximize profits?
- How can we optimize our pricing strategy and trade spend in light of everyday low prices (EDLP), evolving channel dynamics and changing consumer sentiment?
- How should we organize our resources to capitalize on changing consumer needs and trends?
- What is our strategic market position (SMP), and how do we leverage our capabilities to drive future growth?
- What are customers looking for in this market? What are suppliers looking for? How can we best meet their respective needs?
- What is the current competitive landscape? How is our brand viewed vis-à-vis competing brands? Where is the white space in this market?
Examples of our work
To learn more about how we help clients create value in the household products sector, please refer to these insights and case examples:
- A leading U.S. specialty mattress manufacturer needed to regain market share by developing an attractive “pull” brand among consumers. We conducted an in-depth conjoint analysis that gleaned insights and a unique perspective on mattress consumer needs. Leveraging this analysis, we worked collaboratively with the client and an ad agency to create a new brand promise, new branding, a new product and a new line structure. We modeled the new benefits to dealers in the market, which informed rollout prioritization and channel negotiations for the new product. The client was able to develop a new and unique offering that attracted consumers to the brand and helped minimize customer acquisition costs. Read more
- A center-store consumables company needed an actionable growth strategy to turn around its current business, which was losing share to a key competitor and failing to capitalize on high-growth international opportunities. We determined a series of strategic imperatives for the client to pursue across distribution, product and acquisition priorities, both in the U.S. and internationally. The end result was a series of specific initiatives to carry out the strategic plan, leading to a successful turnaround and an acquisition by a leading branded products company.
- A leading consumer electronics company was looking for a deep understanding of category and channel dynamics, particularly the growth of digital, to act as the basis for its strategic and business planning. We conducted primary research across each channel and within each major CE category, from major appliances to televisions, synthesizing existing market data, client insights and new findings to create a detailed model of the market over a three-to-five-year period. The resulting understanding of specific winners and losers led to specific implications for where the client should spend time and resources to ensure it was aligned with winning trends.
