Challenges

• As part of a strategic growth plan, Sara Lee was considering a specific acquisition to gain a foothold in the U.S. body care market. Under a tight timeline, a thorough category deep dive was requested of Minkus & Associates to aid in understanding consumer wants and needs, key brand equity and especially the equity strength and saliency of the acquisition brand.

Actions

• An in-depth deep dive, including qualitative and quantitative research, was undertaken to understand the category and 17 key brands, including the potential acquisition. Key accomplishments include:

• Category and Advertising Overview

• Detailed by brand, segment and company
• Analyzing secondary data from IRI, IRI panel, MRI, Ad Spender and Packaged Facts

• Understanding consumer personal cleansing habits and buying behavior

• Dimensionalizing Key Brand Equities

• Functional Benefits
• Imagery/Emotional Benefits

• Assessing Key Brand Equity Saliency and Room-to-Run

• Developing Category Segmentation Map

Results

• Based on the deep dive findings and recommendations, the acquisition was aggressively pursued.