In a skincare category like lanolin oil that enjoys wide public awareness, has many market players, yet has relatively low pricing, G&M from Australia, with its image of being moisturizing and affordable, is highly favored by Chinese consumers, and ranks among the top brands in the market.
However, in recent years, the competition in terms of ingredients and efficacy has been intensifying, consumers' expectation thresholds keep rising, and low-priced imitators crop up continuously. As a result, G&M has encountered many challenges. Is there still room for growth in the lanolin oil category? Has the G&M brand aged? How can the brand enhance its attraction to consumers?
GROWTHX, the growth strategy consulting boutique of ILLUMINERA, was honored to be entrusted providing accompanying consulting services for G&M. Based on in-depth analysis and precise evaluations of the category, we helped G&M to reshape its brand positioning, build communication strategies, and were deeply involved in the whole process of communication content preparation, social media operation, packaging material design, marketing budget allocation and channel placements, enabling the brand to identify a feasible approach to break through the downturn and achieve growth.
When talking about brand repositioning, category trends is something which can’t be neglected, and the driving force behind these trends is 'people', i.e., consumers. Subtle and inexpressible consumer needs are often hidden in behaviors. The GROWTHX boutique fully leveraged its capability in data-driven insight harvest, combining large, medium and small data from the industry review, brand performance, and user research to conduct a dual-pronged assessment and cross-analysis based on real consumer behaviors and fundamental values and consumption attitudes. This helped the brand identify the true needs of consumers, thereby gaining a clear and incisive understanding of category trends.
Afterwards, based on the brand's own market position, corporate vision, the aesthetic preference of the brand's leader, as well as the short-term goals and the budget at hand, we have established a 3-line development principle for G&M, the relatively small and medium-sized brand in terms of its comprehensive volume: ride the wave, keep it simple and avoid the difficult. This requires the brand to focus its resources and energy on doing the right thing, concentrating on what it can manage in the short term and avoiding doing things that are difficult and need to wait for long-term payoffs. Specifically, we have sorted out three major dilemmas for G&M:
1.Brand development option
2.Sub-category selection
3.Brand communication alternatives
01 Brand Development Options
Currently, the market size of lanolin oil is not big, and it seems somewhat outdated to consumers. However, when we further disassembled and analyzed, we found that the loyalty of the existing users of lanolin oil was very high. Static and dynamic estimates on the size of the lanolin oil category also showed that lanolin oil still had great room for growth, enough to support the volume of business that the brand was targeting.
02 Sub-category Selection
User behavior research by the GROWTHX team revealed that consumers primarily used lanolin oil products on their bodies and were generally pleased with their moisturizing and hydrating benefits. Consequently, we went back to the fundamental principle of “keep it simple and avoid the difficult,” and recommended that G&M should concentrate its resources on the body care sector.
03 Brand Communication Alternatives
For a long time, G&M's brand communication has been focusing on emphasizing the moisturizing effect of lanolin oil, and other players in the market tend to follow suit comprehensively, from packaging to EC product pages, resulting in a convergence of communication across the category. Thus, the challenge lay in how to grow a large product category while simultaneously differentiating the brand and successfully acquiring new customers. In formulating a communication strategy, we advised building a brand-driven consumer mindset and translating this strategy into concrete communication content and execution across various touchpoints.
How to make the strategy be implemented without any setbacks: Have the TA been identified? What content will resonate with them? Does the brand tone need to be adjusted? How to allocate social media and e-commerce budgets? Should we go all-in on TikTok? How to ensure that the essence of a good insight and positioning is not lost or even distorted during the communication and execution process? During the project, the GROWTHX boutique demonstrated ILLUMINERA's consistent capabilities in content creation and operation planning, deeply promoted the implementation of the strategy, and provided the brand with more concrete and executable plans.
01 Seeking category breakthroughs, combining attack and defense to attract new customers
On one hand, the brand needs to “stick to” its own product advantages to dispel consumers' misunderstandings. On the other hand, it should take the initiative to “attack” by identifying category breakthroughs. Therefore, we explored from various aspects of raw materials, production process and efficacy, and conducted a horizontal comparison with different products to find the unique advantages of lanolin oil. We then summarized the content framework for product marketing through the alignment and verification with consumers' needs.
02 Consolidating category leadership and building brand differentiation
Having identified the differentiated advantages, the GROWTHX boutique analyzed the brand assets and advantages of G&M from a comprehensive range of dimensions, including brand status, brand history, production process, product quality, etc. Then, the final communication direction of the brand was selected.
At the same time, we helped G&M build a fundamental and instructive “Brand House” and further devise the jobs to be done, providing a strategic basis for product launches.
G&M Brand House
END
As a marketing expert in brand growth, the GROWTHX boutique of ILLUMINER has provided an accompanying consulting service for G&M, successfully rejuvenating the third-generation of lanolin oil care products and accelerating it to stand out in the fierce market competition. The products have been highly sought after by consumers and won the 2024 Popularity Science Single Product Award of Yimeishang. Starting from the dual perspectives of business growth and brand improvement, we are committed to facilitating the executability and effectiveness of strategies, and also providing a breakthrough solution for small and medium brands to seek differentiated development.
For more consulting services on brand growth strategies, please send an email to
faye.tang@illuminera.com
lana.liang@illuminera.com
