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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2020

  Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

  Jill Avery

  Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised an average savings of 40% versus national brands through the elimination of the BrandTax™, the hidden costs the company claimed consumers paid for a national brand. As the venture-funded startup entered the fiercely competitive CPG industry, it was simultaneously taking on both the world’s greatest brands and the world’s most dominant retailers. Could Brandless change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries and medicine cabinets? Industry pundits had long predicted both the death of brands and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the final nail in the coffin?

  Keywords: brand; marketing; brands and branding; brand management; DTC; e-commerce; private label; groceries; packaged food; personal care; Startups; retailing; marketing strategy; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-058, January 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2019 (Revised December 2019)

  La Roche-Posay: Growing L'Oreal's Active Cosmetics Brand

  Jill Avery, Vincent Dessain and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

  As 2018 neared its end, Laetitia Toupet, international general manager of L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay brand reflected on the brand’s achievements over the past year. At €1 billion in revenue, La Roche-Posay had recently become the number one dermocosmetics brand in the world. While Toupet was pleased with this feat, she believed that the brand was at a critical juncture. It was time to make some significant marketing decisions related to brand positioning to try to accelerate La Roche-Posay’s future growth trajectory as dermocosmetics moved from serving a niche market to the mainstream.

  Keywords: branding; brand management; consumer products; brand positioning; target market; global brands; global marketing; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Globalized Firms and Management; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Health Industry; France; Europe; Brazil; China; Asia; South America; United States; North America;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, Vincent Dessain, and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej. "La Roche-Posay: Growing L'Oreal's Active Cosmetics Brand." Harvard Business School Case 520-035, October 2019. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2018 (Revised November 2019)

  Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand

  Jill Avery and Nobuo Sato

  Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four strategies: 1.) increasing R&D spending from 1.8% to 3% of sales, 2.) investing an incremental ¥120 billion in brand-building marketing, 3.) moving to a “think global-act local” matrixed brand management structure, and 4.) rethinking brand portfolio strategy, be enough to achieve aggressive 8% per year sales goals while simultaneously increasing the company’s operating margin from 8% to 10% in the highly competitive and slow growing beauty industry?

  Keywords: brand management; Brand Value; turnaround; brand portfolio; brand communication; global brands; digital marketing; Return on investment; marketing ROI; internet marketing; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Value; Growth and Development Strategy; Investment Return; Consumer Behavior; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; Asia;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, and Nobuo Sato. "Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand." Harvard Business School Case 519-026, December 2018. (Revised November 2019.)  View Details

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