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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2020

  Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

  Jill Avery

  On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and how could it be valued? Every acquisition had to be measured against the cost of developing and building a look-a-like brand internally. Would Drunk Elephant prove to be an integral part of Shiseido’s future success and what would it take to unlock its full brand value? What kinds of further investments would Shiseido need to make to realize the new brand’s potential? How would the brand fit into the company’s existing brand portfolio of 42 brands?

  Keywords: marketing; marketing strategy; brands and branding; brand management; brand valuation; Brand equity; Brand Value; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; entrepreneurship; Startup; DTC; valuation; brand portfolio strategy; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Japan; Asia; North America;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-121, June 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019 (Revised June 2020)

  Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

  Jill Avery

  On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and how could it be valued? Every acquisition had to be measured against the cost of developing and building a look-a-like brand internally. Would Drunk Elephant prove to be an integral part of Shiseido’s future success and what would it take to unlock its full brand value? What kinds of further investments would Shiseido need to make to realize the new brand’s potential? How would the brand fit into the company’s existing brand portfolio of 42 brands?

  Keywords: personal care; Startup; Brand equity; brand valuation; Brand Value; brand storytelling; brand management; Brands and Branding; Valuation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Japan;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant." Harvard Business School Case 520-052, November 2019. (Revised June 2020.)  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2020

  Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser

  Jill Avery

  Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define Budweiser’s value proposition and guide its development and execution around the world. The problem was that Budweiser actually had two distinct brand realities that differed across geographies and that often interfered with each other. He worried whether the company could keep selling a premium brand proposition abroad as the brand’s less premium reputation faced challenges at home in the U.S., and whether he needed to force a monolithic global brand strategy everywhere or allow for local market customization. Could Budweiser simultaneously accommodate two or more brand realities?

  Keywords: brand management; global brands; Brand equity; brand storytelling; brand communication; brand positioning; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Global Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; China; Africa; Latin America;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-130, June 2020.  View Details

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