Brand and Category Extensions - TURF Case Study

Business Objective:

A B2B retailer in the MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) industry wanted to consolidate its major brand lines without reducing revenues and customer perceptions of offering a variety of quality brands.  It also wanted to increase its private label offerings into more categories to increase margin profitability overall.

Research Objective:

The research consisted of several phases with various objectives:

• Understand purchase intentions of national brands in major product categories among category purchasers and non-purchasers.  Determine the minimum number of national brands per category to carry without a reduction in sales.
• Uncover the motivations and barriers to buying private label products.
• Develop and test alternative private label positioning in new product categories to identify the greatest incremental sales gains possible with the minimum number of additional private label product categories.

Methodology:

CMI employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research between national brand and private label buyers in the MRO category.

The Result:

The retailer was able to reduce the number of national brands without a reduction in sales or negatively affecting customer perceptions of their offerings, thereby reducing inventory costs and increasing margins.  Client was also able to successfully extend its private label offerings into additional categories, enhancing its position of offering value alternatives while increasing margins in the process.