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Region: Europe

Amplify B2B Innovation

Breaking the Mold: Five Ways to Amplify B2B Innovation

Innovation has been called the “lifeblood of the organization,” fueling the development of new and improved products and services, identifying ways to satisfy unmet customer needs, and creating growth and value for the business. While innovation is most often discussed in a B2C context, many B2B companies have also earned recognition for tremendous strides in implementing a culture of innovation.

Despite the success of companies such as BASF and Dow, there are still many other B2B executives who are concerned about the ROI of innovation within their own companies and are worried that “they do not do innovation well.”

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Even in Flat or Markets with No Growth, “Premium” Lubricants Offer Many Opportunities—Are You Ready to Play?

Even in Flat or Markets with No Growth, “Premium” Lubricants Offer Many Opportunities—Are You Ready to Play?

Lubricant demand is impacted by many factors such as vehicle/equipment/machinery sales and production, miles driven, operating rates, fuel prices, employment, synthetic penetration, industrial production and activity, OEM technical demand, maintenance practices, fluid drain intervals, government and industry policies, transportation preferences, construction activity, infrastructure spending, consumer behavior, and GDP growth. Demand for high performance, “premium” quality lubricants is expected to accelerate in both developed and developing country markets, regardless of whether there is overall top level growth, stagnation, or contraction.

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Data Over Supply

Some Data May be Cheap, but Could Prove Expensive: the Untold Stories

Companies are confronted on a daily, even hourly, basis with the need for data about their own businesses and intelligence about their competitors. Easily available, secondary data may be adequate for the purpose provided that they are reliable. Unfortunately, that is the essence of the problem: is secondary data reliable?

Complex Strategies Based on Questionable Data
All too often companies spend an inordinate amount of time and effort constructing complex strategies based on questionable, unvalidated data. Companies prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an acquisition appear ready (or resigned) to pay for good legal, tax, and environmental advice, but may base the commercial analysis on casual data found on various unsubstantiated websites.

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Procter & Gamble’s Beauty Divestitures

Procter & Gamble’s Beauty Divestitures are a Treasure Trove of Opportunities, According to Kline

Prospective acquirers are now diving into the details on the soon-to-be former brands of Procter & Gamble’s struggling beauty business. The assets reportedly include small yet prestigious fragrance brands, such as Gucci and Hugo Boss, the substantial professional and retail hair care businesses of Wella and Clairol, and the legendary Max Factor and Cover Girl color cosmetic brands. While this partial dismantling of P&G’s beauty empire ends an era of the company’s impressive growth trajectory in personal care, it sets the stage for exciting growth opportunities for strategic and financial buyers. The beauty research and consulting team at Kline has a unique and deep perspective on the history, performance, and potential of this array of brands, as well as what the future may look like for the new owners of these P&G equities.

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Old Dog Learns New Tricks

Old Dog Learns New Tricks

A decade or so ago, Customer Satisfaction and Conjoint Analysis studies were all the rage. Virtually every company was carrying out these surveys on an annual or bi-annual basis. The fire was stoked by the necessity to conduct these surveys in order to obtain and maintain ISO certification. Chemical companies who had previously never performed these exercises found themselves using consumer industry type techniques to learn more about customers’ satisfaction levels. The questions were often general in nature and rather unspecific in direction. To make filling out forms easier, suppliers found ways of making them “fun” – scores were collected by moving smiles on a cartoon face or sliding a petrol pump gauge over from empty to full. Sometimes companies commissioned the studies because they thought they had to, but often the results were put in a drawer and forgotten.

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Growth Strategy

Climbing the Ladder: The 5 “Rungs” of a Killer Growth Strategy

It seems rather obvious that most companies want to grow, in one way or another, and grow profitably at that. Whether it is to increase revenue, profits, or market share or physically expand with new facilities and more employees, striving for growth is a critical part of nearly every business strategy. 

However, what that growth goal really looks like—and how to get there—are often not quite as obvious. For many companies, growth is an abstract goal. They have no clear and compelling agenda for exactly what they want or need to achieve. Articulating this vision is absolutely crucial, as this forms the solid foundation upon which any successful growth strategy must be firmly based. In order to get there, you have to first establish where “there” is. Otherwise, how will you know if/when you’ve arrived? Or if you’ve veered off course? 

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Shaking Things Up: How Smart Companies Overcome Industry Stagnation through M&A

Shaking Things Up: How Smart Companies Overcome Industry Stagnation through M&A

Every industry goes through a similar lifecycle, from emerging to evolving, then reaching maturity and finally, decline. Early on, new players enter the market, taking advantage of the broad opportunities that exist during the emerging and evolving phases and often driving stellar growth in the process.

On the road to maturity, consolidation inevitably shifts the balance of market share into the hands of a few key players, just as we’ve seen over the last few decades in the chemicals industry and more recently in consumer products, such as the U.S. toothpastes market, in which three companies control about 80% of the market share. This consolidation typically occurs through M&A, which can breathe new life into stalled portfolios and re-ignite revenue growth. But how do you know when it’s time to pursue this strategy? And what kind of specific challenges can M&A help solve?

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Lubricant Formulations

The Twilight of Group I: How changes in lubricant formulations are driving fundamental shifts in base oil supply and pricing

The move toward lower viscosity, higher VI, lower volatility automotive engine oils demanded by modern vehicles per U.S. ILSAC GF-5 (and, prospectively, GF-6) and European ACEA standards has caused blenders to move to higher-performance Group II+ and Group III, and away from Group I, base oil stocks as they reformulate their recipes. While the initial impacts of these reformulation trends are being felt in the OECD countries, global advancements in engine oil formulations are inexorable.

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Professional Beauty in France

Vive la différence – Professional Beauty in France

La belle France, a country with a strong aesthetic tradition, widely admired for its taste in style, luxury, and beauty, and where those with an eye for professional primping à la Française continue to pamper themselves – albeit with notable moderation finds our research on professional skin care, beauty devices, and salon hair care markets in France.

When it comes to professional skin care, the discerning French bon vivant is right at home in the largest market, with France accounting for over 20% of skin care product sales in Europe. This figure has remained stable through 2012, save for incremental growth of 0.9%. Ongoing challenging market conditions have seen Guinot, the country’s largest professional skin care brand, which enjoys a loyal clientele, suffer a drop in sales. Conversely, Clarins and Sothys both experienced growth in this period.
France’s aging but vibrant population remains the most vigorous consumer market, with anti-aging products accounting for over 43% of take-home face care sales.

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