A $3B Global outdoor apparel brand was underperforming in Europe. Corporate management believed a weak sales team was driving share loss, while European management attributed the decline to strategy, product, and uncompetitive levels of marketing spend. The company engaged our team to determine the true drivers of business performance and, as a follow-on engagement, develop the appropriate strategy to reverse declines.

Our team led a comprehensive evaluation of go-to-market strategy in Europe, assessing product, sales effectiveness, marketing strategy, channel strategy, customer segmentation, and individual market profitability; designed a retrench strategy where the Company would focus efforts in the largest markets and reduce investment/exit smaller, unprofitable countries; and developed a customer profitability model that identified a tail group of unprofitable customers.

The new European go-to-market strategy delivered a more powerful brand in core markets, growing shares by 5-7% in the three years following implementation and enhancing brand leverage to be used to (re)enter smaller markets. Our recommendations also tripled forecasted operating income via several cost savings measures, exiting or transitioning to distributor models in unprofitable markets and reinvestment in core markets to drive growth.