Our Insight work: Crabtree & Evelyn case study
About the Client Founded in 1972, Crabtree & Evelyn has evolved from a small, family-run business – specializing in fine soaps from around the world – to an international company, best known and respected for its original fragrances, luxurious toiletries and gifts. Crabtree & Evelyn operates over 200 retail stores and 8,500 wholesale accounts globally.
The Issue Rejuvenating the Crabtree & Evelyn Brand for Growth
The Crabtree & Evelyn (C&E) brand has both heritage and recognition across a number of diverse markets worldwide. Its product ranges extend from the traditional (Lavender, Rosewater) to the contemporary (La Source, Aromatherapy Distillations). C&E needed to develop a clear and practical brand strategy, firmly grounded in customer insight and their needs.
In particular, our brief was:
- To define a brand position that captures the heritage & authenticity of the brand
- To enable the brand to be relevant and compelling for its target customers, both today and in the future
- To carve a distinctive positioning amongst its market competitors
- To provide a practical brand framework, against which it becomes simple and second-nature for all employees and suppliers to work with
- To embed the brand positioning framework with C&E teams across the core markets, providing a unified, global brand platform
The Solution Customer Faithful conducted a Brand Immersion exercise, exploring and distilling ‘What C&E already has that’s valuable?’ so as to anchor the existing heritage and goodwill that exists within the brand. Our research then moved to wider questions such as ‘What else is important to customers’ lives that’s relevant?’ and ‘Which products and competitors brands are fulfilling customer needs in their homes?’
From our insight work, Customer Faithful developed 3 potential positioning routes and explored these in research with C&E customers across the world (from Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to the UK, Australia and Hong Kong.
By combining our secondary and primary research, a newly evolved positioning and brand strategy emerged, defining a consistent and distinctive place for C&E globally, whilst also pinpointing its regional strengths to accentuate in particular markets.
Results In a little over four months, the new Crabtree & Evelyn brand positioning had been designed, validated with customers, presented to the business and enthusiastically endorsed by client sponsors and senior teams. The brand strategy has now become the foundation for all brand development work within the business, and has already guided progress in visual merchandising programmes, new store design, new product development and visual brand identity.
This video clip illustrates how our work helped launch a new brand positioning and product range
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwFhpdvNxyQ&feature=related
Client Testimonial:
“Customer Faithful delivered the three things we needed most – a richness of detail about our customers needs, the ability to distill it into simple, clear recommendations for the brand, and a commitment to making the strategy work across our global business. Even against a challenging timeline, Customer Faithful came in on-time, on-budget and went the extra mile for us, to ensure we got the desired result. Top quality work.”
Catie Callender - (then) Chief Operating Officer at Crabtree & Evelyn