Context
A European personal care group wanted to enter East Africa but had no commercial footprint, no distributor relationships, and no consumer insight beyond what their global research suggested. The default playbook — appoint a master distributor, run TV — would have lost them three years and most of the launch budget.
The Challenge
The board had committed to a $30M three-year investment. The CFO needed a credible year-one revenue plan within 90 days. The CMO needed a positioning that didn't import European norms into a market where 70% of personal care purchases happen in informal retail.
Approach
Built a market-entry framework that started with consumer truth, not product. 60+ in-home interviews across three income bands. Trade visits to 400+ informal outlets to understand how product moves at the shopper level. Then a positioning that anchored the brand to a specific moment in the consumer's day, distributed via a hybrid model — modern trade for premium SKUs, sub-distributor networks for mainstream.
Outcome
Year-one revenue hit $12M against a $9M plan. The hybrid distribution model was retained for subsequent country launches. The framework became the group's standard market-entry playbook for emerging markets.