International Beauty Markets
The Case:
DECA Momentum Case Competition, Management Consulting Division
The rules:
Deadline: 30 Minutes
The Format: 15 minutes + 5 minutes of questions
My Placement:
2nd Place
Situation
Prepare a plan to expand a natural beauty company to France, Brazil or a new domestic market. The US based beauty product company already has some traction in the states, but would like to venture potentially, internationally.
Our Decision
Launch and expand the beauty product into the Brazilian market
Create brand awareness
The Target
Women ages 18-30, enjoys beauty, self-care, follows influencers on social media, willing to pay for natural beauty products.
The Analysis
BRAZIL
Pros: One of the fastest growing beauty markets with the natural trend blowing up
Cons: Not a lot of infrastructure in place, starting from the bottom
FRANCE
Pros: Very developed beauty industry with lots of infrastructure and knowledgeable consumers
Cons: Consumers like what is familiar to them
US STATE
Pros: Easy distribution and partnership already in place
Cons: Unfavourable margins and lots of middlemen
The Expansion Strategy
Brazil is one of the fastest growing beauty industries in the world
Do field research to tailor products to Brazilian tastes
Produce in Brazil to lower production costs
Maybe even partner with an already established Brazilian brand
Establish stores in big cities : i.e. Rio de Janeiro
Heavy mall promotion
Hire influencers and beauty experts to promote the brand
What I’ve learned
Presentation skills go a long, long way
Because of our 30-minute time constraint, leveraging our presentation skills and coming off as more confident than we were, helped us a lot.
Don’t neglect the storytelling
We ultimately came in 2nd because we had an underdeveloped story and creative aspect. The winning team did a better job at presenting a cohesive and concrete story arc to go with their strategy. If I could redo it again, I would focus less on all the options and delve deeper into a few and present a solid story behind the few.
Second place isn’t acceptable
It’s humbling, but I also do hear them say “Second is the first loser”….