AMATI& Associates

Amati & Associates / Credentials Presentationwww.amati-associates.com

growth focusWe assist our clients at the crossroads of three com-plementary - and often contraddictory - disciplines:1. Management Consulting, by focusing on the

analysis and the strategy, by ensuring we are asking the right questions

2. Customer Research, by promoting the custom-er and the consumer at the center of our focus

3. Creative, by delivering unique and compelling solutions

While we always begin by assessing the market and by looking in depth at the consumers, the core of our expertise includes strategy, branding and in-novation. Most of our customer are happy also be-cause we can translate our solutions into practical steps that include e.g., route to market, customer and portfolio management as well as international expansion plans.

Main Sectors of Expertise: Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Luxury Consumer Services

Wines and Spirits Consumer Electronics Domestic Appliances

Food and Beverages Fashion

Beer Advertising

Design Distribution

Pharmaceuticals/ OTC

With the market place transforming from product-centered innovation, to value in-novation, the competitive landscape is re-shaping: in environments that are becom-

ing more and more chaotic and unpredictable, with increasing risk of “unknown unknowns”, the creative approach becomes a necessity: first and foremost to gather unique and propri-etary insights, and, more importantly, to unleash the power of unique, consumer centered, powerful solutions.

Using thecustomer point of view

Co-creation

Co-creating with experts and leading edge consumers is a powerful yet easy way of generating insights, develop-ing relevant and creating solutions, evaluating brands and assessing whether we are doing a good job at making consumers happy. We mostly co-create through off-line workshops, in which we put together clients and their consumers, experts and designers, to discuss, debate, agree, analyze and solve problems, or tap into new oppo-runities. We use ii as a tool for branding, for innovation and for international expansion.

Rituals

While consumer habits are one of the pillars of consumer marketing – because habits drive repetitive consumption – we often go beyond them to propose rituals as a source of growth. Rituals have a stronger emotional root than habits, and are linked to self-fulfillment and enjoyment (in planning ex-ante, in the moment and in remember-ing ex-post). Rituals can be an incredible inspiration for innovation, as well as a great way to market an existing product or brand.

Occasions

Categories do not drive consumption anylonger, brands do. And brands are deeply rooted in the occasions that make most sense, occasions which are the most relevant. This is truee in electronics, where listening to music translates into different meanings and brands depensing on whether we are at home, in the office or on-the-go, or whether we are gearing-up, winding down or flirting. This is true also in food and beverages, luxury, consumer goods and more and more sectors.

Asking the right questions

There are many myths about management consult-ing, legends that contain some kernel of truth and some degree of falsity. But these stories neglect to answer the most basic question about this famed

profession: What do management consultants actually do? The answer to that query does not require any exaggeration, be-cause these professionals already deal with complicated prob-lems and situations that lack transparency; they operate in an environment worsened by a multitude of opinions, devoid of a set direction, making things even more difficult to resolve.

Analysis before action

write the equation – and to solve it, too! This process of overseeing an otherwise unsolvable issue is, at its core, what constitutes ‘analy-sis before action’: Identifying the relevant topics, so a consultant can successfully engage a client by asking the right question for which there is, indeed, an answer.

By framing things this way, a consul-tant can assess the legitimacy of the question itself, and then coordinate with the client on the necessary steps to either reformulate the question or pursue the answer. For example: My team worked with a company, in an effort to bet-ter understand how a variation in price could improve sales for a premium cos-metics brand. Since the question involved pricing, and the funda-mental concern was about growth, the challenge was clear: How do we accelerate sales In this scenario, because issues are not exclusive to one department or set of executives, finding a solution is not the same as solving an equation. On the contrary, it is the responsi-

bility of a management consultant to structure and write the equation – and to solve it, too! This process of overseeing an otherwise unsolvable issue is, at its core, what constitutes ‘analysis before action’: Identifying the relevant topics, so a consultant can successfully engage a client by asking the right question for which there is, indeed, an answer.

By framing things this way, a consul-tant can assess the legitimacy of the question itself, and then coordinate

with the client on the necessary steps to either reformulate

the question or pursue the answer. For ex-

ample: My team worked with a company, in an effort to better understand

how a variation in price could

improve sales for a premium cosmetics

brand. Since the question involved pricing, and the fundamen-tal concern was about growth, the challenge was clear: How do we ac-celerate sales with a premium priced product?

By reframing the question, we soon realized that the root cause of the

In this scenario, because issues are not exclusive to one department or set of executives, finding a solution is not the same as solving an equation. On the contrary, it is the responsibility of a management consultant to structure and

problem was not a matter of pricing; any change upwards or downards in price would have resulted in reduced distribution and consumer accep-tance. The problem was, instead, one of expectations and positioning: The price was in line with the brand’s perceived value, but the company’s approach relegated the product line to a niche category.

The client’s products were only used for special occasions, which ex-plained the slow growth in volume, so any change in price would have further hindered expansion. This

analysis before action method elimi-nated the fog of confusion, a cloud of hot air, personal opinions and misguided expectations, enabling us to arrive at the right conclusion – that we had to address the brand’s architecture and the consump-tion patterns of consumers. Then, we could uncover our solution and expand sales.

Also, the analysis before action ap-proach is crucial, now more than ever, because of the disruptive role of technology and the shortened life cycle of most products. In other

words: Companies can no longer operate on autopilot, belatedly analyzing situations that are beyond repair. Put a different way, we should aspire to be Netflix, not Blockbuster; the former is a bold in-novator, redesigning its business model and upending the status quo, while the latter is extinct and a symbol of abject failure because they could not see what was happening around them.

A change in perspective can, in short, bring about significant shifts in behavior and influence. The starting point, as always, involves writing – and refining and revising – the questions that will yield the right answer, and validate your results.

Never forget, too, that a brand’s customers should be at the center of these activities. And, in an era of big data and the allure of trying to quantify everything, it is easy to find more and more numbers of less and less significance. Force yourself to look at data your competitors currently ignore; in fact,

Consumer Insights to Drive Innovation

BackgroundA customer in electronics wanted to generate actionable insights in the area of the Well being user. The great challenge for this segment is the act of balancing between pleasure and wellness whose sweet-point changes in time and with life-stage.

ApproachA number of co-creation sessions in New York, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Workshops to internally write, rank and filtter the insights. On-line research to validate the insights.

ResultsA validated framework to identify the well-being sweet spot by life stage and for each stage the ranking of the top potential insight platforms.

Focus on customersTo drive growth of a distribution company

Background.A distribution company in the food and beverages sector, was not tracking how the trade allowances were distributed by customer. In particular there was no sense for the right level of investment to allocate to a customer account.

ApproachIn a first phase the investment vs. the revenues of each customer was the focus of the analysis. The objective was to get a sense of discrepancies and opportuni-ties. Then a customer segmentation model was developed: it contained 3 macro criteria: commercial, economic and marketing. The money was allocated through the new clusters by investing more in top customers and reducing the allowances in “over-invested” clients.

ResultsEBITDA Growth of 3% Y-o-Y.

Brand repositioningTo prepate for the next stage of international growth

Background.A global player in business services, with an impressive track record of growth at top- and bottom-line level - wanted to update its brand architecture and positioning to get ready for the future challenges.

ApproachDesk research, customer research, internal and external interviews, and two workshops to build the positioning and advise on a more suiting brand archi-tecture.

ResultsNew mission, positioning and brand architecture delivered in 8 weeks

Rituals to spur innovation

BackgroundA global leader in its sector wanted to tap on innova-tion ideas based on consumer rituals, by defining innovative products, and/ or way of marketing existing products.

ApproachDeveloped a ritual based framework and identified the top priorities among the drinking occasions by seg-ment.Workshops and Co-creation sessions with leading edge consumers to generate and validate rituals and ideas .

ResultsAn innovation framework for the customer to use independently. Three consumer/ drinking occasion

International Expansion

BackgroundA company operating in the beverage sector wanted to grow internationally. Part of the objective of the study was to select the best route to market for their brands in a specific country.

ApproachMarket and competitor analysis, distributors interviews, financial top level audit.Definition of top criteria for screening.Analysis of all possible route to markets and recommendation based on commercial, marketing and financial objectivesRanking and short listing of the top 3 prospective companies and initiated contacts.

ResultsNegotiation started with the 3 partners, and deal concluded in 3 months

Co-creationTo make alaunch/ no-launch decision

Background.A client wanted to execute a consumer lab to assess the viability of a product launch as well as get inspiration on some route to market ideas.

ApproachCo-creation session with 8 leading edge tweens in Toronto Canada, launch team and management.

ResultsGenerated critical insights and product launch idea, which helped make the launch a success, by providing critical product, packaging and route-to-market inputs.

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