Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

Pepsico obviously takes a different tack to international brands than its arch enemy Coca-Cola. Coke is drinks, through and through. Pepsico, owner of the Frito-Lay brand, is also into snacks. But to achieve fast growth internationally it has gone for non-organic growth in many markets – ie, it buys up locals. So then you come [...]

This example of what falls into the Ansoff matrix strategy of “market development” shocks me as a Brit. Erdinger Weissbier (a wheat-based Bavarian brew) has been gradually stretching out across different segments to appeal to more than the beer-swilling pot-bellied traditional drinker from home. So it has positioned a low-alcohol variety to car drivers. An [...]

If you take the Ansoff matrix at face value – and follow the “safer” Z sequence, you would never jump straight to a diversification strategy. Does Richard Branson care? Hardly. He’d probably point to a Harvard study that found that there is no correlation between companies with a strategy and business success. If anything, companies [...]

Nestlé does it again. KitKat takes on the Nestlé stamp In the late 80s they bought the traditional York-based English chocolate company Rowntree Mackintosh. One of their biggest assets: KitKat. So over time it was inevitable that the Nestlé owners would roll out their “Nestle on the front of all packaging” strategy in this core [...]

I’ve seen many examples of products stretching their way across the Ansoff matrix into new customer groups or markets (market development strategy), but let me introduce you to one of my favourites. Vaseline for … But before I do, allow me to show you how Vaseline did a similar thing after years in the consumer [...]