A private-label defence strategy that recovered 4 share points inside two years.

1. 01 The decision

   The client had lost 3.8 share points across three categories in 18 months, all to retailer private label. The brand team wanted to fight everywhere; the CFO wanted to concede in low-margin lines. Nobody had a category-level model to arbitrate.

2. 02 How we ran it

   A senior lead built a category-level defensibility framework based on four axes: gross margin, private-label price gap, brand loyalty index, and innovation-response cost. Two analysts scored 34 SKUs across the framework. A primary consumer study (n=1,200) validated the loyalty scores. We identified 9 SKUs to defend hard, 12 to concede, and 13 to reposition with a premium tier.

3. 03 What we shipped

   A defensibility scorecard for each SKU, an 18-month reinvestment sequencing plan, a competitive war-game deck for the sales team, and a follow-on innovation brief for the R&D pipeline.

4. 04 What changed

   The client recovered 4.1 share points across the defended lines within 24 months. The conceded lines were quietly consolidated with two SKU deletions and a co-brand deal on a third. R&D shipped two premium-tier extensions inside 12 months, both of which now sit in the top-15 of the category.

Client identity is anonymised in this write-up. On-record versions are available on request where the client has given explicit consent — reach the desk for named references.