THG INGENUITY x
NEAL'S YARD REMEDIES
Delivering global growth for Neal’s Yard Remedies
A new partnership
As a result of a successful digital strategy, award-winning natural and organic health and beauty brand, Neal’s Yard Remedies, wanted to understand how a direct-to-consumer (DTC) approach could help to propel their international growth. Attracted to THG Ingenuity’s end-to-end DTC solution and scalable approach to internationalization, Neal's Yard Remedies has partnered with Ingenuity for support expanding into key international territories, and with great success.
“The Ingenuity partnership provides us with skills, speed and scalability.”
Stephen Tobitt,
CEO Neal’s Yard Remedies
Key challenges
When approaching international growth, Neal's Yard Remedies faced challenges that THG Ingenuity had the expertise and capabilities to support with. Internally, the business did not have adequate access to the broad range of resources needed to launch their brand into multiple new markets. The brand was also faced with the challenge of selecting the best strategy for customer acquisition in new territories. Plus, extensive insights into target local territories were essential, and demanded a partner that was flexible enough to allow the brand to tailor their model for these markets.
Additionally, Neal's Yard Remedies faced the complexity of having to work with numerous partners in different countries to access the range of solutions required to meet its growth objectives, requiring additional contracts and processes for each partner. These included: a platform provider, a separate logistics provider, a customer service provider and digital marketing support to ensure the brand resonated in the expanded regions.
Through Ingenuity, each of these challenges were addressed, providing a single, scalable point of contact for each component required for the brand's growth.
Strategy and approach
Together we launched DTC sites in the UK (October 2020), the US (January 2021) and Australia (June 2021).
Neal's Yard Remedies had to adapt the way the brand presented itself in these different countries to reflect differences in customers' expectations across the different regions. For example, the way the website was presented in the UK was very different to how it was presented in other locales, reflective of the differing levels of brand awareness between the two countries. The brand is well established in the UK market, so the site is product-focused and tailored towards customers who are familiar with the brand. For the other sites, Ingenuity developed content with an educational focus to ensure consumer queries on skin concerns and to aid product discovery and brand awareness.
Additionally, with the upcoming launch into Germany, THG Ingenuity have supported the brand to make more extensive changes to packaging as a result of compliance regulations in the region.
Entering China
China was a major new market for the brand and a key part of its global growth strategy. Based on 17 years of expertise and having grown several brands in the region, Ingenuity took a dual-site approach launching both an own brand DTC site and Tmall marketplace for Neal's Yard Remedies.
Based on insights into the habits of the Chinese consumer, Ingenuity were able to share that whilst sales would be driven predominately by the Tmall marketplace presence, the DTC site was necessary to validate the brand in the new market. One of the most significant benefits of the brands’ DTC site was the insights it delivered. Through site data, Neal's Yard Remedies saw that a lot of the customers visiting the DTC site were purchasing newly released products that weren’t available on Tmall yet, guiding the brand to the most popular products in the region.
“The team successfully reached agreement for one of the top KOLs in China to represent our brand. They presented two or three of our products and in the space of 10 minutes we recorded sales of over £100,000.”
Stephen Tobitt,
CEO Neal’s Yard Remedies
Go-to-market localization
THG Ingenuity used its go-to-market expertise in China to propose a partnership with a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) based on the power these influencers have had in converting audiences. China is known for having a large presence of KOLs, with their influence making significant contributions to brand awareness and sales. Via Ingenuity’s local market team, Neal's Yard Remedies signed an agreement with one of the top KOLs in China to promote a few of their products and in the space of 10 minutes recorded sales of over £100,000.
Impact of the partnership
Since partnering with THG Ingenuity, Neal's Yard Remedies' YTD revenue targets for China were exceeded by +80% driven by the success of the KOL livestream exposure and a successful Singles' Day campaign.
Skills
THG Ingenuity provided Neal's Yard Remedies with the skills and expertise the brand required including foreign language capabilities, a native-to-market team and international market expertise.
Speed
THG Ingenuity delivered significant growth for Neal's Yard Remedies within impressive timeframes, including launching the UK DTC site from implementation to launch in just 10 weeks.
Scalability
Through the Ingenuity partnership Neal's Yard Remedies have launched into four new markets with confidence, and more on the horizon, all supported by one single partner. The Ingenuity partnership simplifies the brand’s future growth plans due to the scalability designed within the Ingenuity model to grow with the brand as demand grows.
