Blog - Management & Marketing Solutions

Strategic Pricing

Strategic Pricing When one experiences a sharp fluctuation with commodity prices that go into their finished products, the timing is right to consider a series of pricing actions to protect margins. But rather than simply changing list prices and trade promotion monies across-the-board to capture these cost fluctuations, an opportunity exists to take a more strategic approach to the way ...

Miller Lite-Why Restages Sometime Fail-Part 4

In my last three blogs, we've discussed some classic and some very expensive Brand Restage failures. In our final blog, we close the loop on this discussion of how major brands from leading consumer package goods companies often get it wrong when it comes to conducting a brand restage. What follows are the 7 critical steps it takes to get it ...

Miller Lite-Why Restages Sometimes Fail-Part 3

Lite Beer--Restaging the Brand's Message Consider the story of Miller Lite, a brand that has gone through countless restages through the Brand's history. Launched nationally in 1975 as Lite Beer from Miller, the Brand attempted to neutralize the connotations of a light beer by aligning the Lite Beer with former sports celebrities. These personalities would then debate the reason for ...

Miller Lite -Why Restages Sometimes Fail–Part 2

Packaging restages have likewise experienced their share of issues when it comes to turning around a brand. Salon Selectives (where efforts were made to move away from the iconic pink and red bottles), Ice Breaker Pac (whose product and package design looked like an illegal substance), and white Coca-Cola polar bear cans (where consumers confused the package with Diet ...

Innovation Versus Renovation

Innovation Versus Renovation Historically when consumer package goods companies were intent on growing their top-line, they looked to innovation in the form of new products, as the most expedient way of achieving this aim. Indeed innovation has traditionally been seen as the most advantageous way of expanding a company’s consumer franchise, while growing market share. But some of this thinking has ...

Miller Lite-Why Restages Sometimes Fail–Part 1

Turning around a struggling brand is one of the most difficult things for a marketer to accomplish. Indeed once a brand goes into a prolonged sales and market share slump, seldom does it experience a quick turnaround. To deal with these types of situations, marketers often engage in brand restages. Brand restages typically involve performing product upgrades, making packaging changes, ...

Procter & Gamble Plans to Shed 100 Brands…A Wise Decision?

Of considerable interest was the recent announcement by Procter & Gamble to divest as many as 100 of their brands. In making the announcement, Chief Executive A.G. Lafley expressed the view, that "less will be much more", as the sale of these brands account for roughly 10 and 5 percent of Procter & Gamble’s revenue and profit, respectively. Consistent with ...

MMS clients

Here are a few words about our clients: We have been most fortunate to work with a variety of great clients, both large and small. While much of our work has been in the area of consumer package goods, other industries that we've worked with include telecom, payroll, health care, and building services. Our Clients

Our Philosophy

The Management & Marketing Solutions PhilosophyManagement and Marketing Solutions believes we are very different from many of the firms that comprise the consulting industry. Much of this is attributable to our background on the client-side, and the experiences we have garnered. To be able to advise clients on their business opportunities and challenges, it helps considerably to have been ...

Founder’s Bio

Michael Bauer | President ichael is the President/Founder of Management and Marketing Solutions, LLC where he has consulted for a variety of consumer goods, private equity, financial, telecommunications, e-commerce, consumer research, and payroll firms. Previously Michael worked for 31 years at Unilever, with prior marketing experience at the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. While at Unilever, Michael held various positions in general management ...