Consumer Products

Consumer products companies face new challenges created by complex consumer and shopper behavior, retail consolidation and emerging markets. But these same challenges also open new routes to profitable growth. Bain has helped to increase profits and build sustained value for leading consumer product companies worldwide. We have worked with 90 percent of the 25 largest global consumer products companies and completed thousands of projects in this industry over the past 10 years.

What we do

Bain works with consumer products companies around the world to:

  • Design repeatable growth models and innovation pipelines that generate new products with higher potential and lower risks of failure
  • Artfully manage brand portfolios—defining optimal brand and product portfolio roles, winning strategies, investment levels and profit expectations
  • Develop and measure 360-degree consumer and shopper engagement and loyalty through multiple media and touch points, including traditional advertising, social media, point-of-sales activation and Net Promoter® Scores
  • Accelerate brand growth, even in slow categories in developed markets, using the Bain Brand AcceleratorSM approach
  • Become a true partner for retailers, adding value through sophisticated collaboration programs built on shopper insights, integrated supply chains, systems and data sharing
  • Align, measure and provide frontline incentives for perfect store execution
  • Build a culture of continuous cost improvement, ensuring the organization measures and tracks true cost-to-serve in order to drive it down relentlessly over time
  • Master mergers and acquisitions to gain a competitive advantage in target selection, valuation and integration—building additional scale and the resulting economic efficiencies
  • Simplify, speed up and slim down operating models to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their organizations
  • Create a talent pipeline to deliver growth expectations
Our clients include companies in the food, beverages, apparel, household products, luxury goods, beauty aids, personal care, toys, and office products sectors.
How we work
We help consumer products companies become more successful by identifying where to focus to build the most value. We assist in accelerating brand and category growth, expanding into new markets or optimizing costs, to name just a few.

Our consumer products practitioners combine deep industry expertise with experience in all major regions and functional areas, and use proven proprietary approaches and rigorous fact-based analysis. In addition, Bain’s deep experience in the retail industry brings further perspective to our understanding of industry challenges and opportunities. Our teams collaborate with clients to develop common objectives, define roles and responsibilities, propose recommendations and implement practical solutions.
Client results
We share our clients’ ambitions. We work to understand their reality and deliver true results—focusing on strategic decisions and practical actions. And we align our incentives with our clients’ objectives, so they know we’re in it together. The results stories below are just a few examples of how we’ve helped clients realize, and often exceed, their goals.
Insights
We develop insights that work for our clients. Our approach and recommendations are highly customized and lead to practical actions. Below is a selection of our experts' perspectives on important issues—for our clients and their industries. Visit Bain Insights to read more.
To view more consumer products publications, please visit Bain Insights
Our team

We work as an integrated part of your team, from frontline to C-suite, to deliver true results and make the changes stick. We have a core group of experienced senior consumer products focused experts that we can deploy across the globe.

  • Vijay

  • Vijay Vishwanath

    Head of Global Consumer Products practice

    Boston

    View profile
  • Kara

  • Kara Gruver

    Head of Americas Consumer Products practice

    Boston

    View profile
  • Matthew

  • Matthew Meacham

    Head of EMEA Consumer Products practice

    Madrid

    View profile
  • Mike

  • Mike Booker

    Head of Asia Consumer Products practice

    Singapore