Graco 2008 Annual Report Download - page 12

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10
10
Consumer-Centric
Initiatives That DRIVE GROWTH
When Brands That Matter™ deliver
meaningful solutions to consumers,
sales will grow. This simple premise
is the cornerstone of our strategy
across every Newell Rubbermaid
brand today. Since we began chang-
ing the business model in 2006,
we have significantly increased our
annual investment in brand-building,
market-facing activities. This invest-
ment is funding a product pipeline
that encompasses sophisticated
consumer research, innovative
product development and highly
targeted, integrated marketing, pro-
motional and advertising campaigns
to successfully commercialize new
product launches.
Talent development is another
critical area of investment. We have
recruited experienced leaders to help
us reshape the Newell Rubbermaid
culture into a more consumer-centric
organization through marketing
and sales training. Since 2006, we
have trained more than 900 brand,
product and channel marketers
around the world and at all levels
of the organization.
Combined, these activities are
intended to create a virtuous cycle
of brand building. In this cycle,
differentiated products command
premium margins and generate
incremental sales growth and profit.
In turn, these profits are reinvested
into another cycle of new products in
order to generate sustained growth.
With this brand-building cycle as
a foundation, we are well positioned
to tap into other growth levers. Many
of our brands, such as Calphalon®,
Rubbermaid® Commercial Products
and Sharpie®, are finding success
by leveraging their names into near-
neighbor categories. These category
expansions are an excellent way to
leverage our research, product devel-
opment and marketing infrastructure.
Geographic expansion also is
expected to be a long-term growth
driver for the Company. In 2008,
approximately 31 percent of sales
were generated outside of the United
States, up from 26 percent two years
ago. With fewer and more focused
business units in place – 13 GBUs
today versus 26 business units five
years ago – we can better direct and
prioritize our expansion opportunities
to capitalize on high-growth, emerging
markets, while further diversifying
our revenue base.
Consumer฀Insight:฀฀The Sharpie® Pen
was developed to meet the desire
of Sharpie® marker users who want
the everyday writing experience of
a Sharpie® marker without the ink
bleed-through.