Reference / Case study 09 / Dairy & cheese
Bel Group: holding three global brands across three continents without making them identical everywhere
A long-term strategic partnership across three global dairy brands, designed to make a multi-local model useful in decisions: what each brand must hold constant, what markets can adapt, and how teams can work with the distinction independently.
- Client
- Bel Group
- Industry group
- Food & Beverage
- Specific industry
- Dairy & Cheese
- Expertise
- Brand strategy, innovation and capability building
- Markets
- Europe, Americas and Asia
- Engagement
- Multi-year multi-local partnership
- Brands
- The Laughing Cow, Kiri and Babybel
- LED AT
- Young & Rubicam, Brainvalue
Context
Bel Group: holding three global brands across three continents without making them identical everywhere
The work took place over several years with Bel Group teams across The Laughing Cow, Kiri and Babybel. It covered brand platforms, global innovation workshops, category-stretch exploration, regional expansion and the transfer of strategic-planning methods.
The central question was not whether to be global or local. It was how to establish, market by market, what belongs to a brand's non-negotiable core and what must adapt through formats, occasions, pricing, shelf presence and promise.
A global brand that is identical everywhere convinces nobody in particular; a brand that is entirely local is no longer a global brand.
Strategic challenge
The questions that structured the work
Our approach
From analysis to usable decisions
Read each market on its own terms
Establish independent cultural, usage and competitive readings before creating any global synthesis. Comparing too early erases the differences that matter.
Separate core from expression
Make the boundary explicit between the brand's non-negotiable core and its local expression. Without it, each adaptation becomes a fresh negotiation.
Define targets through need
Use needs and occasions rather than demographic averages so a target can remain useful across different consumption cultures.
Bound innovation with permission
Explore extensions through the legitimacy of each brand in each market, then rank territories by regional relevance and commitment horizon.
Transfer decision criteria
Design workshops, planning formats and shared vocabulary for teams to reuse on live projects after the partnership.
Research and work conducted
What the engagement covered
- Developing brand platforms written to be used in briefs rather than archived.
- Defining targets through needs and occasions across very different consumption cultures.
- Comparing market-by-market cultural readings to separate shared patterns from strictly local realities.
- Designing, facilitating and transferring global innovation workshops.
- Exploring category-stretch territories bounded by brand permission and ranked by relevance.
- Qualifying regional expansion opportunities and leaving strategic-planning tools with the teams.
Business value
A reading that makes trade-offs easier
Less reframing
A shared core and common vocabulary reduce repeated global-local framing work across markets and projects.
Bounded local autonomy
When the core and local expression are clear, local teams can decide faster without weakening global coherence.
Earlier innovation sorting
A visible permission perimeter eliminates projects that will not strengthen the brand before development resources are consumed.
Capability that remains
Methods put into the teams remain usable on subjects no external partner will ever support.
Deliverables
Objects teams can use beyond the engagement
- Brand platforms and decision criteria for The Laughing Cow, Kiri and Babybel.
- Need-based target definitions usable across continents.
- Comparative cultural and market readings by region.
- Designed global innovation workshops and reusable facilitation formats.
- A ranked view of category-stretch territories and regional expansion opportunities.
- Strategic-planning methods for autonomous internal use.
Key learnings
What this case makes clear
- Multi-local coherence is built through decision criteria, not declared through a narrative.
- Three brands in the same category can pose three unrelated strategic problems.
- A demographic target rarely travels across continents; a need-based target often can.
- Category stretch is bounded by audience permission, and that permission varies by country.
- A successful long partnership becomes progressively less necessary on subjects it has already treated.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is a multi-local brand strategy?
It defines a shared brand core while establishing which elements of expression, format, occasion, price or channel can adapt to local market realities.
Why are global and local decisions difficult?
Global teams carry coherence while local teams hold market knowledge. Without explicit decision rights and criteria, the same questions are reopened at every launch.
Why define targets by need rather than demographics?
Age, income and household structures do not mean the same thing in every market. A need or occasion can create a more durable shared frame.
What is category stretch?
It is the exploration of how far a brand can extend beyond its original category while remaining credible to audiences.
What makes a multi-year partnership different?
It makes it possible to revisit prior decisions, learn what took hold, maintain challenge and progressively transfer the method to teams.