Success in Russia - how we measure it and how we plan it

When bringing a new product to the market, we cannot just wait around for what is going to happen. Surely, we are counting on a huge success, but while we do not know what it is going to be, we need some tools to measure the outcomes.

We have decided to adopt the following indicators of Neutrogena's Wave performance on Russian market. They could be classified into two groups - financial indicators and general market penetration indicators.

The first group is:

1) Profit;

2) Revenue;

3) Market campaign cost/profit - to see how many dollars did one dollar invested in marketing campaign brought.

4) NPV.

The second group:

1) number of customers - in a few months we are planning to reach 15 mln customers, which is nearly the number of all women in the age of 16-30 in Russia;

2) customer satisfaction - this can never be measured completely, but we still can find some reviews for our product online or even conduct special surveys.

3) market share - for now Neutrogena's products account for 2.5% market share in Russia. This is quite depressing, and competitive rivalry is very intense. Nevertheless, we are very optimistic about Neutrogena Wave and we project that introduction of this fabulous cleanser will result in 15-20% market share for Neutrogena in Russia;

4) market penetration - it seems logical to us to start sales in key regions such as Moscow and St Petersburg and then gradually introduce the product in other parts of Russia. Finally, we are planning to be able to provide Neutrogena Wave to any woman in Russia, wherever she is - in Nakhodka or Severodvinsk.

We have also developed the timeline of our future success, which hopefully Neutrogena Wave would follow.We give it four months to bloom - starting in October 2013 and reaching the end goal in January 2014.

In October 2013 we will start sales in Moscow and St Petesburg, introducing the product in about 600 stores of different cosmetics retail chains. During the next three months we plan to increase the number of stores where Neutrogena Wave is going to be sold, until it is available in all stores of Rive Gauche, L'etoile, Ulybka Radugi, Douglas, etc.