Profiling of Competitor Operations

• Industry: Industrial Goods and Services

A major player in the packaging industry wanted to have a deeper understanding of its major competitor manufacturing operations. Recently, the competitor’s profits rebounded due to operational efficiency gains and its ability to maintain market share in a number of key segments and geographies. Its focus on innovation in the last few years has developed a number of new designs to enhance clear differentiation and stronger communication of consumer benefits.

We blended secondary and primary research with emphasis on interviews with well-placed and knowledgeable persons related to the key intelligence topic. For each operations we developed an in-depth profile: plant lay out and number of lines, operating metrics, raw material prices, production set up, logistics between operations, and recent and planned investments, equipment upgrades.

We synthesized and analyzed the findings from both primary and secondary research and discussed findings with client.

Go-to-Market Strategy and Pricing Structure

• Industry: Consumer Products

Our client wanted to enter the Russian market and wanted to understand from two competitors the pricing structure and route to market strategy. The client’s difficulty was that they traditionally relied on their distributors in many of their markets to get competitive and market information and have no way of knowing how reliable it is. We were asked to identify best competitive practices, to benchmark costs and pricing levels, distributor compensation structures and channel strategies of two established competitors.

We established a wide source base and interviewed industry experts, sales people, distributors, wholesalers and current and former target company employees and channel partners across Russia to gain insider and expert insight to understand how the competitors promoted their products, what discounts they used and how they were planning to expand.

We provided the client with detailed information and insight into the competitors’ marketing and distribution strategy such as: channel structure, channel control and ownership of costs, pricing levels and margins, discounted goods and services, rebates, incentives and discounts, duties and taxes being incurred, and plans for future growth.

Market Entry and Strategy Development

• Industry: Industrial Goods and Services

A leading manufacturer of processing equipment wanted to extend its geographical scope and wanted to acquire insights regarding the market dynamics and competitive environment to develop an international strategy.

Through in-depth telephone interviews of customers, competitors, equipment and material suppliers, consultants, distributors/agents, and other industry related individuals, we were able to develop insight into the key competitors in the target market; identifying the technical requirements for their products, the key competitor’s product portfolios, distribution strategy, pricing and discount structure, marketing strategy and tactics, and sales force composition and compensation/commission structure.

Our insights into the market dynamics and competitive environment provided the client with the necessary support to fine-tune its strategic decisions regarding the target market entry and strategy development for pursuing growth opportunities.

Competitor’s Supply Chain in the Personal Care Market

• Industry: Consumer Products

A major Personal Care company wanted to evaluate and redefine its supply chain and benchmark itself against its principle competitors to explore facets of competitor’s manufacturing and supply chain capabilities.

We conducted extensive secondary and primary research to identify for each defined competitor the manufacturing locations and operational KPIs and identified trends related to each company’s production strategy, technology roadmap and sourcing approach. And for each identified location and we uncovered key equipment, setup of production lines and KPIs including major sourcing links between each manufacturing location.

By understanding the key competitor’s supply chain networks and organization and their key performance indicators, our client was able to assess gaps in its own operations and identify best practices.

Key Drivers behind purchasing decisions

• Industry: Industrial Goods and Services

A world leading agribusiness faced a market environment characterised by declining sales in crop protection products. In Europe parallel trade had been introduced to help equalize prices across Europe and impacted the company’s pricing. Together with a possible review of an EU directive, the company wanted help to understand the key drivers behind purchasing decisions of traders in various European countries to review its country commercial policies and reinforce cross-country pricing optimisation process.

Working closely with country management we conducted extensive primary research with industry experts, traders and distributors and other relevant market players to investigate the key drivers in a number of European countries. We gathered intelligence on:

• Traders core criteria for choosing products, other criteria and major blockers in their activities;
• The types of products imported and whether they are original or generic;
• How extensively traders choose to refill and/or re-label products in each market;
• Difficulties in accessing certain products in the export countries and finding outlets in the import countries as well as their information sources;
• Perceptions around which countries are easier or more difficult to register new products; and
• Possible sources and destinations of supply.

The insights and conclusions developed over the course of the project have served as critical inputs to key commercial decisions in the researched countries.

Assessment of Competitor Partner Channel Strategy and Go-To-Market Strategies

• Industry: Technology

A global software provider wanted to build upon previous business channel research experience to complete a focused business intelligence analysis of their competitor’s partner ecosystem and determine the dynamics of those relationships. In addition, this project yielded in-depth analysis of existing partner programs being rolled out by the company as well as its go-to- market messaging and competitive statements being utilized by both the direct sales force and its channel partners.

The project delivered deep insights into competitor’s Partner Program Go-To-Market proposition, and tactics, strengths and weaknesses for developing and growing its partner ecosystem, both from competitor and partners’ point of view, including keys to continued success, support through sales cycle and customer sourcing.

The result was that client was able to identify areas of opportunity to leverage in messaging and new customer acquisition initiatives.