A leading instrumentation company was forced to evaluate its marketing strategy in the rapidly consolidating market it serves. The Company’s strategy had been to be a leading full line integrator exploiting cost advantages and strong customer relationships. Its strength had traditionally been in the North American market. After experiencing declining sales, the Client was evaluating whether its current marketing strategy was appropriate given the changing market dynamics to include:
- Slowing infrastructure development and major project activity in North America
- Oligopolistic competition and preferential trading agreements in emerging growth markets
- Rapidly changing technology
- Privatization and de-regulation were creating new market opportunities
- Mergers and acqtions wuisiere spurring market consolidation and product standardization
To respond to these changes, the Client turned to RSR to study this very complex situation and to recommend an appropriate marketing strategy. After meeting with the Client, RSR developed and executed the following work plan:
Problem Definition:Did the current market strategy need refining or a radical transformation?
Was profitable growth achievable without pursuing international markets? And, could they become a dominant full-line integrator overseas?
Would acquisitions of product or market specialists strengthen their position?
RSR Approach and Methodology
- Determine the current, historical, and projected market size and shares – RSR conducted in-depth interviews with key executives from approximately 30 major suppliers to quantify and segment the market. We quantified competitors’ past, present and anticipated market shares in each of the key market segments. Through this effort we were able to thoroughly, objectively examine the competitive landscape.
- Project market demand trends – RSR interviewed major suppliers and customers to determine the key growth drivers that were impacting the market place and their business. By identifying the growth drivers by market / product segment as well as geographic region, we determined the key factors that a company’s strategy needs to influence in order to be successful in the market place.
- Benchmark and evaluate competitors’ business strategies – RSR identified and categorized the business models and strategies of various competitors. We then compared suppliers’ business strategies to their market share gains and losses to determine which strategies have historically been most effective.
Results
- RSR recommended that the Client continues with its overall full line integrator business strategy but allocate more resources to new product development and international marketing.
- RSR recommended specific geographic areas and market segments to target and recommended focused sales and marketing initiatives to grow in these segments.
- As a result of the RSR engagement, the Client altered its marketing strategy and grew international sales at three times the rate of domestic sales.
About RSR
RSR Marketing Solutions is a research/consulting firm that works with industrial companies in their business development activities. We help our clients make better strategic decisions by giving them an in-depth understanding of the market and competitive landscape. Our clients are the research-driven companies, which armed with the right market intelligence, will be the market leaders of tomorrow.
We help our clients grow their business by providing them:
- Market entry studies
- Customer analysis
- Acquisition analysis
- Competitive analysis
- Business case analysis
- Territory market studies
To learn more about RSR Marketing Solutions, see our About Us page.