Market Intelligence: Sample Projects

For a global defense contractor, SIG conducted an in-depth market intelligence and competitor intelligence study of over 30 markets (individual countries) and over 20 global competitors in a specific area of electro-optical battlefield technology.  Using multiple-source intelligence, the project defined specifics on fielded equipment, platforms, and procurement plans (new and retrofit) in each subject country market, plus relevant political and military trends, to assign market priority and total projected value of the market for each country, and to forecast likely short-, medium-, and long-term military, doctrinal, political, and technological developments.  On the competitor side, SIG determined competitor products, sales, strategies, areas of concentration, and other indicators to rate competitors in terms of threat level and to define potential acquisition targets. Used by the client as a basis for revamping of strategic marketing and business development plan, prioritization of markets, sales projections, and designing market entry strategies.

For a venture capital firm considering a major investment in the master franchise of a national personal services franchise business, SIG conducted a national market intelligence and competitor intelligence study, defining market share and strategies of competitors, opportunities for growth, and likely outcomes of the investment.  SIG discovered that, while there was a significant opportunity and the target of investment was well positioned to capitalize on it, certain projections did not take into account actual market and competitor situations, resulting in overestimation of some elements and lack of consideration of others. In addition to the market intelligence elements, SIG conducted deep (non-financial) due diligence on the key individuals leading the company to determine any negativities and ensure they met the client’s criteria for investment. The client made a multi-million dollar commitment to the project, while adjusting the business plan to take into account the elements discovered.

For a Fortune 100 financial firm with global distribution, SIG conducted intelligence on two large competitors to determine their strategic plans.  The project included how they made money (including reverse-engineering complex formulas for payment between the subjects of investigation and their client institutions), and whether and to what extent changes in their strategy might threaten the client’s interests.  Client saved significant resources by not pursuing a certain line of approach and aggressively pursued another opportunity, identified by SIG during the course of investigation.

The client, a major retailer opening multiple, high-end concept stores in multiple markets, was experiencing a significant problem concerning post-opening losses in each store.  Due to insufficient customer traffic, stores did not reach break-even for 14 to 18 months, and multi-million dollar losses were being experienced before the turn around.  Using multiple human intelligence methodologies including ethnographic/anthropological techniques, over 30,000 data points were collected, allowing SIG to penetrate into sub-categories of the client base and discover what was driving the decline in sales.  SIG discovered that certain key assumptions about the stores’ customer base—on which the entire advertising and marketing strategy had been based—were incorrect, and devised a new, different strategy and tactical approach based on the actual situation uncovered concerning customer acquisition patterns and use of the stores.  By applying suggested SIG strategies, the retailer achieved a 400 percent reduction in initial store losses, sharply reducing time to break-even and profitability on a per-store basis.

 

 

A senior-care system with multiple facilities in multiple markets was experiencing a problem in the initial customer acquisition on which the entire business plan was based.  This involved insufficient subscription by “active seniors” who were to purchase condominiums at the “entry-level” and then be upgraded through the system to assisted living and then to nursing care, as their needs changed.  SIG investigated the customer base of the client and its competitors, their demographic and psychographic characteristics, and using human intelligence techniques including ethnographic investigation, tested the utilization of the facilities as well as the specific messages used to appeal to customers, including messages at the “base level” of words, phrases, concepts, colors, etc.  SIG discovered that certain messages the system was using to promote itself had negative connotations to the target entry-level group of active seniors. The system was able to substantially increase subscription by changing to messages with demonstrated appeal and avoiding those with discovered negativities,   Additionally, media placement and wording of advertising was altered to directly target those segments discovered to be highest performers.

The client was entering markets in multiple U.S. states, and had a strategy based on technical factors but not taking into account competition or consumer issues.  Using human intelligence and open source intelligence, SIG conducted an assessment of key factors in each market including the nature and strength of each competitor, likely investment by competitors, marketing and advertising by competitors, and competitor pricing—as well as customer demand, customer desires, and market saturation.  The nature of customers based on the existing customer base of the client was also determined using psycho-demographic lifestyle and cluster analysis.  The resulting data were combined into a matrix that allowed comparative analysis of all factors to qualify and tier markets on fact-based criteria. Client was able to rank order correlate markets for entry based on key elements for profitability, and choose the markets most likely to be productive and provide cash flow for initial entry.  Within each market, SIG also advised on specific site selection based on multiple intelligence factors including matching the desired customer base in the catchement area, saturation of competitor outlets, and other factors.  This allowed for a strategy to enter most productive markets and locations first and finance expansion based on generation of cash flow from operations.

For a U.S. producer of specialized mechanical products, SIG conducted intelligence on Asian producers of competing products.  This included investigating importers into the US, to define the scope of the Asian sources of the goods; levels, types, and pricing of imports; and to determine whether dumping of Asian goods was occurring.  In the process, SIG uncovered an important competitor unknown to the client. By discovering this one producer unknown to the client, while providing insight into the nature and scope of competition by known competitors, SIG enabled the client to gain advantage in relationships with key customers