Cases -

The Element Group was in an enviable position. After four short years since start-up, this retail bank construction firm was profitable and had recouped most start-up costs. They wanted to take the next step with the business. They sought help in three areas:

1.Improved % repeat clients

2.Develop a reoccurring revenue stream.- 100% of their revenue was from capital projects.

3.Build a thought leadership voice for their brand – demonstrate capability breadth beyond construction

A thorough situation analysis along with both qualitative and quantitative studies, generated insights led to execution of the following over the following three years:

Strategy: Reposition TEG as a retail banking thought leader across high-value capabilities beyond branch design/construction –

•Customer experience - Merchandising and marketing

•Consumer insight leader

• Real estate sherpa - site selection and development

• Branch fulfillment – Be the low cost fulfillment partner for all customer branches

In the seven years since…

•Revenue has quadrupled

•Several large regional banks count TEG as agency of record – TEG has 100% share-of-wallet

•The annual release of key customer awareness and attitude insights has helped develop the sought idustry credibility

Giant Eagle Grocery Chain

Giant Eagle is a privately held, top 20 US grocery chain that was losing market share. After a thorough analysis and deliberation, leadership reframed their strategy around three areas they would strive to be "famous". One of the three focus areas was GE's own brands.

Historically, own brands had been an after-thought. The business lacked singular ownership/accountability. It wasn't measured as an entity in terms of financials. There lacked any type of brand cohesion, voice or dedicated consumer spend.

After extensive research and analysis, leadership approved our plan - we completely overhauled own brands.

• Org. responsibility consolidated to one owner

• Developed a strategy of focus on a short list of imperatives

  • Brand consolidation - Focus on five brands (two new)

  • Focused on 28 categories

• Identified several "hero" categories - halo of brand benefit across the brand

• Innovate - develop capability for proprietary formulas and package structures

• Better and better-for-you foods

• Developed brand standards and a brand package architecture for consistency

• Consumer led marketing

• Invested behind two on-trend brands

• Strategic Pricing

• Promotional focus

Results:

• Share of chain sales grew 1.5Pt/yr over three years +41% top-line

• Improved GM 25bpt/yr

• Doubled annual products launched - cut cycle -50%

• Grew two new brands (Foodie & Organic) to $150MM in three yrs

Goodyear Eagle, once the leader in High performance tires was losing market share both in premium, and value tiers. The Eagle product lines hadn't kept pace with Michelin. Their products had become tired and outmatched in the market.

To compound the issue, GY lacked a clear market view - use of different, and flawed segmentation models prohibited a clean evaluation. Third, while the company had great customer relationships, they were out-of-touch with high performance consumer needs/wants/attitudes.

Not surprisingly GY wasn't seeing an acceptable ROI from their R&D investment.

There were five important org. needs -

1. An accurate segmentation of the High Performance Tire market - drive org. alignment .

2. Consolidate all decentralized resources pursueing alternate agendas

3. Leverage segmentation and comprehensive situation analysis - alignment for GY portfolio Innvation strategy

4. Rank and prioritize opporunities/threats based upon probability and impact.

5. Codify a three year portfolio roadmap - Insure full org. alignment and support

In yr. one of the road map, GY launched three new lines - Yr. one revenue $150MM