Success Stories

Vision + Strategy

Building a Competition-Beating Strategy Through “War Gaming”

The Situation

A global food company was facing increased branded and private label price competition and profit pressures in a core category that was becoming increasingly commoditized. The business was seeking to build a premium offering, but was struggling to successfully transition its business without losing excessive volume and tonnage share, which would impair capacity utilization and further erode profit margins. A restage of the premium range was planned, and the company engaged SPG to help it assess the strategic plan and the potential competitive responses to its actions.

What We Did

  • We worked with the team to crystalize their strategy and action plans
  • From our experience in other categories, we shared a number of examples successful multi-tiered portfolio strategies and helped the team identify key insights to incorporate into its approach
  • SPG designed and facilitated a competitive “war gaming” session, developing an in-depth analysis and testing the company’s plans against multiple response scenarios

Results

We significantly increased the team’s understanding of its key competitors. The team developed a revised strategic plan, including a refined pricing and trade strategy. In addition, full cross-functional alignment, which had been lacking, was built through the process.