The Situation
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A leading pet food company was facing intensifying competition and needed comprehensive competitive intelligence on a key competitor to inform its upcoming brand planning cycle. The company required in-depth insights on competitors’ product plans, marketing tactics, and sales strategies to shape its strategic sales initiatives and ensure its brand plan would keep them a step ahead.
The Solution
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The client engaged Sedulo Group to perform a Competitor Deep Dive – a thorough analysis of their key rival – with the goal of uncovering actionable intelligence to guide its strategy. The Sedulo team began by conducting extensive secondary research – mining industry reports, market data, competitor press releases, financial filings, and social media buzz – to build a foundational view of the market and identify initial knowledge gaps. Next, Sedulo leveraged its proprietary Persistent Source Network™ (PSN) – a relationship-based global network of industry insiders – to gather primary intelligence. Sedulo’s researchers interviewed valuable sources across the pet food industry, including former employees of competitors, distributors, and retail partners, to capture behind-the-scenes information on competitors’ product development pipelines, pricing strategies, distribution expansions, and marketing plans.
Next, Sedulo’s competitive strategy analysts applied rigorous strategic analysis to synthesize the findings into actionable insights. Using frameworks like SWOT and Sedulo’s own Threat Matrix tool, the team connected the dots between disparate data points to highlight the competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This structured analysis distilled the intelligence into a clear narrative and recommendations for the client’s leadership. Sedulo delivered a detailed intelligence report and executive briefing that illuminated the competitive landscape – including a detailed competitor profile, upcoming moves, and potential market disruptors – all tailored to inform the client’s brand planning and sales strategy.
The Success
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Armed with Sedulo’s deep-dive insights, the pet food company gained a strategic edge in its brand planning and sales execution. The intelligence report became a cornerstone of the client’s strategic sales initiatives, providing data-driven guidance on how to outmaneuver rivals in the coming year. The engagement delivered actionable data and empowered the client’s decision-makers to proactively strategize against competitor moves. Ultimately, Sedulo Group’s insights helped the client protect and grow its market share, fueling successful strategic sales initiatives and keeping the company ahead of the pack.