Customer strategy

A leading jewellery manufacturer wanted to create a new, consumer-centric market segmentation to better understand customer attitudes, identify new market opportunities, and align its offerings to its target customers. Strategy& took a market-back approach to understanding consumer preferences, working with company data, leveraging market research, and conducting sophisticated analytics around consumer preferences. As a result of our work, we uncovered five distinct segments for which we recommended specific brand positioning options. The client is projected to achieve two to three times its absolute sales growth and make improvements in net margins of between 10 and 15 per cent.

Approaching an expansion into eight new markets, an international telecom company wanted to more systematically and strategically allocate its marketing spend across geographies. Strategy& delivered a clearly defined analytical and statistical framework, a tangible set of dashboards to properly measure the ROI on marketing spend, and a detailed evaluation of vendors best suited to deliver against this vision. Our efforts resulted in a nearly 3 per cent efficiency gain in marketing spend over three years.

A major bank launched a customer acquisition initiative to better understand how to engage customers, as well as to leverage social media channels in their promotional mix to drive utilisation of digital products. Strategy& used a combination of social listening and analytical techniques to generate insights and identify opportunities to use social media to promote products and enhance customer engagement. Our work resulted in a distinct and measurable social media strategy linked to the existing marketing strategy and a five-pronged implementation plan.

A wealth management firm with brokers across the United States wanted to capitalise on digitisation to spur customer engagement and growth. Strategy& identified three digital initiatives to acquire new affluent households over three years: developing a new prospect database, tailoring products and services to segmented populations, and expanding the company’s influence via online channels. After creating strategic blueprints based on competitive analysis and profiling of targeted consumers, we identified key partners and vendors and addressed the operating model implications. As a result of our work, the client expects to yield more than 200,000 new affluent households and is investing $8 million in digital platforms.

As part of a broader cultural and organisational transformation strategy, a healthcare company wanted to improve its customer experience. Using human-centred design, Strategy& focused on two member journeys: post-enrollment 90 days and care in time of need. We set out initiatives to fix pain points, used human-centred design to reimagine the experience, and then mapped out key initiatives and capabilities required over waves of releases. As a result of our work, the client’s senior marketing executive said: “Reimagining a more personalised approach where employees step up and say ‘I’ve got it’ is key to re-energising our culture and brand.”

A top 5 pharmaceutical company wanted to improve patient engagement by designing, building, and launching a disease-agnostic patient engagement model that could be utilised across business units. Strategy& identified the key patient pain points, reviewed competitor programmes, and developed solution concepts. We then categorised the client’s patients into different personas and developed four solution concepts that serve as a curated, comprehensive engagement model for patients following diagnosis. This strengthened the client’s positioning in oncology, leveraged the client’s scale, and improved the scope of services provided to patients.

Having experienced an erosion of their value proposition to larger customers, an oil and gas giant sought to differentiate its offerings to large customers without leaking value to the smaller ones. We identified our client's one-size-fits-all approach to fuel pricing and card payments as the reason for value loss to large customers, and we designed pricing and card term structures which achieved our client's objectives with minimal risk. As a result, our client managed to shift its policy on pricing and card payments, ensuring retention of larger customers and an ability to be cost competitive for new large customer acquisitions.