Consumer markets strategy consulting services

Big thinking needs tangible pragmatism

As emerging technologies and changing demographics continue to transform the consumer landscape, it’s time to think big about how your consumers interact with your brand. Online retail is continuing to skyrocket, and small authentic brands have increasing power over traditional companies. How will you place your bets and deliver value?

At Strategy&, we believe a consumer-centric approach is critical to building effective strategy that works in the real-world for years to come. We work with clients around the world on automation and supply chain optimisation, performance improvement programmes, revenue management, deals, product and service innovation and more. In every engagement, we bring an unwavering commitment to get it right, a deep understanding of industry dynamics, extensive experience along the entire value chain, and broad functional capabilities. This is strategy, made real.

Capabilities-Driven Strategy + Growth

Our pioneering approach, built on distinctive capabilities, enables companies to focus on their greatest strengths and gain a competitive advantage. We help leadership teams at retailers and CPG companies around the world to reassess and reinvent their business strategies for long-term viability.

More on Capabilities-Driven Strategy + Growth

Fit for Growth

Are you struggling to expand revenue and profitability amid fragmenting consumer demand, shifting channels, and evolving technologies? Our Fit for Growth* approach is a proven model for unlocking performance that helps companies manage their cost in a more strategic way, allowing them to cut costs and grow stronger at the same time.

Redesigning the product portfolio, delivering profitable growth

A consumer products client was integrating acquired product lines that added substantial complexity with significant overlap across price points and features. Strategy& helped to redesign the product portfolio and establish standard product platforms with differentiation to meet distinct value criteria. The product platforms enabled consolidated operations and efficiency improvements that reduced the cost of goods sold by almost 20%, while delivering sales growth two points above the category average.

Improving margins for a U.S. retailer

At a large U.S. retail chain, sales were declining and a growing assortment was eroding margins due to supply chain complexity and markdowns. Strategy& developed tailored product streams to differentiate product flows and policies across core, seasonal, and fast-fashion segments. As a result, the retailer stabilised same store sales while improving the gross margin and operating margin by six points.

Driving growth strategy with differentiated capabilities

A large company began to see declining performance from some of its most profitable brands. Strategy& was engaged to develop a growth strategy based on a differentiated capability system, considering the largest opportunities across multiple businesses. We focused on how the client could add value to consumers, the critical few capabilities they had today and those capabilities that they must invest in to gain a right to win. This combined market-back and capability-forward approach enabled the company to develop a clear strategy focused on its greatest strengths and how its distinct capabilities could work together to provide a competitive advantage. The new strategy provided clear growth guardrails to prioritise investments and focus the organisation. As a result of our work, the company saw solid growth with increased operating profit and net sales.

Leading retailer redefines omni-channel economics

A large online and offline retailer was struggling to compete with pure play online retailers on cost and service levels. In order to lower costs and get products to the shopper’s door more quickly, Strategy& helped the client invest in a ship-from-store capability, not just as a “surge capacity,” but as the primary means of e-commerce fulfillment. Strategy& worked with the client to develop best-in-class operations for in-store picking and packing, including time standards, lean six-sigma-process improvements, and packing area layouts. As a result, the client was able to significantly reduce fulfillment costs and improve service levels, making its offerings much more competitive and maintaining the viability of the store base.

Digital acquisition accelerates omni-channel strategy for U.S. retailer

A leading U.S. retailer needed support with the due diligence, pre-close planning, and post-close execution of an online, pure play e-retailer to accelerate its position in omni-channel retailing. Strategy& evaluated complex demand drivers—such as the impact of creating tax nexus for the online player, multiple revenue synergy plays, and supply chain and back office integration opportunities. As a result, the successful execution of the acquisition enabled the client to maintain a multi-website model, with a pure-play extended assortment and shop your local store formats, before ultimately bringing the entire digital model together into one of the strongest offerings in its category.