Project Experience

Understanding Competitor's New Product Innovation Initiatives Helps Determine Priorities for Resource Allocation

Client Situation
Research and development activities in the industry, whether undertaken by strategic alliances or internal R&D, can shed light on the future direction of a competitor. Our client is a producer of a highly regulated nutraceutical food product. In a category dominated by two players, our client's product was positioned as the lower cost alternative to the leading brands. Recent inroads by a private label producer had threatened our client's market position. Although our client had a handle on its competitors' current marketing strategies from visible activities, it wanted to look inward to better understand how they would compete in the future in terms of research and development.

Fuld Approach
Fuld had conversations with internal R&D and strategic alliance partners in the scientific community to understand the scientific platforms they were pursuing, the stage of development they were at and the claims they could make. Conversations with corporate personnel provided insights into marketing plans and strategies as well as plans to leverage existing strengths.

Benefits and Implications
We provided our client with insights into its competitor's strategic direction, including new product development platforms, an estimated time line for their commercialization and the potential claims the competitors would make. This enabled our client to prioritize its resources and determine how best to compete in the market. For more information on innovation in consumer products, contact Michael Sandman at msandman@fuld.com.