Our Consumer Experience
The ‘rules of the game’ have changed in the consumer space. The new economic reality has reset what consumers value and are willing to pay for. The explosion of e-commerce and social media has transformed how consumers shop and how they obtain information, creating more educated and savvy consumers. Australian consumers currently need the perception of saving, they only slash out on the right product. Increased access to customer information has raised the bar for how consumer companies tailor to specific customers’ needs. The divergent dynamics of Emerging Markets versus Established Markets require Consumer Companies to differentiate their approach and place an even higher emphasis on developing distinctive offerings across the “pyramid” to capture share and build long-term loyalty. Loyalty programmes have become the lifeblood for sales for many retailers, especially fashion, and this reliance appears to continue in 2014.
Cross Consult works with consumer-facing companies to develop winning strategies and business models, helping our clients to be profitably different from competition. In addition, we help those companies embed capabilities to sustain value growth over time. Our clients span the broad consumer space including diversified FMCG, food and beverage, food and non-food retailers, and luxury goods.
How We Help Our Clients
We work with companies across the broader consumer products and retail domains to drive step-change growth and profitability. We bring a unique approach that builds distinctive consumer insights (needs, behaviours and economics), effectively linking up Marketing with Finance. We help our clients address value growth opportunities at both the portfolio and business unit/brand level, and help embed the capabilities to make it sustainable. Typical engagements include:
- Enterprise/BU Strategy: what is our growth and performance ambition, the best path to get there, and the organisational priorities and capabilities necessary to deliver
- Portfolio Management & Resource Allocation: what is the right size and shape of our portfolio and what participation and resource allocation choices must we make to get there
- Brand Growth Strategies: what changes in our offer, investment model (e.g., innovation, marketing, sales, distribution) and channel strategies are required to capture a greater share of the ‘profitable switchers’ in our existing brands and markets
- Developing Winning Brand Portfolios: how to get the maximum value of our brand portfolio across our markets
- Organic Growth strategies: how to develop distinctive consumer insights to create outstanding offerings which match both existing and unmet consumer needs, delivered with a winning business model
- Growing ‘Inside the Box’: how retailers can get more growth and productivity out of their existing footprint
- Growth Beyond the Core: which new channels, brands, formats, and markets offer attractive headroom for growth and what are the best strategies to address those opportunities
- Fuel for Growth: where are the opportunities to redeploy investments, costs and complexity that do not create customer value and competitive advantage
- Specific “High Value at Stake” Issues: e.g., how will the growth in Emerging Markets impact our long-term profitability, how to economically address the bottom of the pyramid, how to grow the business in markets that are contracting
- Digital: what strategies to adopt, what channels to focus on, implementation, maximising benefits, super charge the business with digital.
We have worked and continue to work with online retail startups and our experience form same is unparalleled.