The solution
We decided to take an interactive, multi-stage approach. Firstly, we conducted a definition phase with key stakeholders from the client’s India team to understand their challenges. Next, we conducted a secondary desk research review and in-depth interviews with industry experts and distributors to understand the market from their perspective. Subsequently, we steered an immersion week, comprising in-hospital and viewed interviews with purchasers of the product, to understand their needs and perceptions on points of differentiation. Our client’s local and global teams watched the interviews and debriefed in the backroom, where we conducted brainstorm sessions to help identify where to play and how to win. To inform the final strategy, we conducted a series of follow-up interviews to answer pending questions and gain additional insight into competitors’ tactics in the market.

The outcomes
We provided our client with a detailed roadmap of where to play, i.e. the key purchase channels with highest potential to value their product, outlining the rationale based on secondary market size data combined with insights from the primary research interviews on what the customers in each channel value. For each chosen channel, we provided the “how to win”, i.e. a series of tailored recommendations outlining strategies to expand or maintain share of their product. The immersion week and continued touchpoints with the global and local client teams ensured they were brought along for the journey and bought into the final recommendations in order to increase market share.