Success Stories

Success Stories

Learn how we help clients achieve more.

Rebranding Drives Customer Penetration and Quality Perception

Situation & Business Opportunity

An e-commerce office supply client was undertaking a rebranding effort.  They had not updated their “own brand” packaging in decades (think 1970's/1980's big bubble lettering). As a result, their 2,300 “own brand” SKUs looked extremely dated which negatively impacted customer perception of the quality and age of the products. The client developed artistic branding guidelines for the new packaging and hired Anovia Consulting to execute all other elements of this re-branding project across their product portfolio.

Solution
Anovia Consulting led a complex “own brand” repackaging project impacting over 2,300 SKUs manufactured by 30+ supply vendors.  We were responsible for all aspects of the repackaging project except artistic branding guidelines. Achievements included the following:

  • Developed the process and project plan to achieve new packaging for over 2,300 SKUs integrating and detailing the roles of product managers, the internal agency, proofing staff and outside vendors who supplied the “own brand” products.
  • Designed requirements for system to manage and track progress of each SKU and worked with client’s IT department to develop, test and implement this system in SharePoint.
  • Created training materials and presented training to each group involved in the repackaging process including customized training for each vendor.
  • Extensively coordinated with multiple internal departments and 30+ external vendors, balancing workload to efficiently implement the updated packaging on over 2,300 SKUs without over-burdening any one individual or vendor.
  • Created a written “Playbook” for the client to document the detailed process for future repackaging needs.

Results
We successfully implemented the fresh new packaging design on over 2,300 SKUs across a large variety of product categories. The new packaging was a re-branding effort that greatly improved the quality perception of the client’s vast “own brand” product portfolio and drove customer penetration.

 

Licensing Project Expands Client Offerings

Situation & Business Opportunity
To grow revenue with existing customers, our client pursued its first licensing agreement. Typically a product-driven business, our client worked with a brand licensing agency to identify an opportunity to license their name to a service provider in a regulated market with high barriers to entry. After the licensing agreement was signed, Anovia Consulting was brought in to work with the licensee to implement the five new services offerings for our client’s customers.

Solution
Anovia Consulting led the day-to-day development and implementation of the client’s first licensing opportunity working closely with the licensee and brand licensing agency. This was an intensely cross-functional project requiring both a high-level strategic view as well as strong execution on details. We began by developing a project plan identifying tasks required for implementation of the five new service offerings. Weekly meetings kept the client, the licensee and the brand licensing agency in alignment and on-task, adjusting as necessary.

Anovia navigated the client’s organization to identify the appropriate teams/individuals to implement various steps within the project plan. We worked with many departments within the client’s organization including those for branding guidelines/requirements, legal issues/considerations, domain name procurement and set-up, customer service, landing page, search engine optimization (SEO), search term implementation, browse path set-up, SKU management, Communications/PR, various sales teams, and on-site/off-site advertising teams for marketing opportunities for licensee.

Anovia supported the development of several assets during this project including a mini-site, a landing page on the client’s website, five searchable service SKUs and browse paths on the client’s website.

Results
Implementing their first licensing opportunity expanded our client’s product portfolio with the addition of five new service SKUs with anticipated incremental revenue of tens of millions of dollars.

Vendor Bid Support Results in Significant Cost Savings

Situation & Business Opportunity
Our client was going out to bid for one of their large “own brand” categories of approximately 600 SKUs which had been sourced through one vendor for many years. However, the detail specifications for these SKUs was inadequate to support competitive bidding. Anovia Consulting was initially engaged to update and enhance the specification data in preparation for competitive bid and subsequently retained to support the vendor selection and vendor transition.

Solution
Anovia reviewed approximately 600 SKUs, updating and enhancing the detail specifications to enable competitive bidding. This required working cross-functionally with several departments that supported different elements of the specifications including attribute, SKU management and finance teams.

After competitive bids were received, Anovia consolidated and analyzed multiple vendor bids including a “cherry pick” scenario identifying the low cost vendor for each item. This output served as the basis for the merchandising manager’s decision to award the SKUs to three different vendors.

We were then retained to execute and coordinate the transition of nearly 600 SKUs from one vendor to three new vendors including over 1,000 new packaging components, new SKU set-up for 16 SKUs and identifying changes required by SKU Management and Content Management. Throughout the implementation of this cross-functional project, Anovia worked with product managers, the internal agency, the Legal department, SKU Management, Inventory Management, Content Management and, of course, the three new outside vendors.

Results
Anovia’s engagement in the end-to-end competitive bid and transition processes of nearly 600 SKUs from one vendor to three new vendors was critical in achieving projected annual cost savings of over $500K.

Strategic Planning Establishes Priorities and Aligns Team

Situation & Business Opportunity
A $5 million non-profit client had never created a strategic plan. Realizing the importance of a strategic plan to provide focus, set priorities and align the organization toward common goals and objectives, they retained Anovia Consulting to lead them through the development of their first strategic plan.

Solution
We worked closely with the leadership team to guide them through each step of the strategic planning process. Through a series of on-site meetings with the leadership team and inputs provided by the team, we accomplished the following:

  • Reviewed their existing mission and core values and developed their vision.
  • Assessed the external environment including:
    -  Micro Environment such as competitors, customers, suppliers, and employees.
    -  Macro Environment including technological, economic, socio-cultural and environmental forces.
  • Assessed the internal environment such as work atmosphere, new product/service development, customer acquisition, product/service delivery, customer service, issues and challenges.
  • Thoroughly analyzed the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (i.e., SWOT analysis).
  • Created a comprehensive competitor analysis as well as visually mapped their competitive set to assist in defining their points of differentiation.
  • Established their goal and set objectives. Defined key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure achievement of their objectives and developed initiatives to support the objectives.
  • Worked with the team to present the strategic plan to their board of directors.

Results
The management team found the strategic planning process very beneficial because it stimulated forward thinking, established their priorities and aligned the team towards the same goal and objectives.

Incremental Profit Project Nets $1+ Million Annual Return 

Situation & Business Opportunity
Our client wanted to evaluate pricing and margins on their “Own Brand” products versus National Brand products with the goal of identifying pricing gap challenges and improving bottom-line profitability.

Solution
Anovia Consulting created a comprehensive analysis of the pricing, cost, margin and annual sales volume data of both “Own Brand” and National Brand products. This project required us to solicit merchandising managers to identify comparative national brand products and comparative quality rating of “Own Brand” products. As part of our analysis, we converted units of measure to establish a “same quantity” comparison, evaluated the impact of volume discount pricing, and integrated the quality ratings of “Own Brand” versus National Brand provided by the merchandising managers. After analyzing this comprehensive data, we incorporated client-provided targets for new pricing, then solicited merchandising managers for final pricing actions and finalized results.

Results
As a result of our analysis, the client generated incremental profit of over $1 million annually through pricing actions and discontinuation of some SKUs.

Data Insights Improve Customer Experience

Situation & Business Opportunity
Our client wanted to harvest key insights from a customer feedback data repository to improve customer experience and retention.

Solution
The client had developed an online portal to solicit anonymous ideas and input from customers. With more than three years of data and over 8,500 ideas, this database was a rich source of changes customers requested but the client needed to understand both the themes and details of these customer ideas. Anovia Consulting analyzed the database for common themes and created comprehensive presentations for senior leadership summarizing main themes posted by customers and providing illustrative customer quotes. Presentations included the following topics: coupons; rewards/points and Company Cash; payments; and ideas to differentiate the client from their competitors.

Results
As a result of the data insights from our presentations, the senior leadership team took actions to improve the customer experience by simplifying the coupon process, creating a reward/points system and implementing customer requested payment enhancements.

Value Enhancement Identifies Opportunities

Situation & Business Opportunity
The owner of a B2B service firm was planning for retirement and the eventual sale of his business. He wanted to understand the current value of his company and how he could increase that value over the next few years to maximize selling price.

Solution
We valued the current business which required researching the company, the industry and the economy. We learned strengths and weaknesses of the company as well as opportunities and threats to the business. We analyzed their historical and projected financials. Applying valuation methodology, we developed a current value for the business and we also created a valuation matrix illustrating how value could be increased. Our valuation report and presentation to the owner discussed our conclusion of current value as well as tactics to maximize cash flow and profitability and minimize risk in order to increase future value.

Results
As a result of our valuation report, presentation and discussions with the owner, he learned the current value of his company and understood the drivers of his business value. He also understood steps he could take to minimize risk as well as increase cash flow and profitability to increase the value of his business and maximize future selling price.