Competitive Benchmarking

Objective

• The client is one of the leading OEM in 4W segment and wanted to get a 360-degree view of its next biggest competitor
  

Methodology

• PGA Labs conducted detailed in-depth discussions with key stakeholders across various departments like product design, marketing, dealer management, vendor management etc.

Impact / Outcome

• The client was provided detailed insights about each competitor in the area of product design - Key product features, USPs etc.

• Marketing – Marketing strategies & channels used, measures of effectiveness.

• After Sales- Number of workshops (owned, dealer workshops, Authorized standalone workshops), their geographic spread, typical size e.g., number of bays, number of Job cards in a month and other key metrics.

• Dealer Network Management- Dealer count & geographic spread, dealer identification process, dealer appointment, channel performance monitoring and benchmarks etc.

• Vendor Management- Key vendors and their locations, key products supplied to the competition OEM, payment terms etc.

• Business strategy- New products to be launched, new markets identified for entry, customer centric programs etc.

• The insights generated through the study helped the client get a detailed understanding of its closest competitor

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Objective

• An online teleconsultation player wanted to understand what services the competitors provided, how they were placed amongst the competitors in terms of those services, revenue, and pricing across different modes of consultation (chat, audio, and video)
• Also, client wanted to understand the type of subscriptions provided by the competitors

Methodology

• Created a competitive landscape through secondary research
• Conducted primary interviews with doctors and experts and secondary research to compare different tele-consultation providers across different modes (chat, audio, and video) in terms of pricing, revenue, and subscription packages
• Comparison of different players on # consultations across different modes (chat, audio, and video)
• Price comparison of different players across different modes (chat, audio, and video)

Impact / Outcome

• Client understood the presence of different players in the tele-consultation landscape using different modes for consultation (chat, audio, and video)
• Also, client got in-depth understanding of the pricing, subscription packages of the different players in the landscape and how are they different from hospitals

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Objective

• Client wanted to understand opportunity landscape for anganwadi workers who are already engaged in ICDS program

Methodology

• Understood and benchmarked anganwadi workers effort, incentives under each program
• Identified key pain points and mapped opportunities, skill orientation, and bandwidth
• Conducted primary conversations with to understand their comfort with technology adoption and key challenges faced
• Conducted brief industry, job market requirements for mapping relevant opportunities

Impact / Outcome

• Helped the client identify key initiatives and programs in each sectoral to engage anganwadi workers to increase their incentives and opportunities

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Objective

• Client wanted to understand scope of technology adoption in bus commute for passengers and help commuters in journey planning and transiting

Methodology

• Understood and benchmarked various processes in the bus transport ecosystem, and features provided across transit and bus aggregator application
• Identified key pain points and mapped service usage journey for commuters via in-depth conversations and developed detailed journey maps of commuters along different routes
• Conducted primary conversations with bus operators to understand their comfort with technology adoption and key challenges faced in day-to-day operations

Impact / Outcome

• Helped the client identify key touchpoints to automate and setup commute processes and provided a framework to integrate route planning algorithm with existing bus routes to optimize commute times for travellers
  

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Objective

• The client wanted to understand what products/services their competitors provide, how they were placed amongst the competitors in terms of those products, revenue, and pricing across different products of medical devices in the orthopedic space

Methodology

• Created competitive landscape through secondary research
• Conducted 50+ primary interviews with orthopedic / surgeons and experts to map out different medical devices used in different orthopedic treatments related to knee, spine, limb, etc.
• Comparison of different players present in this space
• Price and product comparison of different players across different orthopedic clinical needs

Impact / Outcome

• Client understood the presence of different players in the orthopedic medical devices landscape
• Also, the client got an in-depth understanding of the product offerings, pricing, and service packages of the different players in the landscape

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Objective

• Client wanted to conduct price benchmarking of 550 SKUs across categories (fashion, apparel, beauty & personal care) for E-commerce platform vs offline channels (local retail shops, branded retail chains, Modern Trade, etc.)

Methodology

• Carried out market visits and mystery shopping (more than 100 store visits) to benchmark SKUs across different product categories (watches, men’s footwear, sports & fitness, men’s bags and more)
• Carried out benchmarking for SKUs in India across key cities (across metro, tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities)

Impact / Outcome

• Client was able to gain quantitative insights on prices across metro, Tier-2, Tier-3 cities in India as compared to Ecommerce platform

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Objective

• A grocery player wanted to track GMV and other scale related metrics of key competitive players, and how they are growing across different cities

Methodology

• Conducted trade interviews of operations managers, category managers, regional managers, and other key personnel across different players in the sector
• Conducted multiple visits to warehouses, dark stores, delivery locations and connected with key ground people (warehouse managers & delivery staff)
• Carried out benchmarking for key players in India across key metrics (# orders per day, average order value, gross merchandise value, availability of items, delivery speed, etc.)
• Built an overall model to estimate and triangulate scale metrics across players by feeding inputs generated from multiple conversations

Impact / Outcome

• Client was able to understand how key competitive players are growing month-on-month in key cities in India and understanding the focus areas (channels, product categories) of key players

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Objective

• A global OTT platform wanted to understand competitors & content across various platform

Methodology

• Competitor interviews to understand various genres & popular programs
• Secondary research for market landscape

Impact / Outcome

• Client understood the market & competitors in India

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Objective

• A global IT company wanted to understand competitive positioning of its cloud-based services

Methodology

• Secondary research to understand the cloud services offered by technology companies to Indian buyers
• Conducted in-depth buyer interviews (N = 50) across different sizes of customers of cloud services to benchmark quality and scope of service offerings, including user experience and key differentiating value propositions
• Conducted competitor in-depth interviews (N = 5) to benchmark sales process and conversion, and cost of providing services
• Conversed with (N = 5) industry experts (in-depth interviews) to understand the changing customer needs in cloud services

Impact / Outcome

• Helped client understand positioning of its cloud service in the market and make necessary changes in the offering to become the market leader

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Objective

• A mid-sized paints manufacturing firm wanted to benchmark price of dyes & pigments offered by vendors / distributors in the market as well the margins earned by them, in order to shortlist L1 & L2 vendors 

Methodology  

• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 25) with vendors and distributors of dyes & pigments to understand their procurement price, terms of sourcing, rate contracts and margins 
• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 40) with end customers using dyes and pigments as raw materials to understand the price at which they are able to source the raw material (also the price quoted and room for negotiation), their L1 & L2 vendors and key drivers behind the decision.  
• Conducted in-depth analysis to benchmark price and margin of dyes and paints offered y vendors and distributors in the market, and other considerations to recommend L1 & L2 vendors for the client. 

Impact / Outcome 

• Client understood pricing and margins of dyes and paints in the market, and was able to shortlist L1 & L2 vendors 

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Objective

• Large PE fund wanted to benchmark product offerings, service levels, and user experience for some of the largest EdTech brands in India 

Methodology

• Purchased premium packages of selected courses for each platform to track and benchmark the onboarding and engagement journey 
• Review of 32+ hours of course content, 22+ instructor interactions, and sales conversations with N = 5 employees 
• Deep-dive on individual players with an overview and scoring on features/specifications where like-to-like comparisons are possible 

Impact / Outcome

• Client was able to picture a holistic view on the top-5 EdTech players in India across parameters including quality of content, depth of coverage, pricing, etc. 

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Objective

• An established Oil manufacturer wanted to understand supply chain cost. Further, the client wanted to understand strategy and tactics being used by the nearest competitors to optimize the cost associated with supply chain. 

Methodology

• Conducted an in-depth study on the different distributors and vendors (N = 30) with a focus on identifying costs associate the supply chain and key pain points associated with current supply chain 
• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 25) with distributors of competitors and industry professionals (N = 10) to understand areas of optimizing the cost associated with supply chain 
• Identified areas of differentiation in terms of the business and operating models, with a deep dive on identifying cost heads that can be optimized 

Impact / Outcome

• The client developed a thorough understanding of cost associated with current supply chain and was able to understand the scope of optimizing the cost associated with the supply chain

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Objective

• A leading investment firm wanted to benchmark an emerging B2B tech services provider against its direct competitors 

Methodology

• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 10) with industry experts to understand their point of view on positioning of target with respect to its direct competitors 
• Conducted B2B customer survey (N = 200) to gauge post sales service levels and understand the pain points 
• Carried out product and service benchmarking for key offerings by key players to understand scope of differentiation for the target 
• Combed through online forums and websites to benchmark the social media and global presence of key players in the space 
• Studied key financial metrics of target and competitors to compare the relative financial health and benchmark against industry leaders 

Impact / Outcome

• Client gained valuable insight on the competitive positioning, strengths and weaknesses of the target company

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Objective

• The client, a leading online home improvement player was looking to develop an offering to cater to economy clients in the home improvement space and required insights on unit economics, price sensitivity and offerings of other service providers  

Methodology

• In-depth interviews (N>50) of customers across 8 cities (metros and tier 1) who recently had home improvement done or were planning to do so soon 
• In-depth interviews of contractors, home improvement service providers, interior decorators on cost associated with home improvement 
• Comparison of cost of material, interior decorator / advisor fees and labor cost across different service providers 
• Customer requirements and distribution across need for different varieties of service including branded / unbranded material and specific design / generic design 

Impact / Outcome

• Client was provided with cost differentiation points, margins and unit economics benchmarking which enabled the client to launch a focussed offering for economy / low range customer segment 

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Objective

• An established FinTech Broking player wanted to understand their standing in their subcategory/ vertical within the FinTech space. Further, the client wanted to understand strategy and tactics being used by the nearest competitors to garner market share, with special focus on the Industry leader and the incumbents. 

Methodology

• Conducted an in-depth study on the different attributes of the FinTech brokers with a focus on identifying key backers, their performance and take a view on their expected growth 
• Identifying 3 business models to categorise the tech-enabled Stockbroker industry 
• Benchmarked product offerings for Brokers across the three verticals with special focus on the client’s FinTech broker category 
• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 25) with customers and industry professionals to understand key pain points and growth areas 
• Identified areas of differentiation in terms of the business models of the different verticals, with a deep dive on models of new-age Fintech brokers 
• Identified key drivers of revenue growth and pain points in financial models of the Fintech brokers 
• Conducted deep dive on the digital adoption in India and the level of digitization of the non Fintech broking players to identify level of incumbent risk 

Impact / Outcome

• The client developed a thorough understanding of the Fintech space and was able to gather valuable insights regarding the specificities of the Fintech broking space. 

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Objective

• A co-working player in India wanted to understand unit economics of key competitors in the co-working space 
• The player also wanted to know details like carpet area of centers, seat density and occupancy

Methodology 

• Conducted in-depth interviews (N = 40) of stakeholders (managers, community managers & employees) across 5 workspace providers in 3 different cities (Delhi NCR, Mumbai & Bangalore) 
• Created unit economics model to benchmark key competitors in the co-working space 
• Conducted deep level secondary research via sources like player websites, leading news publications and online reports

Impact / Outcome

• Successfully estimated unit economics of key competitors of the client 
• Client was also able to understand other details like total workspace areas of key competitors, occupancy, and seat density 

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Objective

• Client wanted to benchmark its business against key competitors in each distinct business unit, i.e., e-commerce express delivery, BFSI express delivery, heavy e-commerce (furniture & consumer durables), PTL freight, and warehousing
• In each of these business units, client wanted to benchmark key metrics in terms of business, cost & customer metrics, network coverage, operational efficiency & operational quality, against key competitors 

Methodology

• Conducted in depth interviews (N = 300) per quarter with employees (ex & current - HR manager, operations manager, marketing manager, customer service manager, supply chain manager, etc., customers, vendors & gig workers, investors, industry experts 
• Created a set of focus metrics to be benchmarked across key competitors for each distinct business unit 
• Created deep level discussion guides for different stakeholder and respondent type across competitors 

Impact / Outcome

• Client was able to understand the Logistics Tech market landscape in India 
• Also, client was able to benchmark its business against key competitors in each distinct business unit across key metrics in terms of business, cost & customer metrics, network coverage, operational efficiency & operational quality 

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Objective

• A leading Travel Tech platform wanted to benchmark the product features of its consumer, partner and business development apps for its upcoming focus markets   

Methodology

• Benchmarked the consumer app across India, US and Indonesia through a mix of primary interviews and secondary research 
• Created a detailed list of quantitative and qualitative metrics to benchmark the interfaces and understand where the client app fared better / worse and UI / UX areas in which the app could be improved 
• Conducted In-Depth Interviews (N = 35) with customers and partners of client (consumer app, partner app and business development app) to understand working principles, pain points and latent needs in terms of UI / UX & information architecture, etc. 

Impact / Output

• Client was able to understand best practices for consumer, partner and business development apps across major dimensions such as stability, complexity, functionality and innovations 

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Objective

• A leading private equity company in India wanted insights on competitive landscape of AgriTech players in India
• Client wanted to understand in detail the voice of stakeholders involved

Methodology

• Conducted in-depth interviews with farmers (N = 40), retailers (N = 20) & institutional buyers (N = 20) 
• Created transcripts of the interviews to map the voice of various stakeholders and highlight key insights 
• Created a set of parameters to benchmark target with competitors operating in the same space 
• Conducted deep secondary research through various sources to substantiate key findings

Impact / Outcome

• Successfully provided client with overall competitive landscape & also benchmarked key competitors vs target 
• Conducted in-depth interviews to gain a micro-level understanding and mapped the voice of stakeholders

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Objective  

• Client wanted to get a deeper understanding on the performance of competition players with respect to service offerings, scale of operations, performance & business metrics  
• Client also wanted to understand the new players emerging in the space   

Methodology

• Conducted primary discussions (N = 40) with competition stakeholders consisting of sales head, regional sales managers, strategy lead, operations lead, marketing heads, HR heads, etc.  
• Benchmarked services against the competitors to know about the market position of the player 
• Did secondary research to find out new players in the space  

Impact / Outcome

• Helped the client assess its position vis-à-vis its competitors in the tele-medicine space 
• Helped the client identify new players in the space  

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