The client is one of the largest business groups in the UAE with interest in multiple industries. The client’s challenge was to develop a network expansion strategy for the next 5 years for all its businesses including automobile, industrial equipment, construction equipment and others. The strategy was expected to accommodate and develop with changing business dynamics of the UAE.

One of the most complicated strategic work used multiple research techniques, technology solutions and an innovative reporting format to answer the business question. Research used geo-mapping platform to understand the demographics of the residents and superimposed the data from primary and secondary research to come-up with forward looking strategy.

Design: 4,500+ interviews across the country: 100+ Expert IDIs from business & government sector; 1,500+ Geo-locations mapped & extensive Secondary Research

Basis the deliverables, the client devised suitable network expansion strategies for its product offerings across its business sectors of operation in the country.

 

Client Testimonial: “This is a wonderful piece of work, a giant leap forward for the organization – Managing Director, Client”

 

*Business consulting team’s experience operating under a different brand, 4SiGHT Business Consulting

The client, a prominent free zone authority in the UAE was interested to understand the competition offerings on continuous basis so that they can develop and alter their offers each quarter.

Business Research unit conducted a competition benchmarking among all the major free zones in the UAE and tracked the offerings on a quarterly basis for 3 years in the UAE offering client a clear advantage to tailor their offerings to outpace the competition.

Design: Extensive Secondary Research, occasional expert IDIs

Based on the market study findings, the client developed and tweaked their offerings to become one of the most competitive free zones in the local UAE market over the years.

*Business consulting team’s experience operating under a different brand, 4SiGHT Business Consulting

Client, a large conglomerate in the GCC region wanted to estimate the market size, competition landscape, and market growth opportunities for earthmoving & construction equipment.

An extensive study was conducted involving interviews with all key stakeholders in the industry including the Construction Equipment Suppliers, Equipment Rental companies, Construction & contracting companies to estimate the market size and to understand the competition strengths as well as market’s need gaps.

Design: Combination of extensive Secondary Research, IDIs (In-depth Interviews) with various stakeholders, and study on Import-export statistics

The study provided a clear picture of the key growth sub-segment, key differentiators required, need drivers and size of the market.

*Business consulting team’s experience operating under a different brand, 4SiGHT Business Consulting

A large multinational paints company, a top brand in the market that offers various decorative and industrial paints did a series of research with us to assess the market potential for wood paints category in the GCC region before entering into this new product segment.

The research approach required that market facts are obtained from the suppliers, projections are made from the real usage and brand preferences understood from the key influencers. Hence, Business Consulting team conducted an in-depth market research with key stakeholders among the users along with competition of wood paints. In addition, before the actual fieldwork several wood joineries were visited to get proper understanding of the Wood paint usage and factors impacting choice of product, brand and suppler.

Design: Pre research market visits, IDIs with competition and key influencers on user side, a quantitative survey among large number of joineries & extensive Secondary Research was conducted to understand the complicated GCC market

The client has entered the market with wood paints offer in the GCC region. Based on the findings and recommendation provided product range, brand and pricing strategy was altered to meet market demands.

*Business consulting team’s experience operating under a different brand, 4SiGHT Business Consulting

Client distributes and markets a range of high-quality lubricants in the GCC region for decades. Client wanted to gain in depth understanding of the lubricants market size by segments, and to identify opportunities for the business growth, and the needs of the customers to set direction for the business in the coming years.

A market size estimation study for the client was undertaken to assess the current market size, the perception of the client’s brand and other brands among users and to benchmark the lubricant prices with the key competition brands in the UAE.

Design: Large number of expert IDIs among buyers as well as competition players; Large sample quantitative survey among channel & deep Secondary Research

The program was clearly able to identify the market potential for Lubricants, white spaces for propelling the growth, inputs for pricing strategy and mapping of key competition players (SWOT).

The study was repeated twice after a couple of years to further refine the strategy with influx of new competition and changes in market space.

*Business consulting team’s experience operating under a different brand, 4SiGHT Business Consulting

A world leading ice cream brand launched a store in one of the largest malls in UAE. Despite having a premium location, the store was having difficulties generating traffic and sales compared to other stores within the same proximity. The client wanted to test a few hypothesis to understand the reason why the footfalls & sales were not as expected.

We have applied a holistic research involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to evaluate – the visibility of the store; consumers’ level of awareness; customers’ needs & expectations and triggers & barriers.

The qualitative approach included intercept IDIs with walk-in customers to assess the location awareness and reasons for visiting the store. Simultaneously a static camera was installed outside the store to observe traffic, footfalls and movement pattern.

The quantitative phase was conducted post the qualitative phase – store/shopper observation and intercept (exit) interviews to understand customers profiles, purchase frequency, perceptions, triggers and barriers.

The research helped the client to explore key insights and opportunities for their store to increase engagement chances, drive higher visibility and improve their design.

A world leading ice cream brand launched a store in one of the largest malls in UAE. Despite having a premium location, the store was having difficulties generating traffic and sales compared to other stores within the same proximity. The client wanted to test a few hypothesis to understand the reason why the footfalls & sales were not as expected.

We have applied a holistic research involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to evaluate – the visibility of the store; consumers’ level of awareness; customers’ needs & expectations and triggers & barriers.

The qualitative approach included intercept IDIs with walk-in customers to assess the location awareness and reasons for visiting the store. Simultaneously a static camera was installed outside the store to observe traffic, footfalls and movement pattern.

The quantitative phase was conducted post the qualitative phase – store/shopper observation and intercept (exit) interviews to understand customers profiles, purchase frequency, perceptions, triggers and barriers.

The research helped the client to explore key insights and opportunities for their store to increase engagement chances, drive higher visibility and improve their design.

A world leading ice cream brand launched a store in one of the largest malls in UAE. Despite having a premium location, the store was having difficulties generating traffic and sales compared to other stores within the same proximity. The client wanted to test a few hypothesis to understand the reason why the footfalls & sales were not as expected.

We have applied a holistic research involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to evaluate – the visibility of the store; consumers’ level of awareness; customers’ needs & expectations and triggers & barriers.

The qualitative approach included intercept IDIs with walk-in customers to assess the location awareness and reasons for visiting the store. Simultaneously a static camera was installed outside the store to observe traffic, footfalls and movement pattern.

The quantitative phase was conducted post the qualitative phase – store/shopper observation and intercept (exit) interviews to understand customers profiles, purchase frequency, perceptions, triggers and barriers.

The research helped the client to explore key insights and opportunities for their store to increase engagement chances, drive higher visibility and improve their design.

A world leading ice cream brand launched a store in one of the largest malls in UAE. Despite having a premium location, the store was having difficulties generating traffic and sales compared to other stores within the same proximity. The client wanted to test a few hypothesis to understand the reason why the footfalls & sales were not as expected.

We have applied a holistic research involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to evaluate – the visibility of the store; consumers’ level of awareness; customers’ needs & expectations and triggers & barriers.

The qualitative approach included intercept IDIs with walk-in customers to assess the location awareness and reasons for visiting the store. Simultaneously a static camera was installed outside the store to observe traffic, footfalls and movement pattern.

The quantitative phase was conducted post the qualitative phase – store/shopper observation and intercept (exit) interviews to understand customers profiles, purchase frequency, perceptions, triggers and barriers.

The research helped the client to explore key insights and opportunities for their store to increase engagement chances, drive higher visibility and improve their design.

The client has a relatively strong brand in the UAE but relatively low market share. Through their communication they aim to establish a brand positioning that demonstrates a clear point of view, makes the brand meaningful and relevant to their target audience. In this regard, the client was planning to launch a powerful campaign that sparks conversation in order to help drive brand awareness and saliency. Two distinct communication routes were tested amongst target customers – one which was a challenging while the other was a safer route.

A Qualitative approach was adopted to evaluate the various communication routes. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted based on customer profile. Overall, a step wise interview approach was adopted where one idea and its route was exposed at a time. The idea was unbranded in order to assess reaction to the idea itself and avoid bias. Once each customer completed the individual assessment of the idea, they were called into the group room to discuss each idea in detail. Projective techniques were used to help bring alive the emotional associations with each territory.

The research helped the client to gauge customer comprehension, resonance and reaction to the different Campaign Routes. The research was able to help guide the client with key pointers & watch outs in case they chose the challenging route vs. the safer route. It was also able to bring alive the readiness of the market to accept such a challenging route.