Competitors can change the landscape in a blink of an eye, without forewarning and to the detriment of your position in the market. This is especially true in the fast advancing, highly competitive environment of the Healthcare industry. Keeping your finger on the pulse of the competitive set along while tracking leading indicators or signals of competitive plays can mean the difference between success and failure.

Our client, a Fortune 500 Medical Device Manufacturer, found itself in this position when it realized that a competitor had come to market with a “game changing” product. From our client’s perspective the new product had the potential to impact its share of the market. The challenge was that they were unsure of exactly how and to what extent the impacts would reach.

In order to understand the implications of the new product on our client’s business we set forth to gather market intelligence to create a clear picture of the competitive landscape in this segment of the market. Through the course of our work we learned that there were certain limitations on the competitor’s ability to scale this business, including; manufacturing capacity, its cost model, supply and the ability to rapidly expand this product line. However, we also learned that end customers were highly impressed with the new product and had strong future purchase intentions. Also, the competition was in the process of seeking alternatives to remedy the issues that were holding them back from scaling their presence in the marketplace.

Based on these findings we were able to recommend specific strategies and tactics to the client in order to mitigate and in some cases block the competitor from expanding its presence in the market. In the short term, the client is now able to position against this competitive threat while they develop a longer term strategy to deal with the competitor.