Competitive Intelligence: Giving brands the edge in a global marketplace

Our client, a manufacturer of pumps, steam management systems and associated fluid path technologies, needed to evaluate the prospects and demand for steam management systems in certain core process industries as part of their future business planning, with a special focus on potential competitive threats.

The client’s strong position in the market could be under threat if there is a considerable move to the use of alternative solutions to the conventional steam and condensate loop. Although steam had several key advantages and had been used for many years, there were several alternative solutions that could be used within the client’s target markets and present a potential threat.

Aside from the competitive threats, the client required market insight in the short-term to better equip sales teams with arguments to further promote the benefits of steam technologies, and to be armed with counter-arguments when competitive process approaches are being considered. To this end, the client required a detailed and independent view on how its core markets were evolving in their use of steam solutions. The overall aim of the research was to develop a better understanding of the changes in the need for steam and the progression of alternatives to steam including predicted future trends within our key target industries.