Overview:

• A major European telecommunications company now have a solid base of committed customers, with potential for further growth over the coming years.

Challenge:

A major European telecommunications company had created technology designed to minimise the travel costs suffered by businesses and governments whose business included overseas communication. They asked Challenge Advisory to help them meet three objectives: to introduce the product into the market, to help showcase their product to prospective customers, and to demonstrate the capability of their technology.

The Revelation:

Challenge Advisory’s new market and strategy functional practice teams worked together to conduct market research, with the intent of identifying the best opportunity for their client to break into the market. The two teams came to the conclusion that the client’s technology was unrivalled in terms of its business potential, and the client would be tapping into a niche market where competition would be minimal. They decided to generate credibility for the client by way of introducing the client to several heads of sustainability at various major businesses and government departments.

These meetings allowed the client to implement comparison programs, designed to demonstrate extraneous costs in their potential customers’ business models. These comparison programs included collaboration and video-conferencing software which showed the unnecessary expenditure on flights, printing and ink costs. It was clear for the client’s customers to see that by purchasing from the telecommunications company, they would be saving millions per year while also being environmentally conscious.

Initial expenditure would be high, but the money saved per annum would pay back this expenditure almost immediately. Companies were so impressed with the trials implemented by the client that sales made in the subsequent quarter exceeded $10m USD. 

Outcomes:

So much was the satisfaction from the client’s customers, the European telecommunications giant was invited to speak at the United Nations’ COP 19 Climate Change Summit in Warsaw, Poland, where the client presented its findings to many other businesses and departments that would be potential customers for the client.

The trials could now be used as a marketing tool in order to generate brand recognition and increase the number of customers available to the client. They now have a solid base of committed customers, with potential for further growth over the coming years.