Case Studies
See how our business experience, our customer obsession and our tested model and toolkit works to bring businesses extraordinary results, quickly.
Case Studies Menu
Case Study 1
From Unviable Stagnation to Profitable Growth
Food Brand
FMCG, B2C
Case Study 2
Winning Against Low-Price Disruption
Building-Machinery Brand
Building & Construction, B2B
Case Study 3
Repositioning a Product to Reignite Growth in a Declining Category
Chemicals, B2B
Case Study 4
Building an Ingredient Brand to Ignite Business Growth in a Stagnant Market
Textiles, B2B
Case Study 5
How to advertise a “Commodity” to Gain Market Share and Pricing Power
FMCG, B2C
Case Study 6
How Connecting with Customers’ Customers Helps B2B Brands Grow
Textiles, B2B
Case Study 7
Creating and Exploiting White Spaces for Brand and Business Growth
Building & Construction, B2B
Case Study 8
Making Customer Centricity a “Culture” and a Strategic Driver of Business Growth
Fashion & Apparel, B2C
Case Study 9
How a Customer Feedback System Can Reduce Costs and Accelerate Profitable Growth
Building & Construction, B2B
Case Study 10
Developing a Key Account Mindset to Reduce Pricing Pressure, Improve Market Share and Profitability
Building & Construction, B2B
Case Study 11
How Simple, Low-Cost “Commercial Innovations” Can Quickly Propel Profitable Growth
FMCG, B2C
Case Study 12
How Adjusting Sales Performance Metrics Enhanced Business Value
Foods & Ice cream
FMCG, B2C
THE CHALLENGE
A well-known FMCG food brand had been re-launched by a new owner but was stuck at under 2% share despite high awareness (23%), quality and price parity, and strong advertising.
Distributors left, retailers stocked little and trusted the company less, and the field force was demoralized.
Conventional promotions and media spend failed to move the needle.
THE INSIGHT
RedVent discovered the real barrier was retailer confidence and freshness.
Consumers liked the brand but couldn’t reliably find it.
Retailers doubted supply regularity and didn’t stock it sufficiently.
Distributors found fortnightly runs unviable.
The product on shelves was often older than the market leader’s, undermining taste and quality.
THE ACTION
Re-engineered distribution: direct factory-to-retailer weekly supply for freshness.
Focused coverage on select anchor retailers, not broad scatter distribution.
Introduced a bill-to-distributor, ship-to-retailer system to manage credit while keeping freshness.
Set outlet-level targets: 20% category share to secure retailer commitment.
Ran a tightly managed pilot with daily monitoring and rigorous follow-up.
THE IMPACT
The pilot quickly reversed the trend:
Sales rose steadily
Margins improved
Break-even was reached within seven months
Retailers engaged
Consumers received fresher products
Share within pilot stores grew to meaningful levels
The company is now scaling the model, proving that reframing the problem— from “advertising” to “access and freshness”— can unlock growth and profitability fast.
Case Study 2
Category
Building-Machinery Brand – Winning Against Low-Price Disruption
THE CHALLENGE
A leading national brand in the building-machinery business was under attack from low-price regional players.
Market share kept slipping, margins eroded
The company’s response—more SKUs, tighter sales management, and stronger sales push—wasn’t working.
Competing in the lower end looked unviable.
THE INSIGHT
Through deep customer immersions and a no-cost survey with customers and frontline sales, RedVent uncovered three hidden truths:
The #1 customer priority was service quality, where the brand was rated weak—while the company emphasized features customers valued less.
Price mattered, but was not the most important factor, contrary to belief in the company.
A fresh segmentation revealed four distinct customer mindsets: “Growth-seekers” looking for a Partner, “Ease-seekers” wanting a Solution-provider, “Smart buyers” seeking an Advisor, and “Price-seekers” only chasing low cost.
THE ACTION
Revamped customer service by decentralizing policies and speeding up response.
Embedded customer feedback into decision-making.
Trained the field force on the new segmentation, aligning sales approach with each customer type.
THE IMPACT
The turnaround was swift:
Declining sales reversed
Machines sold grew month on month
Pricing power improved.
Margins rose despite the price war.
By aligning the business to what customers truly valued—service and tailored engagement—the brand strengthened both share and profitability in a fiercely competitive segment.
THE CHALLENGE
A global B2B chemical company was trapped in a declining category:
Market size had halved in 10 years
Capacity exceeded demand
Price competition was intense
Customers were disengaged and margins under pressure.
Growth looked impossible in a shrinking sector.
THE INSIGHT
RedVent traced the issue through the entire value chain—right up to end-consumers.
We found the product’s long-standing “hero feature” was no longer relevant.
Consumers preferred alternatives that felt more modern, functional, and sustainable.
Yet overlooked product features offered fresh, untapped value for today’s needs.
THE ACTION
Conducted a global market scan of alternative end-uses and trends
Identified four new opportunity segments based on hidden features
Tested the top opportunity in the US with GenAI-supported consumer research (faster & cheaper)
Developed and branded a new concept, linking functional + emotional benefits while breaking away from the outdated image
THE IMPACT
Target consumers showed strong liking, uniqueness, and preference.
The company is now advancing the new proposition, with potential to:
Re-energize demand
Restore full capacity utilization (vs. 80% currently)
Double profits.
A declining category has been repositioned into a platform for growth.
THE CHALLENGE
A multi-billion-dollar leader in a textile fibre category in India faced decade-long volume stagnancy.
Capacity was expanding, but there was no demand growth, as substitutes were cheaper or seen as better.
Customers across the value chain were despondent, with little belief in future growth.
The key business problem: “How will we sell the additional volume at a profit?”
THE INSIGHT
By going down the value chain to the end-consumer, a new picture emerged.
A segment of millennials valued unique features of the fibre that substitutes lacked.
These features delivered benefits the next generation wanted — despite the negative sentiment upstream.
The breakthrough: while existing end-use markets had flattened, a new segment opportunity was found that could leverage the product’s unique features, once awareness was created.
THE ACTION
Create an ingredient brand marketed directly to end-consumers.
Design a consumer value proposition that highlighted distinctive fibre benefits.
Develop tailored propositions for each stage of the value chain, ensuring shared gain.
Launch a partnership programme so stakeholders benefited from consumer-driven demand.
Invest in advertising and marketing guardrails to secure ROI.
Drive organisational change: shifting from a conventional B2B model to a consumer-driven growth engine.
THE IMPACT
Launch exceeded expectations — demand surged across the chain.
Expanded capacity was fully utilised; further capacity was added.
Within a few years:
Volumes tripled
Operating margins more than doubled
Profits grew significantly
A powerful ingredient brand was created, enabling innovation and category extensions.
THE CHALLENGE
An FMCG company had acquired an old food brand in a commoditized category.
But the brand came with a slew of challenges:
No meaningful differentiation — products were interchangeable.
Excessive sensitivity to price fluctuations.
Over-dependence on wholesalers and large distributors.
Sales were declining, margins shrinking, and management was stuck in a monthly cycle of “push deals → collect cash → repeat.”
Advertising was seen as too expensive, with little chance of ROI.
THE INSIGHT
By mapping sales data, RedVent uncovered that:
54 districts (just 7% of India’s ~800) accounted for the bulk of sales.
Retailers in those markets wanted more brand connect and reassurance to stock and display.
Consumers responded best to one distinctive, emotional benefit in the category.
Using Customer Experience Drivers, Means–Ends Chain, and Byron Sharp’s Distinctive Assets model, we found that both trade and consumers could be motivated without high-cost advertising.”
THE ACTION
Sharpened focus: Concentrated budgets on the 54 high-potential districts.
Retailer salience: Built frequent, low-cost engagement via WhatsApp connect + regional press, in the “earshot” of distributors and wholesalers.
Consumer pull: Created a simple, memorable digital ad campaign around the emotional benefit. Produced at minimal cost, tested strongly with consumers, and targeted digitally for efficiency.
THE IMPACT
Business leadership now had a clear strategy to reverse sales decline and build profitability, through high ROI/ low-cost initiatives
The “commodity” brand now had a clear model for distinctiveness, demand pull, and pricing power.
THE CHALLENGE
A B2B company at the start of the value chain faced:
Static or declining volumes.
Fierce price competition.
Inadequate capacity utilisation.
Customers insisted the product’s unique features were irrelevant and pressed for lower prices. Profitability was under severe strain.
THE INSIGHT
RedVent went beyond the client’s direct customers and spoke to their customers further down the chain. We uncovered that they needed:
Solutions to stimulate demand for their own products.
Reliable, efficient supply sources when orders came.
Technical training, advice, and trend knowledge to market themselves better.
Respect and a sense of community as smaller, emerging players.
Our Drivers of Customer Experience and Jobs-to-Be-Done tools revealed these unmet needs as the key to reigniting demand.
THE ACTION
Designed a Partnership Forum linking all members of the value chain.
Delivered practical value:
• Faster, more cost-effective networks.
• Training and retail knowledge.
• Pride, recognition, and community belonging.Positioned the client not just as a supplier, but as an ecosystem enabler.
THE IMPACT
Partners down the chain grew their sales and profitability.
They paid better prices upstream, increasing demand for the client’s product.
The client achieved sustained double-digit volume growth and doubled profit margins.
The forum also gave the company early visibility into emerging customer needs for future innovation.
Case Study 7
Creating and Exploiting White Spaces for Brand and Business Growth
THE CHALLENGE
A multi-billion-dollar leader in construction materials wanted new growth opportunities beyond its existing saturated segments.
Competition in existing categories was intense.
A promising road-improvement product had been piloted eight years earlier but shelved due to lack of demand.
Leadership wanted to stay ahead of the game but needed clear direction on where to focus.
THE INSIGHT
Through Jobs-to-Be-Done and Customer Grouping tools, RedVent identified who really valued this innovation:
Local politicians → could claim credit for solving voters’ pothole problems.
Municipal engineers → usually blamed for poor road quality but eager for recognition.
This reframing shifted the “customer” from contractors/ middlemen/Government tenders to the political and engineering stakeholders who directly benefited.
THE ACTION
Crafted Customer Value Propositions targeting politicians (reputation, voter appeal) and engineers (recognition, pride).
Designed a delivery plan using PR, professional gatherings, and one-to-one outreach.
Evaluated the top 100 cities and selected 42 priority cities where adoption potential was highest.
Partnered with the business to execute the pilot, with weekly reviews and clear measures of progress
THE IMPACT
Rapid uptake across cities and highways in the country
Within 5–6 years, the solution was endorsed by Government Ministers across several States as a road-quality breakthrough.
The company profitably expanded volumes and built new solutions for the road sector, establishing a new growth platform from an ignored pilot.
THE CHALLENGE
A large, successful conglomerate had grown for decades through:
Disciplined cash management, cost leadership, measured expansion, and M&As.
But with markets becoming more competitive, leadership wanted to accelerate organic growth.
Customer focus was stated as a value, but in practice customers were seen more as a means to achieve targets.
Opportunities were being missed, and customers defected easily to more agile competitors.
THE INSIGHT
Senior management: Highly metric-driven, but since customer satisfaction wasn’t consistently measured, it was deprioritized. Needed a common, credible metric linking customer centricity to business results.
Mid & junior management: Understood the need for centricity, but culture revolved around “what the boss wants.” With bosses not prioritizing customers, they gave lip-service. They also lacked empowerment to suggest new solutions.
Key realization: To shift culture, customer centricity had to become both measurable and visibly linked to growth and profitability.
THE ACTION
Introduced Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a common customer delight measure across all businesses — simple, universal, understood from leaders to factory workers.
Launched an Internal Marketing campaign with the message “Customer is Boss” — creative, memorable, and organization-wide.
Empowered employees with suggestion schemes, rewards for customer-centric behaviours, and direct exposure to customers (bringing them into the company to speak).
Followed through with customer-focused projects, tracked and supported by leadership, linking outcomes directly to growth and profitability.
THE IMPACT
Customer centricity shifted from slogan to shared culture and daily practice.
Employees felt empowered to act on customer needs, leading to new solutions and experiences.
Clear linkage established: growth, profitability, and NPS all tied together.
The conglomerate made customer centricity a strategic driver of sustained organic growth.
Case Study 9
How a Customer Feedback System Can Reduce Costs and Accelerate Profitable Growth
THE CHALLENGE
A large conglomerate with multiple divisions wanted to accelerate organic growth instead of relying mainly on M&As and capacity expansion. But:
No unified way of measuring or acting on customer feedback.
Sporadic CSat surveys existed, but results weren’t tied to action planning or business impact.
Feedback was treated as a Sales/Marketing/Service issue, ignoring the fact that every function — from Manufacturing and Supply Chain to Finance and Sourcing — impacts customer happiness.
THE INSIGHT
For feedback to drive growth, it must be understandable and actionable by everyone.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) was ideal: simple, universal, and relevant to all functions and levels.
The real power lay in Bain’s NPS system, which creates a loop:
Identify key touchpoints in the customer journey.
Gather feedback at those points.
Route insights to the right function/person.
Support teams to analyse, learn, and act.
Escalate strategic themes to top management.
THE ACTION
Implemented NPS as the common customer happiness metric across all divisions.
Branded and marketed the system internally to engage non-customer-facing functions.
Built the processes so results were clearly linked to customer happiness and business outcomes.
Piloted in two businesses (B2B + B2C), then scaled across Financial Services, Chemicals, Textiles, Food Retail, Insurance, and more.
THE IMPACT
Revenue gains: stronger service responsiveness, new solutions, better pricing.
Cost savings: fewer discounts, claims, and logistics costs.
Created a more empowered organisation where everyone could see what customers were saying and act on it.
Shifted feedback from a “survey exercise” to a growth engine driving profitable impact across divisions.
Case Study 10
Developing a Key Account Mindset to Reduce Pricing Pressure, Improve Market Share and Profitability
THE CHALLENGE
A large B2B building materials company needed to grow in the large customer segment, which was expanding much faster than the overall market.
These customers had strong buying power, negotiated aggressively, and switched easily to lower-priced competitors.
The result: heavy margin pressure and eroding market share.
THE INSIGHT
Traditional segmentation (“large/medium/small, by region”) missed how Key Accounts actually created value.
By immersing in these organisations — across all functions, not just Purchase or Senior Management — and even talking to their customers, RedVent uncovered that:
Key Accounts clustered into 4 distinct groups, based on the value they sought.
One group was deliberately left out, as the company lacked competence to win there.
Mapping Customer Journeys showed “who, when, what, and how” the company needed to engage across functions to build relevance and trust.
THE ACTION
Designed differentiated solutions for each of the 3 target Key Account groups.
Built detailed Customer Journey Maps to align engagement touchpoints with customer needs.
Re-aligned the company internally, creating cross-functional teams to mirror customer teams.
Invested in advanced Key Account training, including “brick-walling” techniques to strengthen multi-level relationships.
THE IMPACT
Executed tailored solutions that met Key Account needs better than competitors.
Strengthened customer relationships → greater trust and stickiness.
Market share growth in the large customer segment.
Gained pricing power, enabling the company to price better than before — and significantly better than competition.
Enhanced reputation as a value-adding partner, not just a supplier.
THE CHALLENGE
A leading FMCG brand dominated in its core personal care category but:
Struggled to grow in adjacent categories despite strong brand equity.
Competitors gained share faster.
Heavy promotions and incentives hurt profitability without driving growth.
THE INSIGHT
Store visits, consumer immersions, as well as versions of the Customer Journey Mapping and Jobs-to-be-done tools, revealed
Consumers don’t automatically transfer trust from one category to another. Each purchase was a fresh decision.
Heavy advertising for each category would erode margins.
A subgroup of loyalists used all the brand’s products because it gave them a simpler, seamless personal care journey — what they really valued.
THE ACTION
Designed a campaign around “The Perfect Journey” — positioning the portfolio as one seamless, complementary solution.
Executed across all consumer touchpoints with precision.
Shifted messaging from individual products to a unified solution.
THE IMPACT
Entire range saw growth in shares and volumes within months.
Profitability improved as the same marketing spend drove more categories.
Idea scaled globally, winning a global innovation award for simplicity and effectiveness.
THE CHALLENGE
The largest division of a frozen foods business had invested heavily in cold chain capacity to reach retail stores. Yet:
Growth stalled
capacity lay idle
losses mounted.
Leadership responded by pushing Sales harder—
Replacing distributors
Adding SKUs
Spending on advertising
Then cutting back and raising prices.
Retailers complained of poor service, distributors were saddled with excess stock, and consumers found products expensive. The cycle was worsening.
THE INSIGHT
We entered the market and listened deeply across the chain—consumers, retailers, distributors, sales teams.
The real issue wasn’t product acceptance but an internally created distortion: week- and month-end sales pressure.
To hit targets, Sales pushed whatever stock they had. This:
Clogged distributor warehouses with non-moving SKUs
Created erratic service
Overloaded trucks at peaks while leaving them idle otherwise.
In a cold-chain industry where logistics costs exceeded production costs, this inefficiency was crippling margins and eroding competitiveness.
THE ACTION
We reframed the performance system. End-period spikes were eliminated. Incentives rewarded steady sales and demand-driven fulfilment.
Supply Chain shifted to daily focus, freeing space for faster-moving SKUs. Sales targets were recalibrated once, allowing the system to reset smoothly.
THE IMPACT
The transformation was immediate. Distributors regained capacity and profitability, retailers received reliable service, and consumers benefited from sharper pricing as logistics costs fell.
Sales teams moved from firefighting to relationship-building and opportunity discovery.
Within a year, the division became the fastest-growing and most profitable in the company, with renewed confidence, positive aggression and pride.