Lyreco
Global company needs local market knowledge.
The challenge
What do you do when you need to increase insight into your market, competitors and their go-to market strategies to maintain your position as a major player in a competitive market when everyone in the industry is keeping their information close to their chest? B2B market and competitor analysis for Lyreco Scandinavia.
With offices in 42 countries across four continents Lyreco among the world's largest suppliers of products and services for workplaces. This includes office supplies, office furniture, IT and print, catering, hygiene and personal safety equipment. Therefore, it is particularly important for Lyreco to have in-depth knowledge of each market to ensure that the focus is always on customer needs. In Scandinavia, Lyreco is also recognised as one of the leading suppliers in its field, and the company aims to be equally strong in the three Scandinavian markets in the future.
The market is highly competitive, and in recent years, digital developments such as web shops have accelerated the number of new players, some offering only a single category such as ink and toner cartridges or office furniture, while others, like Lyreco, have a broad range with multiple categories.
This has led to increased competition, also because the overall demand for traditional office supplies such as paper and envelopes has been declining for a number of years.
The methodology
Purpose of the survey
The purpose of the study is to provide Lyreco with a deeper insight into the market to strengthen its ability to sgrowth in sales and increase market share. Lyreco wanted a study of the market within their product and service area including competitor analysis, competitors' go-to-market strategies, product ranges and customer segments. Lyreco was also interested in gaining an overview of market shares, market positions and suppliers' strengths and weaknesses from a customer perspective. The study covers the Scandinavian markets with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses, but the total B2B market is also included.
Methodology
To solve the above challenge, we chose an analysis set up with three parallel research elements conducted for each of the three Scandinavian markets: Desk research, expert interviews and customer surveys. The combination of analysis methods was chosen to achieve a comprehensive coverage of a closed market in both breadth and depth.
Desk research: Desk research was conducted to find relevant information about the size of the market and identify competitors in media coverage of the market, adverts, online information and publicly available reports.
Expert interviews: In-depth interviews with key people in the market, including industry associations, subcontractors and procurement customers, were conducted to uncover general market trends, market size, closest competitors and the different suppliers' market shares. In addition, to gain deep insight into the competitors' product range, image, strengths and weaknesses.
Customer surveys: Customer surveys were conducted as telephone interviews to gain knowledge about customers' awareness, preferences and reasons for choosing a supplier of workplace products. Also, to gain insight into customers' perceptions of suppliers' reputation and performance.
Overall, the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish markets have thus been uncovered through a prism of publicly available material, deep insights from key market players with expert knowledge, and subcontractors' and customers' perception and knowledge of Lyreco and their competitors.
Drawing from workshop exercise
Results and implementation
Analysis Denmark's report gave Lyreco increased insight into the general trends in the three Scandinavian markets in a way that subsequently made it clearer to Lyreco how the company is positioned in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish markets for products and services for the workplace, and confirmed and refuted assumptions about its position in the market.
Similarly, Analysis Denmark's report provides Lyreco with in-depth knowledge about potential customers' preferences for purchasing products and services for the workplace, customers' perception of competitors' image, performance and go-to-market strategies. This allows Lyreco to position itself more strongly in the Scandinavian markets. The results of the report have gradually been implemented in the company's Scandinavian strategy in order to target the company's efforts in each market and thereby increase Lyreco's market share in the SME segment in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Analyse Denmark's research has contributed significant market insight, where we have both had some of our assumptions about our position in the Scandinavian market confirmed and refuted. This means that the competitive landscape has been sharpened and narrowed down. Specifically, we have used the report's conclusions, among other things, to change our sales strategy within a particularly critical product category in our assortment.
Michael Ellegaard Sørensen, Marketing Director at Lyreco Scandinavia.