The Business Challenge

A long-established, mission-driven supplier with over $100MM in annual revenue serving highly-regulated stagnant institutional markets was seeking new paths to overcome flat growth with the long term aspiration of growing the business by 7x. Leadership had targeted one of the largest and most attractive categories but lacked confidence in where real opportunity existed.

Internally, the organization had developed market sizing and share estimates that suggested meaningful upside. However, the market had no syndicated data sources, so those estimates were built on partial data, legacy assumptions, and fragmented sources, which were difficult to validate or reconcile. The internal hypothesis was that the internal market sizing estimate was off by at least 20%.

The leadership team faced several unresolved questions:

• What is the true size of the market—and how is spend actually distributed?
• How much demand flows directly to institutions versus through indirect channels?
• Where does the company genuinely over- or under-index relative to competitors?
• Which factors truly influence contract wins and losses?

Without a defensible market view, the organization risked misallocating resources and pursuing growth based on incomplete assumptions.

&Marketing’s Approach

&Marketing was engaged as a strategic consulting partner, tasked with bringing rigor, transparency, and insight to a market clouded by complexity and incomplete/incorrect data.

Rather than starting from scratch, the team took a challenge-and-validate approach by pressure-testing existing models, integrating external data, and documenting every assumption to ensure leadership confidence and internal alignment.

Key elements of the approach included:

• Market model validation and refinement: Existing market sizing and spend assumptions were tested against population data, consumption patterns, channel dynamics, and proxy markets to determine where models held—and where they broke down.
• Channel and consumption analysis: The team clarified how products are actually purchased and consumed, distinguishing between directly purchased items and indirect purchasing channels that materially reshaped market dynamics.
• Competitive landscape assessment: Competitors were analyzed across pricing, positioning, portfolio mix, and relative scale to establish where the client was advantaged, exposed, or competing on uneven ground.
• Decision-driver identification: Early customer and market signals were used to rank the factors that most influence purchasing decisions—moving beyond assumptions to evidence.
• Methodology transparency: All data sources, assumptions, and limitations were explicitly documented, enabling leadership to defend conclusions internally and act with confidence.

Project Results

The engagement reshaped how leadership understood both the market opportunity and the company’s true position within it.

1. A materially different market reality

• Total category size proved to be significantly larger than previously assumed – 2.5x the assumed market size
• Annual consumption per capita was substantially underestimated – it was actually double that of previous internal models
• Indirect purchasing channels were revealed to be almost double the direct institutional spend, reframing growth opportunities and potential risk

2. Clearer share and performance context

• The organization’s position in core direct markets was stronger than believed, making the client the number one direct supplier
• At the same time, key indirect channel providers were challenging market dynamics and stealing share from direct suppliers (including our client)
• Competitive pricing analysis showed that the client was being squeezed on pricing by large indirect suppliers who had scale and smaller direct suppliers who were lean and/or willing to absorb lower margins
• Channel communications from client and competitors were very similar, creating a sense of “sameness” in the market despite the client’s clear competitive advantages

3. Sharper strategic focus

• Leadership gained clarity on which markets and channels deserved focus, and which did not
• Decision-making shifted from assumption-driven to evidence-backed
• Growth planning for the following year was grounded in a defensible, shared view of reality

4. Immediately actionable recommendations/tactics

• The analysis uncovered approximately $25-40 MM in targeted sales opportunities, providing almost immediate ROI to the commercial team
• Further, based on customer insights, &Marketing was able to provide input to better communicate the client’s unique value proposition in the face of intense competition and a cluttered marketplace
• &Marketing also identified opportunities to improve operations, consolidate product offerings, and sell current products into the larger indirect channel – all focused on cost efficiencies and revenue growth

Most importantly, the organization moved forward aligned and equipped with a market perspective it could trust, explain, and act on. This work gave leadership a shared, actionable understanding of where the opportunity truly lies and how to pursue it.

&Marketing’s consulting practice exists for moments like this: when the stakes are high, the data is fragmented, and leadership needs insight. If you’re facing a similar inflection point, let’s have a conversation!