No two Winterberry Group engagements are exactly alike.
That’s why we create custom consulting solutions for each and every one of our clients—leveraging our capabilities and expertise in a way that delivers maximum value to the client.
Our Clients / Case Studies
Data Compilation/Specialty Marketing Programs Provider
A niche data compiler struggling to achieve differentiation in a crowded marketplace leveraged Winterberry Group’s strategic planning process to develop a comprehensive new plan for growth, ultimately resulting in the Company’s successful sale.
Client:
A fast-growing, privately-held specialty data compiler with operations throughout North America
Problem:
Having achieved a position of strength in its niche sector of the commercial data business, the client’s senior management team was looking to better understand the range of growth opportunities available to it given the rapid pace of change in its industry. The company’s founding partners, having been invested in the company for over a decade, were specifically interested in building a three- to five-year growth strategy that would serve to both shore up the existing business and enhance the company’s valuation when the time came to exit their investment
Winterberry Group’s Solution:
WG applied a two-part strategic planning methodology to help the client understand its own core competencies and build an actionable plan that exploited those inherent opportunities. Starting with the Value Driver Assessment process, WG’s team kicked off a widespread research effort—including interviews with all of the client’s senior managers and secondary research aimed at identifying and assessing how the client’s performance compared to similar companies in its industries. Later, through the Opportunity Mapping process, WG’s team walked the same management team through two days of intensive, structured strategic planning—ultimately resulting in a series of macro growth priorities for the business that were universally understood, as well as a set of individually-focused performance objectives tailored for specific managers and teams
Outcome:
As outlined at the engagement’s outset, WG completed its research, assessment and strategic development within a brief 90-day timeframe. The client’s management team immediately went to work implementing the chosen growth plan (with WG’s support); the immediate benefits in terms of efficiency and added productivity were so significant that the partnership committee opted to put the company up for sale within a year of the completed strategy exercise. Upon the company’s successful sale—which was brokered through Petsky Prunier LLC, Winterberry Group’s exclusive investment banking affiliate—the successful buyer commented that the existence of a coherent, disciplined and well-researched growth strategy ultimately added between “one-half and one full point” to the earnings multiple paid to the former owners upon close of the transaction.
Global Diversified Financial Services Company
A global financial services corporation facing a myriad of challenges linked to its complex marketing operations and widely dispersed supply chain gained a new perspective through Winterberry Group's business process re-engineering exercise and has since realized tens of millions of dollars in added value.
Client:
A global provider of financial services and one of the world’s most sophisticated practitioners of “below-the-line” marketing, leveraging data and analytics to generate strategic advantage
Problem:
Considered among the world’s savviest direct marketers (with annual spending on direct mail and digital marketing exceeding $1 billion) the client nonetheless recognized that its internal marketing execution processes were flawed, especially when it came to the high-volume direct mail programs that had once proved so successful in helping generate new business. Though marketing teams within the client were still successfully using mail and other channels to drive growth, senior management believed strongly that the company was missing out on significant opportunities given the expense, time and resources demanded by their “mail machine.” They actively sought out independent verification of that hypothesis, as well as a comprehensive solution that leveraged technology, internal marketing capabilities and a widely-dispersed supply chain
Winterberry Group’s Solution:
WG set to work with a carefully planned solution that leveraged both its marketing industry expertise and business process development capabilities. Over the course of three months, WG’s team intensively “mapped” the business processes linked to our client’s direct mail execution process, carefully assessing each step to understand where material gaps were inhibiting efficiency. Next, we turned our attention to the range of potential supplier-side solutions, mapping business processes on the vendor side (that touched our client’s business) and discussing potential new service-and technology-led offerings that could support a revamped direct marketing execution process. Ultimately, we brought all this insight back to our client and collaborated with their marketing leadership team on the development of a re-engineered marketing execution process that set out to reduce campaign production cycle times by as much as 25 percent (with commensurate improvements in cost, quality and resource requirements)
Outcome:
Following a period of internal consultation, research and validation—supported by Winterberry Group at every step of the way—the client began to roll out the revamped marketing execution process in a carefully phased approach that aligned with their corporate strategy and the practical capabilities of chosen support services and technologies. Within 18 months, the client had successfully managed to achieve significant gains—by as much as 50 percent, in some cases—with regard to the cost, time and quality benchmarks it once considered so problematic. The ultimate value to the company, according to the lead client, can only be measured “in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Analytics-Driven Digital Marketing Agency
A rapidly growing provider of analytics and “agency” services turned to Winterberry Group for help in identifying both organic and M&A-driven growth opportunities. Following a successful investment in the Company and its acquisition of a leading industry player, the agency is now positioned as one of the leading digital consultative services providers in the nation.
Client:
One of the nation’s fastest growing and most innovative digital marketing agencies
Problem:
With a blue-chip roster of clients and a set of analytics- and campaign execution-oriented capabilities widely envied by its competitors, the client had succeeded in achieving remarkable growth in just a few years of existence. But making the leap from “emerging player” to “leader” would require both resources and sound strategic guidance if the client were to navigate a competitive minefield dominated by well capitalized global agency holding companies
Winterberry Group’s Solution:
Leveraging its deep network of marketing-industry relationships and external growth perspective, Winterberry Group identified two immediate objectives for its client: first, identify the right private capital partner to help finance its vision for growth; then, build and execute upon an aggressive growth strategy leveraging all tools at the client’s disposal, including the acquisition of complementary providers that could help round out the customer value proposition
Outcome:
Sticking closely to its strategic framework, Winterberry Group first set out to help its client identify and select an ideal private capital partner to help drive its next generation of growth. Working in close collaboration with our client’s senior management team and external partners, we guided the client through every step of the investment process—ultimately leading to a successful investment by a leading middle-market private equity firm. With their support in the fold, the focus then turned to growth initiatives—including the identification, validation and prioritization of acquisition target lists that would provide our client with focused insight into available M&A opportunities. With this approach providing strategic foundation, the client ultimately completed the acquisition of another fast-growing digital agency, helping the newly-bolstered company vault quickly to the ranks of “leaders” among independent U.S. marketing agencies.
