Trade strategy transformation: Reallocating investment to drive competitive advantage

The Challenge

Our client operates in a highly competitive market, serving customers across a complex UK trade landscape. They came to us at a time when declining category volumes, shifting consumer preferences, and rising trade investment were putting pressure on their go-to-market strategy.  Despite increasing trade spend, returns were not keeping pace, with investment decisions shaped more by internal structures than by strategic market realities - leading to significant over- and under-investment.  At the same time, historic trade agreements had become bloated with terms that no longer supported their strategic direction.This led to a critical question: 

How do we optimise our significant and increasing trade investments against declining category volumes and a rapidly changing trade landscape?

The organisation chose Cognosis because they needed a partner with the analytical know-how, practical experience, and a bespoke approach that would deliver actionable insights and drive real change in this complex commercial environment.

Our Approach

We worked hand-in-hand with senior commercial leaders to design a trade strategy that was both ambitious and practical - fit to meet future challenges while unlocking immediate value. At the heart of this work was a rigorous yet highly tailored approach that combined forensic market analysis, commercial creativity, and cross-functional engagement.

Our review of the UK market structure revealed that investment decisions were often shaped by internal legacies rather than genuine market opportunity. By reframing this structure, we identified clear opportunities to reallocate resources where they would create the greatest impact. Building on this, we introduced a roles-and-mandates framework that balanced the complexity of the dynamic market with the need for clarity - providing a platform for commercial transformation.

To ensure decisions were robust and defensible, we undertook a multi-dimensional analysis across company, customer, and competitor lenses, working closely with internal teams to validate data and build confidence. Investment priorities were then brought into sharp relief using our “100 coins” methodology, which helped overcome political inertia by creating tangible differentiation between what truly mattered and what did not.

Finally, we tackled the structural challenges that had previously constrained execution, from misaligned commercial terms to cross-functional silos. To embed the new strategy, we ran an experiential, board-game style training programme that secured adoption across Marketing, Finance, and Sales - ensuring alignment from the boardroom to the front line.

The Impact

We transformed our client's trade investment strategy, delivering both immediate gains and a stronger foundation for long-term competitive advantage.  Key outcomes delivered were:

• Strategic investment reallocation: For the first time, leadership had a clear, data-driven framework that enabled significant reallocation of spend—shifting resources away from legacy relationships and towards customers with the greatest growth potential.
• Sharper strategic decision-making process: A new governance model replaced subjective and politically driven choices with a disciplined process anchored in strategic criteria, ensuring more consistent, future-focused decisions.
• Improved cross-functional collaboration: By embedding shared commercial principles across functions, we broke down silos and created a common language for investment. This shifted decision-making from reactive and ad-hoc to rigorous and integrated, feeding directly into the annual strategy process.

The project demonstrated how we help businesses tackle complex go-to-market challenges - combining rigorous analysis, practical implementation, and data-driven frameworks to overcome organisational inertia and shift decision-making from opinion to evidence.

* This case study has been anonymised given client confidentiality and the sensitive nature of the sector's competitive landscape.