Sample Solution-Community #1

Achieving Competitive Advantage through Community Investment

Community Leadership by a Local Supplier in a Low Margin Industry

Challenge: 
Increase corporate profits for a local distributor despite penetration into local markets by global competitors.

Corporate Community Solution:    
Strengthen relationships with current and potential customers by developing a common cause around which customers, suppliers, prospects and complementary partners could ‘cooperate and collaborate,’ in this case a series of specific community economic development projects. 

Results:
This foodservice distributor significantly increased revenues, profits, community profile and customer relationships.  As the distributor partnered with other community members to improve quality of life in the community, it became impossible for nonlocal competitors to penetrate the market.  Customer companies who did not buy from this local distributor as part of local community economic development were ostracized. 

Foodservice distribution is a low-margin, fiercely competitive industry.  One of the greatest opportunities for market growth involved attracting greater private and public sector support for tourism promotion.  By applying strategic leadership to the process and encouraging groups to work together and capitalize on media synergies from regional and national tourism organizations, significant value was created. 

‘The regional ecosystem’ concept recommended establishing more ambitious objectives for the regional economy.  The strategy featured the notion of ‘cooperation and collaboration’, and was presented to business leaders, community groups and elected officials.  The presentation described a series of potential community economic development projects and featured a market-specific version of the attached conceptual diagram.  In a matter of months, an executive from the foodservice distributor gradually built consensus throughout the community while enhancing the profile of the distributor. 

This approach:
•  built relationships with senior decision makers
•  leveraged resources from untapped sources
•  attracted new business and built unprecedented customer loyalty for the client, in this case
   a foodservice distributor in Canada.

This concept also integrated the foodservice distributor’s existing charitable donations into a unique, strategic approach and led to additional community investments.  The benefits of cause branding were achieved.  Another profitable aspect was the active supplier involvement.