Sometimes the Best Answer is "No"

Europe’s largest wholesale apparel manufacturer aspired to penetrate the US market. To help them determine if this was a worthy endeavor, we conducted an extensive feasibility study. This study included the following:

• Competitive analysis for the US market

• Identified product differentiators and positioning

• Designed and quantified the required supply chain

• Designed and quantified the necessary infrastructure and human resource requirements

• Modeled real-world strategy and determined ROI

The feasibility study concluded that the cost of the supply chain, duties, and taxes would have priced the client’s products significantly higher than those of the incumbent competitors. In addition, we determined that the client’s product offering did not present enough differentiation or perceived value to warrant a higher price point. Therefore, our recommendation was to not proceed with entering the US market at that time.