Executive Summary
- Expanding into new markets is high risk and high reward, it requires precise planning to seize the opportunity whilst balancing operational risks
- Through leveraging data-driven insights, we could identify optimal cities and neighbourhoods to expand into and provide analytical tools to support ongoing planning
- Building a roll-out strategy and operational plan resulted in a clear roadmap for our client to enter the new market
The Challenge
A leisure chain with revenue in the £150-200m range sought to expand their operations into the United States. This was a new market for our client and they required a clear understanding of both the customer demographics and network of personal trainers in each area. The sequencing of the roll out was also critical, with early market penetration being a key success criteria. Specifically, our client wanted to understand:
- Strategic Targeting: Identifying cities and neighbourhoods that are demographically similar to their existing high-value customer segment.
- Optimal Sequencing: Determining the order of expansion to maximize early market penetration while minimising operational risks.
- Cannibalization Risk: Avoiding overlaps with existing locations to optimise the net new revenue from each chain opening.
Our approach
Our Approach
The solution required us to leverage both our strategy expertise and analytical modelling capabilities. Our specific activities included:
- Demographic Assessment: We leverage publicly available data sets to build a look-alike model, comparing demographics in neighbourhoods to existing, high-value customer segments.
- Scoring Neighbourhoods: Using demographic and market data, we scored neighbourhoods across various cities to identify which zip code would provide the optimal location to open in.
- Expansion Blueprint: A tailored rollout plan was proposed, specifying the number of sites per city and a phased timeline for their opening. The plan included a capacity analysis to ensure sustainable growth while leaving room for future expansions.
This approach resulted in an analysis tool displaying heatmaps of key statistics within US cities which highlighted optimal locations to open up in. This tool also identified potential cannibalisation risks as the expansion progressed.

Impact
Our collaboration delivered a clear plan of when and where to target as they look to expand over the following five years. Crucially, it provided the reasoning behind why each location was chosen and not just the recommendation. In particular:
- Clear Strategy: The client now has a data-backed, actionable plan detailing where and when to open new locations over the next five years.
- Enhanced Ongoing Decision-Making: The analysis tool enables the client to make informed decisions for future site evaluations, reducing risks of cannibalisation.
For more information on how our consulting expertise can help your business navigate strategic challenges, contact us at contact@datavisionservices.co.uk to see how we can best work together.