Engineering A Core Market Turnaround
Client Situation - A Core Market That Was No Longer Delivering
An innovator in the physical security technology industry engaged VDC Strategy to identify new avenues for growth and expansion. The company, known for its AI-powered solutions, had built a strong reputation for performance, reliability, and ease of deployment. However, as growth in its core markets began to level off, leadership sought to determine the underlying causes to recast its approach. The company was in the flat part of the typical S curve and needed to better understand its markets to turn up the growth.
While the company’s solutions were technologically superior, they were being evaluated primarily within established procurement frameworks that emphasized cost over long-term value. To sustain momentum, the organization needed clear, data-driven insight into where to focus and how to position its products to address a different set of customers needs and an increasingly competitive market. The positioning, value proposition and selling approach were revamped to better align with the new market opportunity.
VDC’s Approach
VDC partnered with the company’s corporate strategy and business development teams to conduct a comprehensive market opportunity analysis across multiple high-potential verticals. The study combined quantitative market sizing and segmentation with qualitative interviews across a range of stakeholders — including end users, integrators, and ecosystem partners — to understand changing requirements for safety, efficiency, and risk mitigation.
VDC assessed each candidate market’s readiness for adoption based on regulatory drivers, budget dynamics, and the degree to which security investments were linked to broader operational or productivity goals. The engagement also benchmarked competitive activity and evaluated the specific challenges associated with introducing security solutions into new environments with distinct operational constraints and decision-making cultures.
Key Insights
The research identified two particularly promising market segments. While both offered substantial opportunity, they required distinct go-to-market strategies. In the public sector, the focus needed to be on accessibility, simplicity, and long-term partnership. In enterprise environments, the emphasis shifted toward integration, operational efficiency, and measurable business outcomes.
VDC’s analysis helped the client recognize that its greatest strength lay not just in product performance, but in its ability to deliver complete, scalable solutions that improved both security and operational continuity.
Results and Client Impact
VDC delivered a data-backed roadmap for market expansion, outlining which segments to target first, how to tailor messaging to each buyer type, and where to invest for maximum impact. These insights allowed the company to realign its sales and marketing resources, strengthen internal alignment, and approach new customer segments with greater clarity and confidence.
The engagement resulted in a more focused growth strategy, sharper differentiation, and renewed momentum in markets previously viewed as difficult to penetrate.
VDC’s work equipped the client not only with insight but with a repeatable framework for market prioritization and positioning — empowering sustained growth in a rapidly evolving physical security landscape.
