Stretching beyond a brand’s heartland

What’s a research agency to do when a well-loved FMCG business wants to branch out of their key brand? You back them – and you do everything you can to set them up for success. In this case, it meant product clinics with children and parents that led to identifying key messages that resonated with all target audiences.

challenge

A leading FMCG wanted to expand their footprint within the snacking category. The brand was an adult proposition surrounded by younger-skewing competitors that typically had sweeter taste profiles.

We needed to explore ‘permissibility’:

  • Permissibility for the brand to stretch beyond its historical heartland.
  • Willingness of parents (aka the ‘gatekeeper’) to purchase the offer for their kids as much as for themselves.
  • Permission to expand into alternative flavour territories.

solution

Product Clinics were the key.

We recruited parent-child pairs to the same location. Parents and kids participated in the product clinic but were separate from one another.

  • Kids were able to express how they felt about the category AND the products without worrying about whether their parents would agree.
  • Parents were able to express their key decision criteria (and sensory feedback) without having to ‘hide their agenda’ from their kids.

result

Remarkably, the feedback from both kids and adults were well aligned, despite the discussions being completely separate from one another.

The results gave clear parameters around the kinds of promise the product could make to keep kids interested and parents happy, whilst identifying the support messages (e.g. back of the pack) which assuaged possible anxiety of the ‘gatekeeper’.

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