Case Study
Driving Growth in the Sparkling Beverage Market: Insights from A&U and Emotional Analytics
overview
Our client, a leading beverage brand, wanted to develop a comprehensive strategy for the refreshment beverage category. Specifically, previous research had shown that consumers turn to sparkling beverages when seeking a healthier option, with a goal of cutting down sugar. But health benefits seem to fade over time and without fulfilling other needs, consumers tend to leave the sparkling water category. With this in mind, our client wanted to understand this dynamic more and identify opportunities – both functional and emotional – to guard against category consumers abandoning sparkling water. Given our extensive experience in market landscape/attitude & usage studies, our client felt that C+R was the ideal partner to meet their objectives.
THE PROBLEM
Identifying Key Opportunities, Barriers and Frustrations for Sparkling Water
We helped our client understand how consumers define and categorize refreshment categories, including the competitive set for sparkling water and also helped to identify purchase drivers and potential barriers/frustrations. Considerable emphasis was placed on understanding where our clients’ brand fits within the market landscape, examining emotional and functional benefits associated with it, and determining the best placement strategy.
OUR APPROACH
A Robust Quantitative A&U Study, with The Rational Heart Component
We designed a research methodology to capture holistic insights of stated and emotional response, including a partnership with The Rational Heart. Using a quantitative survey with a robust sample size of over 2,500 consumers, we were able to segment and analyze key groups of interest, including current, lapsed, and non-triers of our client’s brand. This comprehensive attitude & usage survey (A&U) covered how consumers see the market landscape, including consumer perceptions of the category, our client’s brand and key competitors, and where brands “fit” within the landscape. Because this traditional A&U study addressed stated attitudes and usage, to better understand the emotional response to the category and specific brands, we partnered with The Rational Heart, incorporating their advanced measurement and modeling techniques to gain valuable insight into consumer emotion.
The result
Informing Marketing Strategies for Brand Positioning, Messaging and In-Store
BThe custom survey we designed yielded valuable insights into how consumers perceive the refreshment category and where sparkling water (and our client’s brand) exceeds and falls short. Our research provided the roadmap for various Marketing strategies and tactics such as:
- Solidifying a unique brand positioning in a crowded category
- Enhancing messaging for better emotional connections with consumers and to increase brand trust
- Identifying ideal shelf placement to better indicate the product benefits
Our approach of marrying cognitive (through our custom survey) and emotional (The Rational Heart) responses provided our client with a holistic picture of what’s in the hearts and minds of consumers, with the goal of maximizing sales.
proven experience
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