Case Study: Brand Positioning
Social reward whilst dieting
The issue
Sales for a diet cereal brand had been falling and the client was keen to understand why and what could be done to stimulate growth. Several new product variants had been launched and these had boosted sales, but only temporarily. The team was beginning to think that the answer lay with the brand.
What we did
Our market research showed that while people believed the cereal was healthy and good for you, their emotional intimacy with the brand had declined. We used implicit testing to dig deeper. We found that while explicitly people believed the brand was for everyone and healthy, implicitly they believed the brand was for obsessive dieters who were lonely and introverted. There was no sense of fun, warmth, or optimism associated with the brand. Our distinctive asset test showed that those most positive towards the brand also associated the brand with the colour red and a girl in a red dress.
Those less engaged were also less likely to identify these assets. We recommended that the brand focus less on the girl in the red dress on her own, but instead show her in a social setting. We also suggested that any communication focused more on the emotional ‘pay off’ of looking great whilst amongst friends. This we said would help rebuild a strong emotional connection on a new footing. We also suggested that they use the colour red and the dress mode consistently as a brand identifier.
Results
+3% increase in average annual brand sales
A new campaign was developed that focused on a group of women having fun together and more time conveying the pay off and emotional reward, than the eating experience that got her there. The colour red, images of women supporting other women and the dress were all used more assertively and consistently, painting a more visible, warm and friendly face of the brand.
Sales saw an immediate increase following the campaign and this was successfully maintained throughout the rest of the year, giving them an average annual brand sales uplift of +3% in the markets which they advertised.
Find a whitespace to call your own, and position your brand for success.
