Cases

World’s largest chocolate manufacturer Mondelez made a significant strategic shift on an international level towards “local first, but not only”, aiming to increase the role of market specific understanding in defining development priorities. As the team in Finland started to work on the growth strategy for chocolate, a need for a more thorough understanding of Finnish chocolate consumers became evident.

We approached the challenge with an iterative, three-staged project. All began with a comprehensive usage & attitude study to get an overview of the chocolate consumption behavior and to identify the key target groups for Mondelez chocolate brands. Then, we made a deep-dive into the key target group through a qualitative online community. We studied their behavior, mindset and brand relationships though multiple, engaging tasks, such as writing a chocolate journal, acting as chocolate spies, visiting stores to assess chocolate shelves and writing a love letter to a chocolate brand.  And finally, we quantified the key findings gathered through this rich set of data through an online survey. To further elaborate the data, we used also an advanced analytics technique called Partial Least Squares modelling to identify the key drivers impacting their chocolate purchases.

Through these stages, together with Mondelez team we gained a comprehensive understanding of the role of chocolate in the lives of Finnish consumers and the needs, occasions and expectations relating to it, how purchase decisions are made and what kind of relationships consumers have with the brands. All this enabled us together with the Mondelez team to identify key development areas and guidelines supporting growth strategy development from the perspectives of brands, product portfolio, marketing and shopper campaigning.

Serla is one of the most important tissue brands in the Nordic countries. To make decisions related to the portfolio in the future, Metsä Tissue needed more consumer insight about the users’ experiences and wishes about the category.

To achieve this goal, we conducted a home usage test with two products to gain the needed understanding in both Finland and Sweden. Participants reported their experiences on a separate online platform. On top of evaluating the products, we also used the test period to discuss the category more broadly.

Based on the insight and results from the home usage test, Metsä Tissue was able to carry on with the decision-making process relating to the portfolio with clear opportunities and threats in mind.

The demand for plant-based protein products has increased rapidly over the last few years. To be able to offer even better solutions to the consumers’ changing eating habits, Valio wanted to deepen its understanding of the plant-based protein products; to study the way consumers use the category overall but also to understand the needs and wishes consumers have towards the products in the category.

In order to serve also the information needs of the Food Service –business sector, the research set up considered both consumers’ and professional kitchens’ viewpoints. The data was collected via quantitative studies among consumers and representatives of professional kitchens. In the analysis stage, storified results were complemented further with the consideration of attitudinal differences between different consumer groups and by comparing the B2B results between public and commercial operators.

Through this project, Valio gained valuable and actionable insights to support its product and portfolio development of plant-based protein products. With the help of the insightful findings, Valio gained very concrete recommendations even to the level of product feature optimization. Furthermore, results provided fuel for Valio’s business development overall by offering understanding of the key challenges and opportunities related to the plant-based protein category.