One of the world's leading food producers asked us to deliver a platform for brand, communication and product development for one of their core brands, a market leading product in several European markets.

In the first phase of the project we identified a set of key trends transforming the consumer landscape, using a combination of desk-research, expert interviews and a narrow quantitative survey. The primary conclusion was that there was a great risk that the brand quickly would become marginalized in several of the markets, due to a transformational shift in consumer values and attitudes.

In the second step of project the initial hypotheses were tested in a research project combining ethnographic interviews, blog analysis and a broader quantitative survey. The initial hypotheses were mostly confirmed, by the ethnographic, nethographic and quantitative analysis alike. Using our methods for wind tunnel testing and trend matching, a set of recommendations was developed indicating how to cope with the challenges and take advantage of the trends.

Based on the recommendations, several changes in the positioning and products were implemented.