Our client at a major soup and snacks company had executed a yearslong ad campaign focusing on several need states – fun, joy, convenience, taste, health – as the brand was trying to drive relevancy across a spectrum of occasions, ages, and consumption locations. Perceptions uncovered that while the brand was seen as a ‘convenient’ option in the quick and hot meals space, consumers had negative perceptions of the brand on every other dimension; however, the brand had a unique strength in ‘nostalgia’ and ‘nurture’ (see Figure 3). The brand team had thought of nostalgia as only being relevant to older consumers who, coincidentally, formed the majority of the brand’s consumer base. Given that the brand team was tasked with bringing in the new generation of consumers, this territory was not deemed as lucrative enough to pursue.
Our occasions segmentation disproved these pre-existing beliefs: we identified that nostalgia was an important need state for younger cohorts as well. And our perceptions work quickly showcased that, in fact, all cohorts viewed our client’s brand as delivering on nostalgia.
Figure 3: Identify brand strengths
This new finding allowed the brand teams to redirect their efforts to tap into new demand occasions: they incorporated relevant messaging to dial-up elements of nostalgia in their new ad campaign and adapted existing promotional materials to bring in iconic combinations of their products to evoke the feeling of good times as part of the overall brand experience.