Test to learn and achieve better results

Challenge:

I work at a CPG company and the objective we always have is to grow awareness: be a top of mind  brand and to increase consumption: higher market share. In a category I worked with, the situation  wasn’t so optimistic, we were losing share month after month and nobody seemed to know how to turn  the situation around. We started having different communication plans that didn’t work at all, doing  retail activations that didn’t have the results we were looking for and the situation was getting more  difficult and it seemed there was no way out.

Selection:

We though the solution was to put the customer on the center of decision making, that’s why we  decided to use learning launch tool to start doing lots of experiments to test and learn. We wanted to  launch a new product but wanted to be sure it will work before doing a traditional huge launch. We  started doing consumer understanding sessions to co-create with them a product that will wow them.

Application:

We wanted to develop a new product consumer would love but we wanted to co-create with them and  do an experiment to analyze if that was the correct choice. For this, we defined the idea which included:  the product and the target it was going to be directed to. We had some assumptions that we went to  understand with real consumers where we ended up designing the final product; when we had it ready,  it was a high risk to launch it nationwide because we were afraid of the cannibalization if will bring and  that a huge effort will end up with any increase in awareness or market share.

That’s why, we decided to prototype the product and do a small test where we sold this product and  saw the purchase intent of the people, but some changes were made to make it more attractive for  consumers including a price correction. When we saw this test was successful and made the corrections,  we continued with a bigger test where we did a launch in a region of my country and when we analyzed  that consumption was being incremental and this product was helping the brand results, we finally  decided to launch it as we had done it since the beginning in a traditional way.

Insight:

By applying this tool, we could validate some assumption we had, for example:

1. Validating the need: We saw purchase intent of the people and confirmed the hypothesis we

had where we included a new ingredient but didn’t know if that was going to create value for  consumers.

2. Price: We had to make some adjustments in price to be fully competitive and achieve the sell

out we were expecting.

3. Package: We had to include more information in the package so consumers could understand

the difference between the existing products and this new one.

Approach:

For this situation I think we applied the correct tool because it helped us validate many assumptions we  had but we weren’t sure if it was going to be the correct decision or if it was going to harm the brand.  Moreover, it allowed us to make the corrections needed before doing a huge launch to finally achieve a  successful national launch

