Learning Launch – Premium Ice Cream Business

Challenge:

I work as a Brand/Innovation Manager for a leading FMCG company in Pakistan. A serious challenge  that we were faced with recently was despite being the market leaders in the ice cream category  with a 61% volume share we had the slowest growth rate vs our competition for the past three years.  In other words, contrary to what our original role in the category should have been, which is to  increase the per capita ice cream consumption in Pakistan, we were doing exactly the opposite and  dragging the ice cream category’s growth down. When we dig deeper using all the primary and  secondary data available, in the form of consumer connects and retail audit reports, we discovered  that we were out paced by the competition in the ‘Premium ice cream’ segment which was growing  2.5 times the category. The key reason behind our failure in this segment was that we have not been  able to keep at pace with the market in terms of our innovation speed and variety.

Selection:

Premium ice cream segment had never been a forte for our company, but it was now becoming more  important by the day owing to the rate it which it has started growing. However, at this stage we  weren’t confident to do a full-fledged launch or ready for a huge financial commitment on the revamp  on premium business so we decided to do a learning launch as it could prove to be a cheap and fast  litmus test to check the efficacy of our plans.

Application:

We deployed our learning launch in the largest metro city in the country i.e. Karachi. The city has a  population of roughly 15 Million, comprising of people from all parts of the country. Hence, we knew  the results from this city can be well representative for the overall population of Pakistan. There  were a total of two things that we wanted to test with the consumers:

1- We want to test out different flavors and see what we was working and what wasn’t to make a

playbook of flavors for when we scale up the operations

2- We wanted to see what go to market strategy works best with the consumer, we had

deployed three simultaneously

We deployed a small-scale learning launch two months back in only 150 top-end stores, 50 Petro  Marts and 10 Malls of the city. The pilot is coming along well and we continue to fetch as much data  and insights from the experiment as possible. So far the approach seems promising, we have been  able to churn out some important insights that can come in very handy when we are eventually  scaling up in other cities.

It was initially difficult to deploy the learning launch in in malls due to COVID’19, however with all  safety precautions in place we have been able to have smooth mall operations also.

Insight:

Some of the insights that we have got form the experiments were really eyeopeners for us. We learnt  that the agility is going to be key in this market, the consumers in this segment is always looking for  something new, something that wows them. Hence, if we are to win in this segment, we must always  have a new news waiting for our consumers. We also got to learn that the flavors were not the only  thing that drove consumer excitement color, texture, fusion with adjacent categories and  experimentation of format was equally important. This experimentation also helped us curate our  flavor strategy, for instance we were able to form a playbook that shows exactly the four major flavor  palettes that exists in Pakistan and when we are thinking to innovate we must think from the lens of  which of the flavor palette we have a weak play in.  The GTM bit is yet to be answered, we are still  gathering data on that front.

Approach:

As mentioned before, so far that learning launch seems to be a very useful tool. Moving forward we  will be corroborating all the information from the three months pilot, putting the learnings together  in the form a strategy pieces that will be utilized as we scale up our operations in Q4 2020.


Learning Launch – Premium Ice Cream Business Challenge : I work as a Brand / Innovation Manager for a leading FMCG company in Pakistan . A serious challenge that we were faced with recently was despite being the market leaders in the ice cream category with a 61 % volume share we had the slowest growth rate vs our competition for the past three years . In other words , contrary to what our original role in the category should have been , which is to increase the per capita ice cream consumption in Pakistan , we were doing exactly the opposite and dragging the ice cream category ’s growth down . When we dig deeper using all the primary and secondary data available , in the form of consumer connects and retail audit reports , we discovered that we were out paced by the competition in the ‘ Premium ice cream ’ segment which was growing 2.5 times the category . The key reason behind our failure in this segment was that we have not been able to keep at pace with the market in terms of our innovation speed and variety . Selection : Premium ice cream segment had never been a forte for our company , but it was now becoming more important by the day owing to the rate it which it has started growing . However , at this stage we were n’t confident to do a full - fledged launch or ready for a huge financial commitment on the revamp on premium business so we decided to do a learning launch as it could prove to be a cheap and fast litmus test to check the efficacy of our plans . Application : We deployed our learning launch in the largest metro city in the country i.e. Karachi . The city has a population of roughly 15 Million , comprising of people from all parts of the country . Hence , we knew the results from this city can be well representative for the overall population of Pakistan . There were a total of two things that we wanted to test with the consumers : 1- We want to test out different flavors and see what we was working and what was n’t to make a playbook of flavors for when we scale up the operations 2- We wanted to see what go to market strategy works best with the consumer , we had deployed three simultaneously We deployed a small - scale learning launch two months back in only 150 top - end stores , 50 Petro Marts and 10 Malls of the city . The pilot is coming along well and we continue to fetch as much data and insights from the experiment as possible . So far the approach seems promising , we have been able to churn out some important insights that can come in very handy when we are eventually scaling up in other cities . It was initially difficult to deploy the learning launch in in malls due to COVID’19 , however with all safety precautions in place we have been able to have smooth mall operations also . Insight : Some of the insights that we have got form the experiments were really eyeopeners for us . We learnt that the agility is going to be key in this market , the consumers in this segment is always looking for something new , something that wows them . Hence , if we are to win in this segment , we must always have a new news waiting for our consumers . We also got to learn that the flavors were not the only thing that drove consumer excitement color , texture , fusion with adjacent categories and experimentation of format was equally important . This experimentation also helped us curate our flavor strategy , for instance we were able to form a playbook that shows exactly the four major flavor palettes that exists in Pakistan and when we are thinking to innovate we must think from the lens of which of the flavor palette we have a weak play in . The GTM bit is yet to be answered , we are still gathering data on that front . Approach : As mentioned before , so far that learning launch seems to be a very useful tool . Moving forward we will be corroborating all the information from the three months pilot , putting the learnings together in the form a strategy pieces that will be utilized as we scale up our operations in Q4 2020 .