Danone Case Study
The Challenge
Danone’s ambition is to produce healthful foods that create economic and social value all while nurturing natural ecosystems. The Horizon brand is part of this movement with its growth and evolution in the milk category and expansion into new arenas. The challenge was simple; how to better incorporate the consumer voice as a touch point more often in a cost-effective way.
The Objective
Build a panel of consumers who can frequently and consistently inform marketing decisions. The desire was to recruit common core users that could be engaged in a variety of interactive ways of informing:
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- New brand positionings, communications, and products
- Modifications to packaging and product formulations
Customized Approach
iimForum – Gives you access to fast and continuous consumer opinions. Our consumer forums are a cost- effective way to get insights from target consumers consistently and over time.
Insights in Marketing created an on-going customized consumer forum (panel) consisting of 15 common core target consumers.
The recruiting process was unique in that it engaged not only consumers but also clients and did so in an interesting, fun and engaging way:
- Recruited 40 potential candidates — each candidate completed homework to provide further information about themselves and the category, as well as, assess their articulation abilities and contribution potential
- Based on homework results, 25 candidates were invited to an introductory mixer to assess their suitability for the community. The mixer provides a relaxed social setting where consumers and clients come together with food and drinks to give the client team a better idea of the consumer’s personality, ability to express themselves and how they interact in a group setting.
- Based on the team’s engagement with candidates at the introductory mixer, 15 consumers were recruited to take part in research engagements monthly for one year
Key Insights
Several key insights were obtained throughout the project including:
The consumers were very open to the idea of new types of chocolate milk and offered a variety of concept and product optimization ideas that the team was able to move forward with
The consumers shared their perceptions and usage behavior around several dairy products which enabled the team to go back and create a variety of new product concept ideas
The consumers provided perceptions on a variety of package designs for dairy products which enabled the team to prioritize development efforts
