Is there opportunity to reposition a stable and commoditised food product to command a premium in the US foods market?

Our client asked:

Our client wanted to establish whether one of its legacy products, which had become commoditised and operated under a brand that had lost its shine, might be repositioned to compete and win in a premium space.

The project story:

We undertook desk research to better understand the product, through nutritional and sensorial lenses, and to examine consumer attitudes to the core ingredient; positive attributes of the product versus alternative ingredients; and products that might deliver similar types of benefit.

We also undertook consultations with the client team – to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the product, in terms of cost, ease of manufacture, and distribution – and developed initial hypotheses around how, why and when the legacy product might be used.

We tested our hypothesis by talking with market commentators and nutritional experts – seeing if the idea resonated and the added value was credible – and an internal workshop developed the data sourced through the consultation process into a value proposition.

Results: deliverables and outcomes

We presented a worked-up value proposition – including a defined consumer need, a profile of the target consumer, and a use case occasion. We visualised the concept and storyboarded the use case, explaining how and why the repositioned product would compete, and identified likely competitive threats from other big brands.