Client’s challenge
For many brands, Category Entry Points are an important tool for brand growth. Knowing what makes people think of the brands in the category forms a source of inspiration for products and messaging.
A client in the FMCG industry wants to explore and validate up-to-date Category Entry Points for their brand in 5 different categories to define their growth strategy for the coming years.
The approach
DVJ Insights conducted a large-scale CEP Exploration study. To identify growth opportunities for the brand, we took a two-step approach.
In the first stage, we sized and identified Category Entry Points based on a unique mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques and analyses:
- We used Storytelling to uncover the different moments the category is used. We let consumers tell us their story: where they used a product, when it happened, for what reason, in which context, for which purpose and so on. Via the DVJ Storytelling technique, we gained insight into relevant CEP consumer experiences. Taking all collected CEP experiences and their frequency feedback into account, we qualitatively identified 8-10 most relevant CEPs per category and gender, with a special scope on gender-specific CEPs.
- In the quantitative analysis, we asked respondents to classify their own responses in different ways, such as positive-negative, relevancy and willingness to share.
- Using AI-powered text analytics, we can extract meaning out of large volumes of unstructured text and translate this into meaningful quantitative data. This data can then be used to uncover trends, patterns, and insights. By leveraging Text analytics on the stories, we identified similarities and differences across categories and gender.
In the second stage, we zoomed in further on the newly found CEPs and measured the mental market share and mental penetration of the brand among consumers. We also measured the position of the brand’s main competitors, as well as scores within each of those CEPs. This helps brands to understand where to play and how to win.
The results
By leveraging AI-based topic modelling on the collected consumer stories, we were not only able to identify the most important CEPs per category but could also pinpoint differences by gender in terms of CEP-hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Category Entry Points for 1 of 5 categories, divided by gender
The stories provided further inspiration on how to best bring each of the CEPs to life in consumer language. Looking at the brand’s position in the consumer’s mental network, the results revealed that for females, the brand was leading in 3 of the 5 categories. In the 2 other categories, there were clear opportunities to attack and defend the performance of specific Category Entry Points within those categories. Among males, the brand performed even better on the 3 leading categories, but results also showed that there are opportunities for the other 2 categories where the brand scores less well compared with competitors.
Client’s benefit
Our unique mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques with AI-powered storytelling analysis helped the brand to identify CEPs in 5 different categories with clear distinctions at a category and gender level. The outcomes of this study provided essential input for the brand on their mental market share in each of the CEPs. Leading to clear and actionable insights on where to play and how to win in the years to come.
