Jonas Wistrand – Midsona AB

Midsona AB is a leading company in the health and well-being sector, focusing on organic and natural products across the Nordics. With a diverse portfolio that spans from food items to natural medicines, Midsona AB has established itself as a key player in promoting healthier living through its wide range of products available in grocery stores and pharmacies. This interview with Jonas Wistrand, Customer Marketing Manager at Midsona Sverige AB, delves into the company’s strategic marketing approaches, emphasising the importance of understanding consumer behaviour, key performance indicators (KPIs) in driving growth, and the challenges of promotional campaigns.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Growth

As Customer Marketing Manager, Jonas oversees the local brand and category organisation in Sweden. His tasks include executing strategies in the local market and assisting key account managers in directing campaign planning. “We work based on the role the categories have for the consumer, the role it plays for the store, for the customers, and what it adds,” he says. Therefore, the KPIs to measure brand growth may also vary depending on the goal of the campaign and product category.

“Essentially, our primary task is to sell our visions to the customer. By doing so, we can drive the categories in every possible way, through assortment, price points, campaign setups, mechanics, pricing, second and third placements, etc.” This implies that the absolute most important ingredient for growth is having an understanding of what drives the consumer to choose a specific category to satisfy a specific need. “If you’re not on top of this, you quickly end up in discussions about discounts, about lowering prices, about chasing new volumes just to keep things spinning,” Jonas says.

“Essentially, our primary task is to sell our visions to the customer. By doing so, we can drive the categories in every possible way, through assortment, price points, campaign setups, mechanics, pricing, second and third placements, etc.”

KPIs such as household penetration, household frequency, household volume per purchase, and household value per purchase are frequent KPIs measured. Jonas highlights that market share as such is not measured because it is a “tool-less” KPI. “The customer isn’t the least interested in what market shares we have,” he says.

Additionally, Midsona obtains data supporting the overall effect the category has on cash register value and how valuable its categories are for the customers. “It’s about lifting the prioritisation order so that the customer chooses to invest as well in a category. Collectively is the only way we can reach the vision.”

“It’s about lifting the prioritisation order so that the customer chooses to invest as well in a category. Collectively is the only way we can reach the vision.”  

Challenges with Promotional Strategies

Jonas sees that all types of communication are sales campaigns in one way or another, some are just focused on more long-term sales than others. “At Midsona, we always try to turn the discussion to how we resonate around sales promotions, what is needed for the category to grow? Is it getting more users or getting the existing users to buy more?” Jonas explains.

Furthermore, Jonas discusses the challenges associated with frequent promotions, such as diluting category value and conditioning customers to expect discounts, which could undermine long-term value and brand perception. If users constantly expect price discounts, the brand’s value might diminish, as consumers are not ready to buy that product at full price. This cycle of expectation for promotions every few weeks trains customers to delay purchases, which can undermine the long-term value and reputation of the categories.

Another example is the “buy 1 get 1” promotion. These are good for driving volume but serve mainly existing users, and it is difficult to attract new users with these because it doesn’t encourage trial. “When aiming for more households or new consumers, we need to make a different offer based on different Category Entry Points (CEPs). This can, for example, be a reduced-price offer so that the households feel that they can test the product and break that barrier,” Jonas says.

This strategic shift away from solely rewarding existing customers with discounts to instead focusing on attracting new households aims to ensure sustainable growth while avoiding the pitfalls of over-reliance on promotions that can lead to category value dilution and a habituated customer base that only responds to discounts.

‘’When we need more households to get more consumers, we need to make a different offer based on different Category Entry Points (CEPs). This can, for example, be a better price for the households to feel that they can test the product and break that barrier.”

Data-Driven Decision Making

To understand what type of promotions each brand or category needs, Jonas advocates for the importance of data-driven decision-making in refining marketing tactics and improving category management. Conducting structured, data-based tests across stores to understand consumer behaviour better and to gauge the effectiveness of different promotional strategies is something Midsona engages in.

“By analysing sales data and customer responses from these tests, we can make informed decisions about campaign adjustments and strategic planning,” Jonas says. He further emphasises that leveraging data from customer databases and other sources enables Midsona to tailor their campaigns more effectively to meet consumer needs and drive category growth.

This approach not only helps in optimising promotional strategies but also ensures that investments are directed towards initiatives that yield the best outcomes for both the company and its customers, although customer expectations, conditioned by habitual sales and discounts, might not always align with these data-driven strategies. This scenario underscores a nuanced challenge in balancing data-driven decision-making with managing customer expectations and behaviour patterns.

“By analysing sales data and customer responses from these tests, we can make informed decisions about campaign adjustments and strategic planning.”