“The Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown in the UK, significantly impacted the shopping behaviour of many consumers, for whom a fresh, sweet pastry was a habit. We wanted to quickly identify the attitude towards purchasing of such pastries and draw comparisons between the pre-, during- and post-lockdown times. Thanks to Opeepl’s agility in setting up and launching the survey, not only did we receive the results within a few hours but we were also able to make informed recommendations to our retail partners.”
Lantmännen Unibake UK supplies the fresh, sweet pastry market in UK supermarkets and gas stations. The Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a nationwide lockdown introduced by the UK government, posed a serious challenge to their current offering of mainly self-serve, single pastries.Therefore, they initiated an assessment of the category to help the retail partners adjust their offering.
For this case we used an assess, adjust and validate model to approach Lantmännen's challenges. This approach enables you to re-launch a product fast in e.g. rapidly changed market situations like the lockdown market Lantmännen suddenly found themselves in. This model can be used whether in a single market or across multiple countries.
Reality eats strategy for breakfast, right? Whether it's a pandemic, regional conflict, natural disasters, or supply chain issues, rapid changes in market conditions can affect your business at the speed of light. We help you keep up with consumers when quick adjustments and decisions are needed through market profiling research. A market profiling maps the current market situation and identify new opportunities.
It is usually done early in the product innovation process as an explorative discovery of consumer preferences and can be used to identify product need or desire not currently met by existing products or services. Market profiling is also a valuable approach if a product or service no longer has a satisfactory performance. In this case, the market profiling can be utilized to determine which adjustments are needed to meet changes in market demands, how to best comply with new market conditions or how to approach new target groups.
Firstly, Lantmännen Unibake UK assessed the market and changes in attitudes toward fresh, sweet pastry singles. Significant behavior and attitude shifts were identified, driven mainly by consumers changing their shopping habits.
Based on the consumer evaluation of a number of solutions to address the identified changes in attitudes and behaviors, Lantmännen Unibake UK were in a position to advise their retail partners on the adjustments to the product offering, to be applied under Covid-19 lockdown situation.
In addition, thanks to the direct consumer feedback, Lantmännen Unibake UK could then validate how each adjusted offering performed when presented to the target audience. This provided the desired confidence in selecting the new offering to be recommended for launch in the market.
Within 3 days, Lantmännen Unibake UK were able to assess the category, test product adjustments and validate the best offer given the new market situation. The rapid process was pivotal in building decision insights for Lantmännen Unibake UK´s urgent relaunch during and post lockdown.
