Multi-phased innovation research generates actionable steps brand teams can use to drive category growth.
Case Study
Business Issue
Our client, a leading health and hygiene company, sought to identify and capitalize on strategic merchandising opportunities to drive growth across product categories. They wanted to move beyond traditional events, such as back-to-school or spring cleaning, and focus on fresh, innovative ideas that would motivate shopping behavior and build stronger partnerships with retailers.
Custom Approach
We designed and implemented a multi-phased plan to generate innovative ideas for event-based merchandising opportunities. The objective was to assess the potential of these ideas to motivate shopping behavior in key categories and determine their effectiveness across specific retailers and retail channels, both in-store and online.
Quantitatively evaluate concepts with an online survey.
- Fast-track and embed learnings with the team to bring them to life.
Discover existing knowledge and align on the research plan.
- Built a knowledge base of past research and category data and aligned on the research plan.
- Conducted stakeholder interviews to understand research goals, priorities, and diverse perspectives.
Generate the consideration set to motivate shopping behavior.
Four ideation workshops were conducted with the client’s category teams: Home Hygiene and Air Care, Upper Respiratory, Sexual Wellbeing, and Vitamins/Minerals/Supplements.
- The ideation workshops engaged cross-functional teams (30+ participants per workshop) to create seed ideas.
- A total of 400 seed ideas were generated.
- The top internally rated ideas were developed into full concepts by the Radius concept writer.
Quantitatively evaluate concepts with an online survey.
A nationally representative sample of shoppers in five categories participated. We identified the concepts with:
- The greatest consumer motivation and relevance.
- Optimal product assortment.
- Opportunities for each category, segment, solution, and retailer.
Fast-track and embed learnings with the team to bring them to life.
- Conducted highly visual, story-driven reporting with summaries and detailed findings.
- Provided interactive presentations of actionable results and recommendations tailored to each category.
Growth Outcome
The work empowered the client’s internal teams to build stronger relationships with retailers and design impactful promotions around the identified themes. By spanning all product categories, the research provided both specific insights and holistic cross-category learning, enabling the client to address their business challenges comprehensively.
The event-based merchandising opportunities identified during the research positioned the client as thought leaders with their retail partners by moving beyond traditional merchandising occasions. These concepts were seamlessly tied to the client’s internal strategic pillars, ensuring alignment with their brand and category strategies.
Engaging more than 30 cross-functional team members across different categories enhanced the quality of the insights and helped break down organizational silos, creating a more unified approach to their business objectives.
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