Category assessment amidst a pandemic
How Lantmännen Unibake UK revised their fresh pastry offering due to Covid-19
“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.”
Paulina Gorska
Marketing Manager
The challenge
Covid-19 changed the playing field
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 a market assessment of the category to help the retail partners adjust their offering.
Spending expectation: Furniture & Décor
Source: Data from our insights report Consumer Outlook in a Corona Reality
The solution
Assess, adjust and validate
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:
Assess your market(s)
The initial assessment estimates your current market potential and help you identify new opportunities as well as disclose potential pitfalls.Adjust your offering
Next you adjust your product/service, develop new products & services and/or organize alternative distribution channels, depending on the results of the initial assessment.Validate your offering
Finally, we test your new product/service to validate the potential. You can then select and launch the winners and thus optimize your marketing spend and ROMI.
Market assessment
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 segmentation research. A market assessment maps the current market situation and identify new opportunities.
The research
Assessing consumer change
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.
Behavioral changes since corona lockdown
Adjusting the product offer
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.
Preferred adjustment to product offering
Validating
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.
Preference current vs new product offering
The outcome
A quick response to urgent challenges enabled Lantmännen's agility
Within 3 days, Lantmännen Unibake UK were able to have the results from the market assessment, 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.