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AgencyUK has used the following skills/services in the project.
Since 2005 their ambient fruit juice sales in the UK has been in steady decline. Largely due to the fall in the ambient juice category, the rise in cheaper own brand ranges and the investment and innovation put into chilled fresh fruit juice ranges.
AgencyUK were briefed to protect Del Monte’s ambient fruit juice listings in Tesco and Asda by boosting aisle footfall and sales.
Quantitative research
Consumer Attitudinal Study - The AUK team planned initial quantitative research with Dunnhumby, looking at the historic category buying behaviour across 400 UK stores. On analysis this data revealed four key insights.
1. Ambient fruit juice sales rose in the December month.
2. The largest volume sales were in the North East and North West UK.
3. The highest penetration was in ethnic minority groups, particularly those in zero alcohol communities, such as Muslim.
4. The erosion of the ambient category had been a combination of chilled alternatives on discount and the ambient aisles generally suffering low footfall due to store location and product matching.
Brand Study - The decline in Del Monte’s brand recall with consumers due to a lack of advertising had also resulted in an ongoing discount strategy to prop up sales. This eroded their premium position and gave way to own brand alternatives.
By running consumer research with Tesco Clubcard customers as well as national panels, Del Monte was found to still be synonymous with “The Man from Del Monte” and “Say Yes To The Best” but consumers felt the brand was tired and out of touch with the modern day consumer. There were also concerns over their positioning of the Del Monte white man exploiting third world farms. The brand was felt to be at a juxtaposition to modern, sustainable and local alternatives with a transparent supply chain. Innocent Drinks was found to have high levels of brand trust with consumers.
Qualitative research
It was agreed that brand repositioning was essential for Del Monte to gain traction in the UK. Say Yes To The Best would help regain their premium position. We ran a TV Ad on HTV and satellite to test the proposition again, and further to complaints from Pepsi and Tropicana, we were ordered to research the claim by ClearCast.
A consumer blind taste test run with 50 participants head to head with Del Monte against Innocent, Tropicana and own brands proved Del Monte the outright winner. The footage from the research was used in upcoming TV commercials and in-store promotions.
