Magazine: Trends, whys and answers – part 5

The market share of a carbonated soft drink brand, let us call it ‘A’, started to fall in one of the country’s in our region. At the same time competitors’ sales were increasing in the category.

‘A’ brand’s manufacturer tried to find out why this happened and contacted Nielsen. Qualitative research can find the answer to the question because it is capable of shedding light on complex processes that influence sales of a branded product. What is more, sometimes it can even uncover hidden facts in connection with consumption habits and shopping decisions. Nielsen suggested doing focus group interviews, which revealed that consumers had three basic problems with soft drink ‘A’: 1. it is not sweet enough, it is rather bitter; 2. there is some kind of off-flavour that puts off many consumers; 3. buyers feel the taste of preservatives too, which they reject on principle. Well, bitterness is a matter of taste, it turned out that many in the focus group were just imagining the off-flavour and soft drink ‘A’ does not even contain preservatives! In addition to the information mentioned above, focus group interviews revealed that the packaging lacked the information that the product is preservative-free – while most competitors indicate this fact on their products. As for the off-taste, it was also decided that high fruit content should be indicated with bigger letters on the packaging. Brand ‘A’ manufacturers also contemplated investing more in the marketing of brand ‘A’. It requires further research to decide how much money they need to spend and how. Nielsen can predict the probable returns from marketing spending by modelling and analysing.