Beyond Meat wanted to know if the new packaging of their Chicken Style products would lead to more sales. Bamboo Brands tested this new packaging in 20 supermarkets in the Netherlands.
Convincing consumers and retailers with a packaging makeover
What can you do when sales are under pressure and you risk retailers taking your products off the shelves? It was with this question that Emilie Duijvestein, Senior Brand Manager EMEA at Beyond Meat, contacted us. Since its founding in 2009, Beyond Meat has been on a mission to get more people to eat plant-based food. Beyond Meat tries to do this with their range of plant-based meat substitutes. Yet the rotation of their plant-based chicken burger and chicken schnitzel appeared to be falling behind. Both the interest from consumers and retailers was slowly declining. The Beyond Meat team therefore thought that a packaging upgrade might be the solution. They wanted to test this new packaging - a cardboard sleeve instead of plastic packaging - in a real supermarket environment. They were also keen to find out why the current Chicken Style products were less popular amongst their target audience. Finally, the Beyond Meat team wanted to gain insight into how consumers experienced the products at their homes. We researched all these issues for the Beyond Meat team – in the supermarket of course!
Measuring purchases
How can you be sure whether the buying behaviour of consumers is positively affected by a packaging change? You can of course ask them, but it is better to look at their (buying) behaviour. That is why we conducted an in-store packaging test for this project. To see what effect the new packaging would have on the sales, we tested the new design in the shelves for several weeks. For three weeks, we placed products with the new packaging on the shelves of 20 Albert Heijn stores across the Netherlands. Because we could compare the rotation of the old packaging with that of the new one, we could very well measure any sales uplift!
We placed the Beyond Schnitzel and Beyond Burger with the new cardboard sleeve in the meat replacement shelf, among all competing products.
Understanding purchases
Just measuring the sales of a new packaging does not always give a complete picture; ideally, you also want to know why consumers do or do not buy the new packaging. To find out, we interviewed a total of 62 shoppers in four Albert Heijn stores for the Beyond Meat team. The primary aim of the in-store shopper interviews was to find out the ‘why’ behind the purchase. During the in-store interviews, consumers were observed at the shelf and approached only when they grabbed something from the shelf. Consumers who did not grab anything were not interviewed. This ensured that all respondents consisted of meat substitute shoppers (100% the right target group). Not only Beyond Meat buyers were interviewed; buyers of competitors were also included in the interviews. This provided insight into the triggers & barriers of the entire category, not just those of Beyond Meat buyers. During the interviews, we tried to get answers to key research questions, such as:
- What do consumers think of Beyond Meat's new packaging? Do they like it better than the old packaging?
- What are the main drivers and barriers for consumers to (not) buy Beyond Meat?
- Do Beyond Meat products stand out on the shelf?
- How do consumers view Beyond Meat compared to the competition?
- What is the reason behind the underperformance of Chicken Style products?
Understanding usage
So far in the project, the Beyond Meat team had only gained insight into the behaviour of their target audience in the supermarket. But they also wanted to know whether the in-store expectations on the shopping floor matched the in-home experience of consumers. In addition, they wanted to know whether people considered buying the products again. To find out, an in-home user test was conducted. A total of 117 consumers were given the products to try out at home. After consuming the products, the respondents gave extensive feedback on their experience. Taste, texture and ease of use were all assessed to determine whether the products lived up to the hype.
‘’The taste was much better than the expectation I had after looking at the packaging.‘’
– Respondent (female, 21 years old)
In-store insights
The research provided many valuable insights for the Beyond Meat team. The specific findings from our projects always belong to our clients. However, thanks to the research, the effect of the new packaging on sales rotation became clear. Moreover, it revealed what the main triggers and barriers were, and whether in-store expectations matched the in-home experience. The insights from this research helped Beyond Meat make the right decisions. We are proud of this project and happy to have been able to help Beyond Meat with these in-store insights!
Test your FMCG innovation or renovation in our network of 400+ supermarkets across Europe
Do you currently have a product or packaging you would like to test in the supermarket? With Bamboo Brands, we help FMCG brands test products, mockups and packaging in real supermarkets across Europe. Would you like to receive more information about the possibilities? Then feel free to contact me at theo@bamboobrands.com. We are happy to help!
