The Situation
This food products manufacturer sells fresh and frozen/prepared food products, both under the same brand name. To build the brand, a new campaign was developed that featured a range of fresh and frozen items. While each execution focused on a single item, the overall campaign involved a consistent creative concept and theme. The campaign included TV, print, point-of-sale and online media, all closely aligned with the overall creative concept. Pretesting on selected individual ad executions within the campaign indicated that performance would be strong. However, to gain actual impact of the campaign in-market, as well as interactions of the various elements of the campaign, required in-depth post-launch research.
The Communicus Approach
Communicus implemented a
commVANTAGE study, the proprietary longitudinal design system in which the same people are interviewed at two points in time. The
PREcomm phase was conducted prior to campaign launch, and 6 months after campaign launch, an
AIRwave was completed, consisting of reinterviews with a sub-set of the original
PREcomm sample. The analysis involved comparing changes over time in brand perceptions among those who seen no advertising for the brand with those who had seen different combinations of executions that featured the fresh or frozen lines.
Key Learning
The results indicated that the campaign was effective at building overall brand familiarity and affinity; in fact, among those who did not see advertising, overall brand perceptions deteriorated significantly as a combined result of competitive activity and lack of brand presence. The campaign also generated positive perceptions of the brand’s frozen products, enhancing perceptions of quality ingredients and convenience, and generating significant purchase interest. However, quality/purity perceptions of the fresh line were negatively impacted by the portion of the campaign that featured the frozen products, with perceptions of the fresh line losing their competitive advantage on these dimensions among those who had, in-market, seen executions featuring the frozen products.
Actions Taken
In order to preserve the quality perceptions of the brand’s fresh line, some changes were needed. The recommendation was to revise the overall campaign strategy, utilizing different media for different, more specific, purposes. The existing broad-based media (TV and magazine) executions for the fresh product were continued, and new TV executions were added that focused on the overall line and on brand values, but did not feature the frozen line specifically. More targetable media, including point of sale and online advertising, along with FSIs, were tasked with building awareness and reinforcing quality/convenience perceptions for the frozen line.
The Outcome
Subsequent
commVANTAGE research confirmed that the brand itself was maintaining and building familiarity and affinity. Perceptions of both the fresh and frozen product lines were enhanced based on the TV/magazine campaign, with the targeted media effectively generating trial and purchasing of the frozen line.
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