Challenge
Spindrift has been no stranger to innovation. In fact, they’ve managed to carve out a space for themselves in the crowded sparkling water market with their singular focus on using a few real, simple ingredients.
To stay competitive, Spindrift needed to move concepts through the innovation funnel at a start-up’s pace. With a new product line extension in development, Spindrift required fast, credible insights to decide if the concept was worth putting on store shelves. They were also looking for a better way to incorporate consumer insights into their ongoing product development processes – one that would be responsive to their fast tempo of innovation.
Approach
Despite being a successful player in the beverage market, Spindrift did not have a standardized approach to concept testing. They knew, however, that this line extension called for a more systematic way to gauge consumer interest and sales potential.
Spindrift was already partnering with Kantar on brand equity research, so it was a natural extension of the relationship to move into concept testing. After witnessing the speed and agility of Kantar Marketplace, the Spindrift team was quickly inspired to take action, commissioning a concept test the same day. Using ConceptEvaluate on the Kantar Marketplace platform, the team was able to understand the potential of their product line extension in less than half the time of a traditional concept test – with results coming back in just a matter of days.
Insight
The concept test results provided insight into what was resonating with consumers as well as potential optimizations that the team could make to enhance the success of their launch. “The speed of execution and communication throughout was great – we move at a start-up’s pace and anything slower would not be useful,” said Sue Kim, Vice President Brand Strategy and Market Insights at Spindrift.
Impact
The synergy between Spindrift and the Kantar team, as well as the combination of Kantar Marketplace’s speed and precise methodology, gave Spindrift the confidence they needed to action a new product line.
And as a beverage brand that never conducted a concept test before, the agility provided by ConceptEvaluate on Kantar Marketplace was enough to convince Spindrift that they could incorporate the rigor of concept testing research into their processes and still move with the nimbleness of a startup.