Strategic planning and cultural analysis
Conducting a cultural and societal analysis of the changes affecting the market segment.
Category Connect
An approach designed to help brands regain the lead in their market sector. Identifying the new category insights that are redrawing the boundaries, uses and segmentations of a category.
When is this expertise required?
This expertise is aimed at brands and retailers who want to rethink how consumers perceive, structure and choose between options within a market segment. It comes into play in a context where these segments are becoming increasingly fluid and challenged, in particular as a result of new uses, new players or genuine game changers that are redefining their dynamics and competitive balances.
METHODOLOGY
Category Connect is based on a qualitative and strategic approach combining an understanding of evolving usage, an analysis of experience expectations and the formalisation of a category platform. The goal is to identify one or more insights that enable a brand or retailer to become a driving force in its market once again, by providing guidelines that teams can put to use directly.
Category Experience
Exploring the consumer experience of the market segment in question: segmentation, evolving uses, exposure to the retail offering, unmet expectations… This phase includes in-store interviews, in-depth home interviews, as well as projective groups allowing for forward-looking work on the category. It also includes interviews with category managers at retailers.
Category Insight Factory
A co-creation workshop with the client aimed at strengthening its relevance in its market. This includes selecting a key insight to drive the strategy to be implemented, defining the brand's mission within its category, and identifying all the structuring elements to be deployed (communication, product innovation…).
Category Connect is a forward-looking audit approach aimed at understanding the new cultural and experiential drivers of a category, in order to define the activation levers needed to strengthen its relevance within its segment.
Market categories have undergone major changes over the past few decades, driven by new uses, new players and game changers that have profoundly transformed market dynamics.
At the same time, customer experience has become central. Consumer perceptions, expectations and decision criteria have evolved, forcing brands and retailers to rethink their role and relevance within their market.
The deliverables take the form of a strategic diagnosis of the category and its various sub-segments, a synthesis of the insights gathered, an identification of unoccupied spaces within the category, as well as strategic guidelines enabling a market player to position itself within that category.
The approach results in concrete guiding principles for teams, covering in particular innovation, the structure of the offering, ways of entering the category, merchandising, brand messaging, and the services and experiences to be developed.
WHAT WE OFFER
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A fine-grained understanding of the category
Gaining a detailed view of the developments within a market segment.
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Identifying the market's growth drivers
Identifying promising areas of innovation in order to regain the initiative within its market segment.
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A shared strategic vision
Bringing together the teams in charge of the category around a shared vision and strategy.
