GTM refresh:
Positioning a peanut-free health food

Note: Some details of this case have been modified, reformatted, or omitted.

Background

Business problem

  • As a research consultant at InfoScout, one of my FMCG clients (General Mills) began targeting a new segment – families with allergy-prone kids. 

    • Part of that campaign included the release of Annie's PeaB&J Pockets, a crustless sandwich made with peanut-free substitute ingredients.

    • 6 months after launch, sales were sluggish. It was unclear whether PeaB&J Pockets appealed to the target segment.

Goal

  • Understand the profile and preferences of Annie's PeaB&J Pockets shoppers in order to inform the next phase of GTM strategy.

Outcome

  • Client was advised to target PeaB&J towards a broader customer base by leaning into their core values (healthy, organic, natural) rather than allergy-free (which is seen as less-tasty).

Research objectives

  1. What kind of shopper is buying this product?

  2. Understand path to purchase – are these planned or impulse buys?

  3. What is the ultimate "why" behind the buy?

Approach

First, InfoScout’s purchase panel was used to identify recent shoppers of Annie’s PeaB&J products.

From there, I used a mixed-method approach, leveraging…

  • Quantitative data – purchase analytics of shoppers’ past grocery retail trips

  • Qualitative data – targeted survey for shoppers to share attitudes towards PeaB&J product

Key insights

  • Research showed that PeaB&J were mostly purchased by regular families (whose kids don't suffer from peanut allergies).

    • Over 75% of shoppers had purchased a regular (non-substitute) peanut butter product recently, and only 4% reported buying Annie’s PeaB&J for its non-allergenic properties.

  • Instead, PeaB&J shoppers mostly bought the product because of its perceived health benefits as an 'organic' product.

    • In fact, a majority of shoppers already had a habit of buying products with labels like ‘organic’ or ‘non-GMO’.

“I just bought [the product] because it looked healthy. I didn’t even know they were peanut-free!”
— Annie's PeaB&J shopper

Recommendation

Client was advised to target PeaB&J towards a broader customer base by leaning into their core values (healthy, organic, natural) rather than allergy-free (which is seen as less-tasty).