The sheer magnitude of change and uncertainty in the CPG industry requires an agile operational model that keeps pace with customer needs and expectations. From in-home usage testing to concept testing, CPG companies have an urgent need to scale their research and aggregate a consistent stream of customer feedback into an actionable decision-making process.
Traditional growth models for the CPG industry have come to a near standstill over the last decade. Amazon, Walmart, and discounters like Trader Joes have completely overtaken the market share, leaving CPG companies to renegotiate their distribution channels and heavily leverage their relationships with consumers—who no longer exclusively buy from big-name brands and expect a diverse array of product offerings.
The evolved buying preferences of consumers over the last twenty years has fundamentally changed the CPG industry, and there is no clear solution. Overcoming these challenges demands a multifaceted market research strategy where a steady stream of customer knowledge is continuously flowing to inform product, supply chains, and branding.
Consumers are overall less loyal to brands
Consumers expect a wide-variety of product offerings
Millennials, the biggest buying generation, are drawn to deal and discount.
Retailers are under more and more pressure to compete with offline platforms
As home-delivery costs less, retailers are forced to compete with e-commerce
Product and innovation cycles are in constant flux undermining distribution flow
Discounters have slowly taken a large share of the consumer product good market
Smaller competitors are starting to capture an appealing consumer niche in the market
The online market is supply driven offering low to free shipping and easy returns
With the Fuel Cycle Research Cloud™, Consumer Packaged Good companies can access and fuse together the best technologies and solutions to help navigate a market of unprecedent change. Fuel Cycle’s mission is to retire the one-off episodic research projects and replace them with in-the-moment and precise customer insights. By way of online communities, panels, and boutique research technologies catered to fit the individual needs of businesses, the CPG industry can leverage an all-in-one research solution that can compete in the era of volatile markets.
Support product development strategy through concept tests, focus groups, in-home usages tests, and much more.
Discover new trends and deepen customer relationships through consistent engagement with your targeted customer base.
Make diary studies and IHUTs easy to complete to inform product development through every stage.
Go into deep analysis and customer segments to hyper-personalize marketing messages and inform all areas of business.
Dive into shopper behavior with video IDIs, geolocation, virtual shelf testing and more.
Through the Fuel Cycle Research Solution™, CPG companies can concoct the perfect cocktail of research studies to fit the goals and needs of their organization. Detailed below are some tried and tested methodologies that work best for Fuel Cycle’s CPG clients—each study can be launched in a matter of minutes, and clients can receive same-day results.
Brands need to reliably measure the potential viability of products and concepts, as well as test their market potential before investing in development efforts.
Brands need an accurate and reliable way to test and measure if their product is ready for the perfect launch throughout every stage of the development phase.
Brands need a reliable way to measure price sensitivity in the market before making important business decisions.
Brands need a reliable way to measure and understand changes in brand perception over time, as well as how they compare to competitors.
Fuel Cycle has a roster of CPG clients who have benefited from using the Fuel Cycle platform for their research needs. This case study showcases a facet of our research capabilities and highlights how CPG clients use their customer data as a competitive advantage.
A CPG company launched a product that was losing ground to competitive products. The company wanted to understand better which features would drive consumer purchase and satisfaction, and how they could win sales over their biggest competitors.
A Live Chat with community members was launched. Initial discussions with consumers revealed feature-rich capabilities of competitive products drove consumer satisfaction.
48 features were measured on desirability and purchase intent. The study revealed which features would drive switching among current consumers and which features induced category considerers to try the product.
Discussions over Discussion Boards followed the Kano Model survey for additional context as to why consumers preferred specific features over others.
The client found key drivers differed significantly among current category users and category considerers. The client shifted their current product strategy from one product that served the needs of both considerers to a two-product offering—one that appealed to the considerers and one that appealed to its current users. The client gained 7% retail share in this new product category over the course of two years—generating millions of dollars in revenue.
Here are a few of our partners who provide richer insights catered specifically to your business needs:
Consensus Point
Use the collective wisdom of your community to predict the future success of concepts and consumer trends.
remesh
Gather rich customer feedback by using technology that analyzes and segments qualitative data on a large scale.
fc geolocation
With Fuel Cycle’s geolocation capabilities you can capture in-the-moment and in-store insights through location-based surveys and studies.
voxpopme
Use the power of automated video analysis to gather nuanced and rich detail on your product and brand.
Fuel Cycle empowers the entire organization with a deep, on-demand market understanding to solve the hardest research problems businesses face. Don’t settle for disconnected products, trackers, and tools — take control of continuous research, fully integrated, in one solution.
Your customers are providing feedback 24/7. The world’s most successful brands use Fuel Cycle’s market research platform to capture, analyze, and act upon reliable data – with greater speed and relevance than their competitors. Fuel Cycle guides you through the research lifecycle to find the answers to questions you didn’t even think to ask.
NYC
205 E. 42nd St,, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10017
info@fuelcycle.com
Your customers are providing feedback 24/7. The world’s most successful brands use Fuel Cycle’s market research platform to capture, analyze, and act upon reliable data – with greater speed and relevance than their competitors. Fuel Cycle guides you through the research lifecycle to find the answers to questions you didn’t even think to ask.
Headquarters | 11859 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90025
NYC | 205 E. 42nd St,, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017
info@fuelcycle.com