Clearing Shopper Confusion Increased Cider Sales for Distell by 47%

The Distell Group is the leading alcoholic beverage producer and marketer on the African continent, with wines, spirits, ciders and ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages sold across the world. After one of their internal researches, the brand needed to redefine the shopper experience of cider off-trade because multiple category complications were revealed.

The cider category had multiple locations in store

Category confusion existed among shoppers

Pricing visibility was poor within the cold space

Objective

The company felt that their core value of customer satisfaction fell short of the mark in the cider off-trade category, and approached us to find out why. Our first port of call was to gain an in-depth understanding of exactly how shoppers were shopping for cider.

Solution

We conducted shopper behavioural analyses in several stores as well as face-to-face shopper interviews. Our research showed that shoppers frequenting a chiller had two primary triggers: Beer and Non Beer.

Within Non Beer, shoppers saw cider, RTD’s and fruit flavoured beverages as a single collective. During interviews, when asked what non beer they were purchasing, 78% confirmed cider. However, our observation research showed that figure to be 56%. The difference revealed that claimed cider drinkers were buying other non beer products because their definition of cider was all-encompassing.

Based on an understanding of where the confusion lay, we created units that addressed all the shopper challenges. Our designs lead with a clear and specific cider category call out that would attract non beer shoppers who had switched to another subcategory outside of cider.