Earning Trust Before the First Sale: How an Infant Formula Manufacturer Used Market Research and IDIs to Understand Parent Decision-Making Ahead of a New Market Launch
Executive Snapshot
Client
Situation/Challenge
Objective
Constancy Researchers Solution
Impact
Client Outcome
The Situation / Challenge
Infant formula sits in a uniquely trust-sensitive corner of consumer products, because parents are making a call that directly affects their infant’s health, often during a stretch of considerable anxiety. Purchase decisions in this category lean heavily on trusted authority figures, healthcare professional advice, and established brand reputation, in ways that diverge sharply from typical consumer goods buying.
The client had built a successful domestic business around competitive pricing and broad retail availability. As it prepared to enter a new regional market, its marketing team drafted an entry strategy on that same price-led footing, without ever confirming whether parents in the new market actually decided the same way.
Launching a trust-driven category with the wrong message carried real downside. Infant formula brands that fail to establish credibility at launch often struggle to win that trust back later, making it far more valuable to understand the real purchase drivers before launch than after.
Key Challenges
- No structured read on the competitive landscape and regulatory requirements specific to the market the client was entering.
- No direct research into how parents in the target market actually decided on infant formula purchases, rather than assuming domestic patterns carried over.
- A draft entry strategy built on price-led positioning that had worked at home but had never been tested against the new market’s real decision drivers.
- A risk that an entry strategy out of step with local trust dynamics would damage credibility in ways hard to reverse after launch.
- No assessment of how firmly established competitor brands had built trust in the target market.
- Leadership pressure to finalise the entry plan on a fixed timeline, raising the risk of moving ahead without adequate local insight.
Infant formula purchase decisions rarely run on the same logic across different markets, even when the underlying product category looks identical. Trust dynamics, the pull of healthcare professionals, and family decision patterns can shift considerably by market, making domestic marketing assumptions a genuinely risky foundation for a new entry strategy.
Constancy Researchers Solution
Constancy Researchers combined market research into the target market’s competitive and regulatory landscape with direct IDIs among local parents, making sure the entry strategy rested on confirmed local decision drivers rather than imported assumptions.
Target Market Competitive & Regulatory Landscape Research
- Delivered a market report covering the target market’s infant formula competitive landscape, regulatory labelling and marketing restrictions, and the trust positioning established competitor brands had built over time.
- Found two established multinational brands holding dominant trust positioning in the target market, built largely through long-standing relationships with paediatric healthcare providers rather than price competition.
In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with Parents in the Target Market
- Ran 28 structured IDIs with parents of infants in the target market, exploring their actual purchase decision process, the sources of advice they trusted most, and their openness to switching from an established brand.
- Found parents in the target market weighted paediatrician recommendations far more heavily than price or retail availability, a decision pattern that diverged meaningfully from the client’s domestic market.
Healthcare Professional Influence Mapping
- Researched how established competitor brands engaged paediatric healthcare providers in the target market, identifying the specific channels and relationship-building approaches behind their trust positioning.
- Found competitor brands ran active clinical education and sample provision programmes with paediatric clinics, a relationship-building approach absent from the client’s domestic strategy.
Market Entry Strategy Redesign
- Delivered a revised entry strategy swapping the original price-led campaign for a paediatrician engagement programme designed to build the same clinical trust positioning established competitors relied on.
- Set out a phased entry sequence prioritising paediatric clinic relationships ahead of the retail launch, building credibility before broad consumer marketing began.
Launch Readiness & Performance Tracking
- Defined a set of pre-launch readiness milestones, including a minimum number of clinic recommendations secured, to confirm credibility had been established before the retail rollout began.
- Built a post-launch tracking framework monitoring early retail sales against clinic recommendation density by area, allowing the team to confirm the trust-led approach was translating into purchases.
The work replaced an entry strategy built on unconfirmed domestic assumptions with one grounded in the actual decision drivers of the parents the client was trying to reach.
Impact
- Market research identified paediatrician relationships, not price, as the foundation of established competitor trust positioning.
- Interviews confirmed parents in the target market weighted paediatrician recommendations far more heavily than price.
- Healthcare influence mapping identified the specific relationship-building channels competitor brands had used successfully.
- The original price-led entry strategy was swapped out before launch, avoiding a costly credibility misstep.
- A paediatrician engagement programme was designed and sequenced ahead of the retail launch.
- The client secured listing recommendations from a meaningful number of paediatric clinics ahead of launch.
- The phased entry sequence built clinical credibility before broad consumer marketing began.
- The revised strategy directly addressed the trust dynamics the interviews had identified as decisive in the target market.
Client Outcome
Strategy Correction
A price-led entry strategy built on unconfirmed domestic assumptions was replaced before launch with one grounded in local decision drivers.
Clinical Relationships Secured
Listing recommendations were secured from a meaningful number of paediatric clinics ahead of the retail launch.
Credibility Foundation
Clinical trust positioning was established before broad consumer marketing began, addressing the category's trust-sensitive dynamics.
Risk Avoidance
The client avoided a costly credibility misstep that would have been hard to reverse after a price-led launch in a trust-driven market.
Local Market Understanding
Leadership gained a confirmed read on how parents in the target market actually made purchase decisions.
Competitive Awareness
The client understood precisely how established competitors had built their trust positioning and could respond accordingly.
Entry Sequencing
A phased launch plan prioritised clinical relationships ahead of consumer marketing, matching how trust is actually built in this category.
Regulatory Preparedness
The client entered the market with a confirmed understanding of local labelling and marketing restrictions.
Market Positioning
The client was repositioned as a market entrant building trust through confirmed local insight rather than exporting domestic assumptions.
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