How a Multi-Category Consumer Goods Company Uncovered Shifting Consumer Demand and Built a VoC-Led Consulting Strategy to Reignite Portfolio Growth
Executive Snapshot
Client
Situation/Challenge
Objective
Constancy Researchers Solution
Impact
Client Outcome
The Situation / Challenge
The global consumer goods industry is navigating profound disruption. Shifting consumer values, rising private label competition, and evolving purchase behaviour across digital and physical channels are eroding established brand relevance and forcing portfolio rethinks across personal care, household, food, beverage, and wellness.
The client — a multi-category consumer goods company with established brands in Western Europe and a growing presence in Southeast Asia — faced stagnating market share, declining repeat purchase, and weakening brand equity across two core categories. Despite significant retail distribution and media investment, portfolio and innovation decisions rested on internal assumptions rather than real consumer evidence.
Without direct consumer voice and a consulting framework to turn insight into portfolio action, the risk of brand erosion, misdirected innovation spend, and shelf position loss to more agile competitors was accelerating.
Key Challenges
- Declining repeat purchase and weakening brand equity across two core categories with no consumer insight to diagnose root causes
- Innovation pipeline driven by internal assumptions rather than validated demand signals, resulting in launches with limited market resonance
- Limited visibility into how purchase drivers, category expectations, and brand perceptions had shifted across priority markets
- No structured Voice of Customer programme capturing consumer sentiment, unmet needs, or competitive switching triggers
- Fragmented feedback from retail partners and category managers lacking depth to inform strategic portfolio decisions
- Growing pressure from retail buyers and investors to demonstrate a consumer-backed growth strategy and revitalised innovation roadmap
Consumer goods companies need structured primary research and Voice of Customer programmes — combined with consulting expertise — to capture authentic consumer demand signals, diagnose shifting purchase behaviour, identify unmet needs, and translate insight into evidence-backed portfolio repositioning and brand growth strategies.
Constancy Researchers Solution
Constancy Researchers deployed a two-phase engagement — a Primary Research and VoC programme to build direct consumer understanding, followed by Consulting Services to translate insights into a prioritised portfolio and brand growth strategy. The central question: What do consumers want — and how does this company win their loyalty?
Consumer Immersion & Qualitative VoC Research
- Conducted consumer immersion sessions, focus groups, and ethnographic research across six markets — exploring category usage occasions, brand perceptions, unmet needs, and emotional purchase drivers.
- Captured direct consumer voice through structured interviews with over 400 category shoppers, surfacing insight on satisfaction, switching triggers, competitor perceptions, and emerging expectations that internal data had not revealed.
Quantitative Demand Diagnostics & Purchase Behaviour Analysis
- Deployed quantitative surveys across target segments to validate qualitative findings, size unmet demand, and map the decision journey from consideration through to brand selection and repeat purchase.
- Quantified purchase drivers by market, segment, and channel — pinpointing where the client’s brands underperformed and where product, packaging, or positioning attributes created friction in the purchase decision.
Stakeholder & Trade Partner Voice of Customer
- Conducted structured VoC interviews with retail category buyers, trade partners, and channel specialists — capturing trade-level perspectives on brand performance, category dynamics, consumer feedback, and competitive positioning.
- Triangulated consumer and trade insights to identify where dissatisfaction and partner concerns aligned and where intervention would deliver the greatest commercial impact.
Portfolio Diagnostics & Opportunity Identification
- Mapped VoC findings against the existing portfolio — identifying underperforming SKUs, white space opportunities, reformulation priorities, and positioning gaps where expectations were unmet.
- Developed an opportunity scoring framework ranking portfolio interventions by demand strength, competitive differentiation potential, commercial feasibility, and brand equity alignment.
Brand Repositioning & Portfolio Growth Strategy
- Translated consumer insight and portfolio diagnostics into a brand repositioning and growth strategy covering hero SKU reformulation, messaging realignment, innovation pipeline sequencing, and retail activation.
- Delivered a board-ready strategic narrative with consumer-validated rationale, revenue impact modelling, and a phased implementation roadmap enabling confident, aligned decision-making across commercial, marketing, and innovation.
This integrated approach — combining consumer voice with commercial consulting — moved the client from assumption-led portfolio management to a consumer-grounded, evidence-backed growth strategy.
Impact
- Captured direct consumer voice from over 400 shoppers across six markets, delivering the company’s first structured cross-market VoC dataset
- Diagnosed root causes of declining repeat purchase across two categories, identifying three product and positioning gaps driving consumer switching
- Quantified a white space opportunity exceeding USD 320 million across underserved segments and unaddressed usage occasions in priority markets
- Found that 67% of lapsed consumers cited unmet functional performance — not price — as the primary switching trigger, reshaping the innovation investment thesis
- VoC interviews with 28 retail buyers revealed consistent shelf performance concerns, enabling targeted trade activation aligned to consumer demand signals
- Portfolio diagnostics prioritised three hero SKU reformulations and two new product development white spaces with strongest consumer demand validation
- Brand repositioning improved equity tracking scores by an average of 14 points across pilot markets within six months of implementation
- Shifted the organisation from assumption-driven portfolio decisions to a consumer insight-led governance model across innovation, marketing, and sales
Client Outcome
Consumer Understanding
Established the company's first structured cross-market VoC capability providing direct access to authentic consumer demand signals across categories and geographies.
Portfolio Repositioning
Repositioned two core product lines with consumer-validated messaging and packaging, reversing equity declines and restoring relevance among lapsed shoppers.
Product Innovation
Launched a reformulated hero SKU built from VoC findings, achieving stronger repeat purchase than any launch in the preceding three years.
Trade Relationships
Strengthened retail buyer relationships through consumer-backed category proposals, improving shelf negotiations and securing incremental distribution.
Innovation Pipeline
Rebuilt the pipeline around validated consumer demand, replacing assumption-led briefs with insight-anchored product development priorities.
Commercial Alignment
Unified marketing, commercial, and innovation teams around a shared consumer growth narrative, replacing fragmented priorities with a common strategic direction.
Investor Confidence
Secured board and investor confidence through a consumer-validated growth strategy with quantified market opportunity and credible portfolio rationale.
Insight Capability
Embedded a repeatable VoC programme enabling continuous consumer monitoring, competitive tracking, and portfolio recalibration.
Market Positioning
Established as a consumer-intelligent, insight-led organisation competing with agility and discipline in rapidly evolving consumer goods landscapes.
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