Introducing #BrandStrategyUnpacked. The #meatfree series.

​The #BrandStrategyUnpacked series dispels the confusion and provides clarity on brand strategy. Through the lens of the #meatfree category we take a deep dive into the three strategic stages of uncovering opportunities, prioritising choices and creating, building and activating. But read on, this goes beyond meat free!
16 May 2023
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tom lees
Tom
Lees

Brand Strategy Consultant

The term #strategy is often a mystical beast with a multitude of definitions, add the word #brand in front of it and the whole concept can become even more convoluted and confusing.  

As a client this can make it difficult to truly know what you’re buying and the true benefit of what you’re paying for, until it’s too late. Add the simple ask to see some case studies only to be told “sorry we can’t show you what we did, that would be a breach of our client NDA” and you’ve got yourself an even more complicated buying decision.  
 

So we’re on a mission to dispel the confusion and provide clarity and confidence. Using #Kantar heritage, scale and experience to truly unpack the strategic process and give you the confidence to make informed decisions.  


Whilst we’ve been doing this directly for years, in 2022 we formally began embedding this into our thought leadership. Through the first of our #BrandStrategyUnpacked series, redefining the menopause, this journey brought together experts from across the Kantar business. Blending analytics, innovation, quant and qual experts to delve deeper than ever before into this underrepresented category and deliver strategic advice for brands.  

The result: bespoke client focused brand strategy sessions where we shared our findings. Bringing to light the symptoms associated with the menopause, the needs of our six unique menopause segments and how brands can truly authentically activate against this space. Helping our client and brands #RedefiningtheMenopause  

So we’re going deeper. Taking you on the full strategic journey to understand what it takes to go from exploration through to activation and build a meaningfully different brand.  

Unpacking our full process of brand strategy through a study that will let some of our leading brand strategy experts loose on some of the signature strategic tools at our disposal.  

The purpose of this? To de-mystify the world of brand strategy - giving you a snapshot of how strategic projects are built, how they add true value to business decisions and how to best leverage our experts and tools in tandem.  

This will see us follow three strategic stages:  

  1. Uncover opportunities – what can we find out about a category? Who are the major players? Who holds the brand power? What are the existing behaviours and attitudes? What are the frictions and fuels that influence behaviour? How do you grow both meaning and difference?  

  2. Prioritise choices – what are the most valuable segments to go after? How do brands apply their strength to opportunity segments? How can brands authentically activate their difference in a meaningful way?  

  3. Create, build and activate – it’s ‘go time’. How do you turn data into real world application? How do you consistently build for success? How do you inspire and excite consistently over time?  

To fully unpack this process, we’ve decided to use the #meatfree category as our use case for this study. Not because we’re meat-haters or meat-lovers, not because we want to save the planet or see it burn, but simply because it is a fruitful space with a mix of large and small brands navigating their way through the market and creating some interesting and exciting jobs to be done as they jostle to cement their position.  

Whilst meat-free may therefore be our vessel for this journey, this is a celebration of the process as much as the result.  

Through the gentle art of persuasion (promising a tasting session of all the products) we’ve managed to gain access to some of the best brand strategy minds in the business. We’ve got a doctor(!), emotive positioning experts, culture and trend experts, digital #analytics experts, #segmentation experts, #sustainability experts and #CX experts all with the mission to unpack the strategic process that delivers meaningfully different brand strategy.  

Find and follow #BrandStrategyUnpacked on LinkedIn  

In this series we’ll be biting off (sorry) bits of the process, bit by bit, sharing with you the insights as we uncover them and explaining why they’re so important. To the meat free category and brands beyond. Challenging ourselves internally to think differently and think as a client as we solve for the next chapter in the strategic story.