Exploring right trade placement for breakthrough innovation.
Global Savoury Snacks Brand
Trade placement research and retail ideation for a snack innovation launch.
Overview
A global snacks leader was preparing to launch a breakthrough snack concept into the Dutch retail market, within a product category that did not yet exist in the retail landscape. The central challenge was not the product itself but where to place it: the innovation sat between multiple food occasions and aisle types, none of which offered a perfect fit, so a clear, evidence-based trade-placement strategy was needed before building a compelling retailer selling story.
We designed and executed a three-step field-research programme across multiple stores in the Netherlands and the UK, combining in-store market tours, open-source consumer and retail-context analysis, and savoury-category sizing using retail-panel data. Aisle-by-aisle scoring then assessed each placement option on two dimensions: category relevance for the innovation and brand-equity fit.
Outcomes
- Full GO / NO-GO placement map developed across 11 aisle types — five eliminated and four shortlisted as viable primary or secondary placements
- Pricing and pack architecture benchmarked against key competitors in each aisle, confirming positioning within the mainstream-to-premium sharing segment
- Retail context decoded — experiential store layouts identified as a structural opportunity for secondary impulse placements, with retailer-specific strategies for the two major chains based on each one’s own-label strategy and category priorities
