Context

Julius Meinl was founded in Vienna in 1862, rooted in the tradition of Viennese Coffee Houses through its impeccable service, creative expression and an appreciation of premium quality. The Viennese Coffee House culture is known internationally and it’s heritage has officially been designated by UNESCO. This historical legacy has been matched by an innovative and dynamic progress, with Meinl thinking innovatively inside and outside the category and in terms of how they served the consumer and their commitment to quality.

They came to us to partner up on the expansion of brand to the US market as part of an ambitious plan to very significantly increase the reach and size of the business

What We Did

We conducted an in depth understanding of the market before writing and evolving insights using proprietary concept development and testing tools that create and qualify innovation concepts within a week.

During the course of this work we were able to support the Meinl brand team in developing a winning concept; a packaging and design line up that beat key competitors; pricing that optimized appeal and margin; occasionality; advertising insights to support launch communications; sales arguments; and a staged launch model.

Critically, as progressed we were able to build strong arguments for our target retailers’ category buyers as to why they should list Meinl.

Results

The Meinl brand team were able to formulate strong arguments to progress to opening up the US market with confidence. The work we did clearly demonstrated that the brand was both beating the competition on concept, pack design, value and supported category growth.

The brand test market and roll out has been very successful and is being continued with genuine confidence in the US and other export markets.

“Distribution roll out has progressed very well and is providing the foundation for further distribution expansion in our key focus market the USA. Knowing our Right to Win (thanks to your approach) and quantifying it – including a double digit incrementality of shoppers into the category are our strongest sell-in arguments and resonated strongly with all stakeholders”.