Shelf testing for Mondelēz International through virtual reality

Combining the power of their online insight management platform with the latest thinking in Virtual Reality empowered Mondelēz to make confident investment decisions on packaging and presentation

 

The challenge

Mondelēz International, a multinational snacks and beverage company, wanted to understand the impact of shelf-ready packaging and merchandising on UK shoppers’ in-store behaviour.

Traditionally, one would approach this request by setting up a large-scale face-to-face in-store study. However, this comes with many logistical challenges and at a high cost, especially with COVID-19 restrictions. Therefore, Mondelēz was looking for a more innovative approach that would allow to replicate a realistic shopping experience and test several situations with a quantitative sound sample.

Our solution

To tackle this challenge, InSites Consulting integrated VR stimuli into a mobile survey, which consumers completed in their own environment, using their mobile phones and cardboard VR viewers. The VR experience allowed us to capture behavioural data indicating attention, and to combine this with explicit survey data to deliver new insights.

To create a realistic shopper environment, we partnered with a leading AR/VR market research mobile platform. They filmed 360º videos of the target shelf in the supermarket aisle and created three different fixture planogram presentations. In post-production, labels and product prices underwent CGI (computer-generated imagery) changes.

As we were already running a long-term UK shopper community for Mondelēz, the ‘Snack Chat community’, we were able to recruit 300 consumers in a cost- and time-efficient way. During the survey, the consumers inserted their smartphone into the VR viewer and, after a 30-second VR experience, they were redirected automatically to the survey, to select the products they recognized from the VR shelf.

 

The impact

The insights from this innovative shelf test enabled Mondelēz International to prioritize investing in shelf-ready packaging and confirm merchandising principles into supermarkets.

“At Mondelēz, we continue to look for ways to test and learn hypotheses using agile research approaches. With this project, we’ve been able to combine shopper feedback using VR, alongside capturing behavioural data, to not only confirm our hypotheses but change investment into the shopping environment to drive category growth.”

Malakai De-Morgan, Shopper Insight Manager, Mondelēz International

The Power is in the Mix

The power is in the mix

Human behavior is a complex interplay between actions, cognition and emotions. In this bookzine, we showcase how to choose the right blend of ‘think’, ‘feel’, ‘do’ and ‘make’ research activities for the right business challenge.

Request your download

You might also be interested in

HALEON thumb visual

Consumer Connect Program fuels innovation at Haleon

Written by Chloe Stevens / Graeme Lawrence

In collaboration with InSites Consulting, Haleon is evolving its Consumer Connects through a range of methodologies, allowing multiple teams to build empathy and get inspired for future innovation.

L'oréal logo - thumb & featured image

L’Oréal’s Beauty Co-Lab helps to revolutionize the future of beauty

Written by Thomas Troch / Casey Howren

Over 1,200 beauty-product lovers are co-developing product innovations at L’Oréal via an InSites Consulting online insight community

Always-on online community fuels consumer-centric insights for L’Oréal

Written by Mark Alvarez

InSites Consulting became L’Oréal’s top-scoring agency in 2019 by immersing its teams into the lives of 2,000 Hong Kong consumers