Background

A global FMCG company had identified pubs and bars as a potential new channel for growing impulse ice cream sales. However, they lacked insight into likely demand from pub customers, the operational realities for pubs and the potential revenue benefit.

Our client needed to trial an impulse ice cream offer in a sample of pubs to assess the size of the prize and determine the right customer proposition and messaging to secure pub owners’ interest. The trial also provided examples to give weight internally to planning and credibility when marketing to pubs in future.

Approach

We recruited 6 pubs across different pub types and regions to trial selling the client’s ice creams as an impulse purchase over 4 weeks. Each pub was provided with a freezer, point-of-sale materials and an initial stock of products. We tracked weekly sales data, conducted interviews with pub owners and staff, and visited the pubs to observe and gather customer feedback.

Our analysis focused on the revenue opportunity, differences by pub type, best-selling products and time of day/week, and pub owners’ experience.

Outcome

The trial demonstrated that impulse ice cream presented a revenue opportunity for pubs and our client. We showed which factors drove higher demand to support pub targeting and which elements in the product range were most attractive.

This allowed our client to make an informed judgement about whether it was worth taking the opportunity forward