A major food corporation had developed an energy drink with a unique positioning – it contained natural ingredients, in particular one exotic fruit with a range of claimed health benefits.

Our job was to find the ideal target audience for the new drink, and measure the drink’s appeal. Pricing was critical. Costly ingredients made it expensive to produce: it would have to be sold at a higher price than other energy drinks.

As it turned out, too high a price: we discovered that while the drink generated strong purchase interest, its planned price point was around 20% above that deemed acceptable by consumers.

Our client looked at ways of reducing the production cost but couldn’t find a profitable solution. The launch was shelved and a costly error avoided.