Chapman: To be or not to be

Declining core business in the conventional beverage categories of beer and carbonated sodas has compelled companies to turn to innovation to grow their sales and profitability. The research focus of this project was to determine, through adjacent category innovation whether my new branded premium craft carbonated soda product range was a consumer relevant innovation, scalable and therefore able to sustainably enhance market growth and profitability for my project partner, DB Breweries.  A mixed methods research approach using qualitative and quantitative surveys revealed strong consumer preferences for the product to be authentic, artisanal, premium, health focussed and particularly targeted to females, older consumers and as an alternative to alcohol. These findings represented market opportunities, however, the clear-cut preference for a homespun, handcrafted, local and small batched produced product as opposed to mass machine manufactured, was an unexpected finding with significant implications for the project.  This core finding created a tension between the preference for authenticity and the original concept of leveraging my project partner’s scale machine based manufacturing capacity. These findings and my advisory board’s guidance reshaped the business model canvas, proposing a joint venture between Chapman (my company) and my project partner, which as an established beverage company would bring know-how and distribution with my company being the entrepreneurial, authentic, artisanal, small batch producer.  The reshaped strategy and business model shifted the adjacent category innovation from a product to a geographical perspective, with export potential to China and possibly the Muslim market. The online sales channel in China has significant export appeal with its deep retail market penetration and rapid growth, but very low current penetration in the beverage category which is forecast for significant growth. Successful export entry into China would establish a potential platform to enter segments of the global Muslim market, a commercially attractive market for premium non-alcoholic beverages.  A deeper understanding of the rapidly growing negative consumer perception of artificial sweeteners led to a further innovative opportunity emerging from this project. As a consequence of this intersectional thinking a sub-project to develop a New Zealand natural sweetener based on indigenous plants, fruits or trees commenced.  This research project has revealed the new branded premium carbonated soda product range to be a consumer relevant innovation, scalable but not as a straight forward product adjacent category innovation and with export success has the potential to significantly enhance market growth and profitability for DB Breweries.  This project is now on a trajectory to be commercialised.