Danone:

The Challenge:

Danone, a brand with a rich history spanning over 100 years, found itself facing fundamental challenges across its entire dairy portfolio. These challenges were impacting the growth of Danone Core, the flagship brand. With a lack of clear superiority versus Private Label, an inconsistency in local portfolios, and a historical approach that lacked global structure and architecture, the brand encountered hurdles on all fronts.  There was a pressing need to establish an inspirational North Star that could drive superior product innovation and renovation.

We recognised that revitalising this enduring brand and reclaiming its position as the category leader would necessitate a dual approach. This involved conducting a thorough examination of immediate and short-term opportunities, while simultaneously devising a forward-thinking strategy to ensure continued relevance over the next five years. Our goal was to reconnect with families and regain their trust in both the brand and the category.

The Approach:

At Butterfly we champion the importance of having real-world understanding at the heart of strategy to keep us true to the needs of consumers.

We used our Futures Strategy approach to establish a clear direction for Danone’s products. This involved creating compelling benefit platforms that directly tackled the current obstacles faced by consumers in the category and brand, while also meeting the evolving needs of consumers.

We worked collaboratively with the team to define an overarching brand level product experience that would go on to act as a blueprint for future Innovation and Renovation, along with a set of guidelines that were actionable for all key markets.  We worked both in a dynamic face to face forum as well as in an offline hack to get to the most effective and appropriate inputs, and utilised the expertise of the broader team in the most efficient way.

The Impact:

We helped Danone devise a common language in a fragmented commercial landscape between their different markets to drive purposeful innovation and renovation to revalorise the brand and the category.  We also successfully integrated and embedded a UX process and model into a global framework that would in turn be replicated by other brands within the business.

We delivered a suite of innovation concepts that were successful in reengaging the family target with high trial potential across their key markets of USA, Mexico, France and Spain.