| Step 1: Positioning - Find the Market Gap
The Initial Brand Audit
As Paktli went through my 90-day Product & Prosper Program, I learned about Seena's Mexican heritage and how Paktli was inspired by the traditional Mexican alegria street treat from her childhood.
But her initial positioning as an "ancient grain snack" wasn't resonating.
We could tell because:
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Her DTC conversion rate was low
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She was having difficulty getting buyers to reply
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She was having difficulty getting her independent stores to reorder
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Her velocity in independents wasn't high enough to garner retail expansion
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Her Amazon reviews expressed confusion about the product
(Note: This is a common issue I see for brands transitioning from the farmer's market – where they can talk in lengths with the customer about their product – to retail – where the product MUST speak for itself.)
Category & Competitor Audits
Clearly something needed to change. But what?
We deep dived into the competitive market – from the retail perspective – analyzing where Paktli would be on shelf, and how the products would compete.
In our deep dive, we noticed a market gap:
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Most ‘ethnic’ Mexican sweets available were stereotypically branded & full of nasty, artificial ingredients
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The options on US shelves lacked artisan sweets that honored her Mexican heritage
Based on our findings, we pivoted Paktli's positioning to "Mexican alegria bites"—which had virtually no existing presence in the market. |
