Case Study

Customer Success Stories - Benecol UK: Building an effective testing & learning loop for marketing with continuous marketing mix modeling platform

Customer Success Stories -  Benecol UK: Building an effective testing & learning loop for marketing with continuous marketing mix modeling platform

Highlights

  • Benecol® UK improved its marketing ROI by +26% already during the first 4 months of the cooperation.
  • Sellforte’s solution revealed what are the most and least profitable marketing channels, enabling Benecol® to take actions and improve its overall marketing ROI.
  • Benecol UK’s own brand campaigns, trade marketing, and promotions are now measured on an ongoing basis, enabling the team to constantly review and optimize the performance.

Client Context

Benecol® brand with plant stanol ester was launched in Finland in 1995 as part of a major public health initiative to lower the nation’s cholesterol. Today the brand continues to promote the importance of healthy living, and still retains its core truth – 'Proven to lower cholesterol'.

  • Two decades later, Benecol®’s product range has grown to include spreads, bars, yogurts, and drinks.
  • The brand is licensed in more than 30 countries by local food companies.
  • Benecol®’s parent company Raisio’s turnover was 233.6M€ in 2020, and the company expects the sales to grow in 2021.

In recent years, Benecol® has invested in data-led solutions and partnerships. Previous years have highlighted the need for an agile testing & learning culture.

  • Benecol refreshed its packaging in a bid to highlight its ‘cholesterol-lowering’ credentials.
  • The new design, with a modern, natural, and clean look, aims to resonate with Benecol’s core audience.
  • The new branding is supported with a marketing campaign, which will take in TV, print, and in-store activations.


Customer Success Stories - Benecol UK

Client Objectives

Benecol® was interested in determining its marketing activities' ROI in the UK on an ongoing basis that would enable agile data-driven decision making from different perspectives: Across media channels, trade marketing activities, retailers, and product categories.

  • Measuring marketing activities' ROI on an ongoing basis.
  • Finding out the optimal media mix for each campaign.
  • Enhancing budget allocation between different marketing buckets.
  • Deep diving into product category and retailer level in terms of marketing effectiveness.
  • Measuring the ROI for different trade marketing activities (e.g., retailer chain promotions, shopper marketing...).

Client Questions

  • What is the proven impact of marketing activities?
  • What are the most effective and efficient media channels?
  • What is the right balance between ATL and BTL marketing?
  • How to best support sales in different retail channels?

Solution Outputs

Sellforte provided enhanced visibility on the performance of media and trade marketing at a retailer and product level, which enabled Benecol® to act and set in motion various de-escalation plans.


Customer Success Stories - Benecol UK
  • Optimization opportunities were acted upon, as users leveraged the varying media and trade promotions efficiency of retailers and product categories revealed through Sellforte’s solution.
  • The tool also provided insights on the performance of various shopper marketing campaign types, enabling the team to further and continuously improve its shopper marketing execution.

Results

Data-driven marketing changes in the first four months of cooperation increased ROI by 26%.

Customer Success Stories - Benecol UK
  • Raisio-Benecol optimized marketing investment in the UK, especially in the least efficient marketing channels, including a mixture of media and trade spend-related marketing activities.
  • Raisio-Benecol made significant savings without sacrificing sales, resulting in an overall increase in ROI of 26%.
  • Monthly updates on marketing performance allow Raisio-Benecol to continuously review and improve its marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

Client Testimonials


Together with Sellforte we’ve finally been able to quantify the value of our commercial investments. The initial results allowed us to optimize the short- and long-term media and trade marketing budget allocation to drive profitable organic growth of our UK Benecol® business.
- Mikko Lindqvist, Chief Business Officer, Raisio


Working with Sellforte’s team and their top- notch data scientists have been a pleasure. The credible numeric results from Sellforte modelling and the easy- to-understand tool have made it easier for me and my team to find efficiencies with our trade investment by making them work harder & deliver an improved ROI.
- Amit Mukherjee, Sales Director UK for Benecol, Raisio
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