Understanding In-Market Beverage Innovations: A Consumer Response Study

Client

A Global Beverage Company

Service

Quantitative Consumer Research / Face-to-Face Interviews

Sector

Food & Beverage

Coverage

Bulgaria

A global beverage company partnered with us for beverage innovation consumer research focused on how recently launched products were being received by consumers in Bulgaria. The research covered three in-market innovations, looking at product visibility, taglines, and the factors that could motivate purchase.

The study combined face-to-face interviewing with a digital quantitative survey, allowing the client to assess consumer response to beverage innovations across five cities while keeping the research structured and consistent across the different products.

The Challenge

The challenge was to assess how three recently launched beverage innovations were performing once they were already in market. The client needed to understand not only whether consumers noticed the products, but also how specific communication elements were landing and what was shaping interest in purchase through in-market beverage innovation testing.

Key areas of focus included:

• Visibility of the three in-market beverage innovations.

• Consumer response to beverage taglines linked to each innovation.

• Beverage purchase motivators influencing consumer interest.

• Consumer feedback across Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, and Burgas.

• Comparing response across three different innovations within one structured research program.

• Adapting parts of the survey to the specific innovation being evaluated while keeping the overall approach consistent.

The study needed to separate what was working at the level of product visibility, communication, and purchase motivation, rather than treating all three innovations as one combined consumer response.

What We Did

We conducted quantitative beverage innovation research across five cities in Bulgaria, using interviewer-administered digital surveys to evaluate three in-market beverage innovations. The approach combined the structure of a quantitative survey with in-person interviewing, allowing respondents to review product-related stimuli and longer answer lists while keeping the research consistent across locations.

The study included:

• 300 completed in-person interviews.

• Research conducted across Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, and Burgas.

• Consumers aged 14–69.

• Participants who had consumed beverages within the previous 12 months and were open to future beverage consumption.

• Three in-market innovations included in the beverage product testing program.

• Approximately 10–12 minute interviewer-administered digital surveys.

• Bulgarian and English survey versions.

• Innovation-specific question paths, allowing parts of the survey to be adapted to the product being evaluated.

• Structured fieldwork controls, including respondent tracking and interviewer validation.

The design gave the client a consistent way to compare consumer response across all three innovations while still allowing each one to be evaluated on the elements most relevant to it.

The Impact of Research

The research provided the client with a structured view of consumer response to beverage innovations across the cities. By looking at product visibility, tagline response, and purchase motivation within the same research program, the client could compare how each innovation was landing with consumers.

Key outcomes included:

• A clearer view of how visible each innovation was to consumers in market.

• Consumer response to the taglines and communication elements linked to the three innovations.

• Beverage purchase motivators shaping interest across the products being evaluated.

• Comparable feedback collected across Sofia, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna, and Burgas.

• Innovation-specific quantitative data captured within a consistent research framework.

A stronger basis for identifying where consumer response differed across the three innovations and which areas required closer attention.

The research gave the client a practical way to assess multiple innovations at the same time while keeping the findings comparable across products and locations.

Have a research question in mind or a market you want to understand better? Contact us for best-in-class research that brings the right questions, audiences, and insights together.