ISIB Studies the "Rise Buddy" Snack Brand
Background:
Rise Buddy, known as “米趣巴迪” in China, is a "healthy" snack brand which originated in Thailand. Teacher Janlie from our Brand Strategy Management course introduced it as the subject of our class project - after she had initiated discussions with the brand-owner. Having completed a field trip and online research, we began a process of brand positioning, brand optimization and a selection of appropriate online and offline sales channels. In offering marketing advice to this company, students truly invested all their efforts, resulting in some fascinating insights.
Rise Buddy
Divided into 7 groups, ISIB's 2016-intake students reported their “Rise Buddy Brand Positioning Plan” to Professor Florin Baeriswyl and the Brand Manager of Rise Buddy, Sunny, on October 23rd, 2018. Five groups among these seven received awards, presented to them by both Professor Florin and Sunny. Sunny noted that the company will indeed apply some of the positioning and promotional ideas suggested by these winning groups.
Now let’s review the works of the five winners under the instruction of Teacher Janlie!
Best Brand Positioning：
Group 1：Renee Shirley
Following our research, it was apparent that Rise buddy's biggest opportunity is the baby food supplement market - a market which has not yet come into shape in China. Taking this as the starting point, we built up the concept of “baby-friendly means adult-friendly” to help expand the market in the future. We therefore suggested that the brand open stores downtown - specifically opening offline maternal and child chain stores, launching community cooperative parenting lectures, and creating a vivid, light-hearted image - which the brand can later develop. We also suggested drafting a series of comic strips to be printed on the packaging or the brochures, to add value and, at the same time, emphasize selling points like "Thailand Rice", "Imported Snacks" and the many health certificates the brand has been granted.
Best Brand Positioning:
Group 2：Hazel Cheryl Doris Fancy
Based on the current situation, we proposed maximizing an existing brand advantage, by using a cartoony image and the healthy ingredients prominently, in order to trigger consumer’s emotions. We proposed creating new media hotspots, harnessing the celebrity effect, and undertaking IP cooperations. Aiming at family groups, we proposed to build an interactive snack brand between parents and children. This, we suggest, will make the snack more fun, and align the brand with loving sentiments.
Best Brand Positioning:
Group 3：Yuki Endeavour Rosalie Nicole
After a lot of initial research into Rise Buddy, we realized that its current positioning is simply not suitable. Therefore we decided to target a new customer group: college students. After some investigation and research into this demographic group, we decided to apply our new distribution methods to convenience stores and vending machines. These two methods not only bring to life several of the new retail concepts emerging in recent years; they also offer a level of convenience preferred by college students. As for marketing, we believe that Rise Buddy should focus more on developing its own IP, try to match the preferences of young people, and build up emotional connections with customers through the brand image. This, we believe, will deepen the "sense of existence" of Rise Buddy in consumers’ minds.
Best Brand Positioning
Group 4：Amy Herman Icey Stella
Having analysed the questionnaires, and undertaken data comparison analysis, we concluded that Rise Buddy's healthy ingredients and funny packaging can attract young families with children. Both parents and children can fulfill a healthy lifestyle while enjoying this snack. For the purpose of targeting young parents, we propose to improve Rise Buddy's existing business strategy and marketing methods by focusing on developing online media marketing, beautifying the online shop style on Taobao through emphasis on the health aspect, and increasing the number of fans by creating some hashtags on Weibo, etc. This combination of promotional methods will hopefully increase consumers' knowledge of this brand, in many aspects, without taking too much of their time. In addition, we can cooperate with online celebrities through online platforms and Red, as well as with airlines, thereby allowing the audience to understand Rise Buddy's online and offline provisions, and thus becoming loyal consumers of Rise Buddy.
Best Idea:
Group 5：Jessica Lainey Jess Sally
Targeting an urban white-collar group, we created the concept of “daily” snacks - which meet the requirements of contemporary white-collar workers. Such citizens, we feel, would be receptive to healthy snacks in a small package. Meanwhile, the “daily” snacks package allows consumers to taste all the different flavors of Rise Buddy in the same week. We can put such "daily" snacks into apps like MISSFRESH, allowing the flavours to be ordered easily. At the same time, we can choose convenience stores such as the 7/11s located near CBDs, in order to increase the availability of the product.
Students expressed pleasure in having learned so much from the Rise Buddy project. Actually, this is the advantage of our ISIB Swiss Dual educational system. It applies the brand positioning theory more accurately, and boosts the feasibility of marketing plans like this one. Our research no longer stops at the assumption stage.
At the end of the presentation session, Professor Florin Baeriswyl commented on the students’ presentations. He explained how to undertake marketing to make up for defects in the product itself, and revealed to everyone that establishing a deep emotional connection with consumers is the key to standing up in the market. Meanwhile, he also gave students some tips regarding speech-making and presentation. His interesting, thoughtful and thought-provoking speech engaged the audience.
This Rise Buddy project has brought us endless creativity and ideas. It reminded every one of us that we can become excellent branding experts - and that we are all Best Buddies.
