New ways to buy and drink beer
How we helped ABInBev with retail experiences for people doing their social drinking at home
Client
Industry
- Consumer
Table of contents
Responding rapidly
to changing habits
With the pandemic, more people got in the habit of doing their social drinking at home rather than in bars. AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, wanted to respond quickly with new retail experiences, while remaining true to its iconic brands. But past company experience showed that precious time and energy could be lost during ideation; the same old ideas might keep coming back; and the consumers with these new habits might not be sufficiently involved at an early enough stage of the process.
Getting new ideas to market fast while
involving
consumers from the start
We designed an accelerator program so that multiple protypes would be ready for market testing in six months. We took a hands-on approach to ensure that the focus was on ideas that were genuinely new and feasible, and so that the most promising ideas would become tangible enough for rapid prototyping.
At the start of the process, we worked to better understand the elasticity of the AB InBev beer brands. We organized bootcamps with cross-functional AB InBev teams to learn more about the new consumer behaviors. Some of these bootcamps also included consumers with the new buying and drinking habits. Understanding these behaviors helped set clear objectives for the rest of the process.
We worked with the AB InBev teams to co-create new ideas and consider hundreds of existing ones. Each team focused on a specific topic, which enabled better and faster evaluation. This led to fifteen protypes. A consumer funnel was then used to identity which of them were most promising.
At the start of the process, we worked to better understand the elasticity of the AB InBev beer brands. We organized bootcamps with cross-functional AB InBev teams to learn more about the new consumer behaviors. Some of these bootcamps also included consumers with the new buying and drinking habits. Understanding these behaviors helped set clear objectives for the rest of the process.
We worked with the AB InBev teams to co-create new ideas and consider hundreds of existing ones. Each team focused on a specific topic, which enabled better and faster evaluation. This led to fifteen protypes. A consumer funnel was then used to identity which of them were most promising.
New buying and
drinking experiences
With our collaboration, AB InBev was able to pioneer three new retail experiences, including a new packaging solution that makes the new home buying and drinking experiences better. These new retail experiences support the existing AB InBev branding – reminding consumers that their long-time favorites are also best for their new lifestyles.
