Unraveling the Oatly Brand
How Gradient helped Oatly uncover key drivers of premium brand perception using a brand equity analysis
Project Overview
Oatly's initiative with Gradient aimed to uncover the brand attributes that justify Oatly's premium pricing and drive sales funnel conversion. It was driven by a set of clear objectives:
1. Identify category brand drivers. Determine the alternative milk brand attributes that are most impactful overall in driving awareness, consideration and purchase.
2. Benchmark Oatly performance. Evaluate how Oatly as a brand performs on those key attributes relative to competitors.
3. Simulate brand perception shifts. Model the impact on Oatly's metrics if perceived as higher/lower on specific attributes
- Brand Funnel Performance
- Brand Attribute Drivers
- Oatly's Attribute Performance
Gen Zers in the US are less likely to recognize, consider, and purchase Oatly compared to brands such as Silk, Almond Breeze, and Chobani
Quality really matters to Gen Z and is a strong driver of consideration and purchase, while perceptions of Affordability play a relatively muted role in the consideration phase.
Oatly’s Eco-Friendliness is its biggest asset, but it’s not the only the asset that Gen Z demands.
Research Approach
Defining the Buyer Universe
Gradient had to make decisions around appropriately scoping the target audience to survey for diversity of perspective within potential Oatly customers.
Survey Development
Gradient designed a survey to collect data assessing brand associations and preferences from the defined buyer universe.
Sector Benchmarking.
Compared Oatly's performance on influential attributes versus competitors to inform branding strategy.
Brand Equity Analysis
Developed a statistical model using the survey data to quantify which Oatly brand attributes influence awareness, consideration andpurchase.
Oatly Performance Simulations
Created simulated scenarios using the Periscope tool to model impacts on sales funnel conversion rates given different Oatly brand perceptions in an easy to use dashboard
