Berner Ltd’s hair care brands launch insight programs on trends, shopping behaviour and shopper experience
Berner Ltd, established in 1883, is a Finnish, international family company. The company’s broad product range includes several domestic and international brands that are a solid part of daily lives for many Finns. The diverse portfolio is based on four business units; Consumer goods, Healthcare and Laboratories, Industry, and Agricultural trade. The product offering is designed to serve consumers and both private and public sectors, and the company’s headquarters, product development and production facilities are located in Finland. In 2021, the Group had a turnover of €417,7M, employing 785 people.
This article focuses on the insight program specific to the XZ hair care brand.
In focus: The intensely competed hair care category
Berner Ltd has invested strongly in domestic product development and production. XZ oil care hair product is the first beauty & health product based on the company’s own research and development, introduced in the 1950s, and the product is still in the market. The development happens in the company’s laboratory at the Helsinki headquarters, and manufacturing facility is located in Heinävesi, Finland.
“We believe in the power of domestic production, the continuous development of our in-house understanding and expertise and building on quality ingredients and materials”, opens Laura Pyykönen, Brand Manager of XZ Hair Care Consumer Goods, Berner Ltd. “In order to stay on top of the fast-evolving hair care consumer market, we need quick and relevant insights from our customers, our most important stakeholders”, Pyykönen adds.
XZ, LV and Herbina are strong, well-known hair care brands in Finland. In order to strengthen the solid position in the market, a dedicated insight program was designed to deepen consumer understanding, with a specific focus on the iconic XZ brand.
Insight programs designed to understand trends, buying and customer experience
XZ driven insight program covered three stages. The stages were designed to be interlinked, including trends, brand awareness, brand purchase and usage behaviour, as well as real customer experience in the selected hypermarkets around Finland.
“We wanted to execute a thorough insight program that helps us to discover, learn and validate our understanding. The market develops and new trends emerge at intense cycles, and we wanted to start with a clean slate, aiming at sourcing relevant insights on the customer segments that are vital to us”, Pyykönen comments. “Crowst is the perfect insight collaborator for us, because they provide the relevant reach and match with our core segments, and their service is also perfectly equipped to link genuine Shopper insights from the point of sale with insights on buying triggers, brand awareness and trends”, Pyykönen affirms.
“Crowst is the perfect insight collaborator for us, because they provide the relevant reach and match with our core segments, and their service is also perfectly equipped to link genuine Shopper insights from the point of sale with insights on buying triggers, brand awareness and trends.”
Laura Pyykönen, Brand Manager of XZ Hair Care Consumer Goods, Berner Ltd.
Taking the mystery out of shopping
Crowst’s service is designed to source genuine consumer insights, directly from the points of sale.
“Our goal is to understand real shoppers, our customers. We want to understand what they think, why they think so, what are the elements that steer their buying behaviour, and what is the authentic customer experience at stores, as experienced by our customers”, Pyykönen comments. “In order to continue striving on the market, relevant and agile Shopper insights are vital to us”, Pyykönen underlines.
The insight program focusing on the hair care category was successfully executed in the February-April timeframe. Berner is currently collaborating with Crowst on another product category, semi-selective colour cosmetics.
Have a look also on our collaboration with Suunto, Vaasan and HKScan.