Editor’s note: Jon DeWitt is partner at communications strategy research firm Artemis Strategy Group, Washington, D.C.

In 2012, after the food can manufacturing industry had been experiencing a steady decline in market share for a decade, and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), the national trade association for the can industry, knew it needed to turn things around. The association came to us and our colleagues at marketing firm Statler Nagle with a goal of fully understanding what was causing this decline, and to find ways to use that information to reverse the negative trend.

CMI hypothesized a two-pronged problem: increases in packaging options available in the marketplace coupled with consumers’ growing preferences for fresh, unpackaged food had led to this industry loss of almost $2 billion.

Decisions about food and beverage packaging are made in an intricate dance of influence and bias between three audiences: food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Manufacturers and retailers aim to satisfy consumers’ preferences in their packaging, stocking and advertising, and in turn shape consumers’ attitudes.

CMI needed to know what was driving consumers’ food package choices, particularly toward selecting canned food over other packaging options across the spectrum of food types available in grocery stores. With that information in hand, CMI could then compare consumer drivers with retailers’ beliefs about what drives consumers. These beliefs influence retailers’ business decisions about shelf allocation, advertising and in-store promotions.

Furthermore, CMI needed a framework for measuring the success of the communications program developed from this research.

Viability of a new program 

Our colleagues at Statler Nagle provided two foundational ideas to give the CMI board confidence in the viability of a new program that it would create and manage.

“Each of these ideas were best practices from other successful programs,” says Tom Nagle, co-founder and managing partner at Statler Nagle, “but they were integrated in a fresh way to match the canned food industry structure.”

First was a detailed, business-oriented approach to success metrics and measurement that focused more on sales and business outcomes and less on the traditional “soft” measures of awareness, attitudes, impressions, etc. Key metrics included can unit sales, per capita consumption rates and brand and retail partnership contribution value as a multiplier of funder budgets.

Second was a program architecture that melded consumer communications, nutrition influencer outreach and direct sales to build partnerships with brands and private-label companies (Bush Brothers and Company; Del Monte Foods; etc.) and supermarket retailers (such as Winn-Dixie, Raley’s Supermarkets, Weis Markets and Meijer).

From there, CMI chose to work with our team at Artemis Strategy Group because of our motivation research approach, which determines core motivations behind decisions. This approach builds on the means-end theory of decision-making and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods.

In this instance, pinpointing consumers’ core motivations for meal preparation was the key to repositioning cans as a packaging preference. Our research focused on the question, “What are consumers’ thresholds and must-haves for preparing and serving acceptable-quality meals at home?”

Four phases

We executed four phases of qualitative and quantitative research and used advanced methods and analysis to identify the most relevant and effective messages about packaging choices.

First, we started with several focus groups to obtain qualitative insights and consumer language to inform the design of a quantitative survey. For both this and the quantitative study we used an algorithm to classify respondents into segments based on answers to a series of attitudinal questions identified in an existing segmentation scheme. 

We then conducted a robust quantitative study among a national cross-section of over 1,800 primary grocery shoppers who are meal decision makers. 

Concurrent with the consumer work we conducted in-depth interviews with two other important audiences to identify how their perceptions aligned with or diverged from those of consumers.

  • Customers: executives from a range of beverage industries, all with influence and/or decision-making authority over packaging.
  • Retailers: executives from a variety of retailers with decision-making influence for beverages (i.e., category managers and buyers).

The inherent challenge in this assignment was that the optimal communications pathway for canned goods must reflect the way consumers think about health, nutrition and preservatives while striking a balanced tone that neither over- nor under-emphasizes the issues. We overcame this challenge by building in key physical attributes and benefits that we know grow canned food sales, both overall and among different types of products and different types of consumers within various contexts. Our message framework also addressed the emotional and values endpoints that consumers seek when choosing canned goods as part of preparing and serving good meals.

We reconciled key attitudinal and behavioral insights across a complex evaluation of three audiences and 22 product categories. Using the results from this proprietary research we provided CMI with decision maps, which serve as a platform for our strategic thinking and insights. 

Constructing the messages

Artemis’ motivation research identified the rational and emotional evaluation factors involved in consumer packaging choices. By comparing those factors with how manufacturers and retailers perceived them, the team was able to construct precise messages and positions containing both rational and emotional appeals for cans in each product set. Then, by identifying the common rational and emotional elements across all products, the team delivered an umbrella positioning for cans in general.

Using this research, CMI developed a successful consumer campaign called “Cans get you cooking.”

After three full years of operation, the program shows positive business impact on multiple levels and positive ROI for the funders, giving the funders confidence that they are on track to continue to deliver the direct business outcomes they sought. The measures put in place by Statler Nagle show the following progress:

  • the decline in canned food sales has slowed by almost 10 percent;
  • per capita sales declines began to level off;
  • canned food segments targeted show increases; and
  • brand and retail partnership penetration is on track to meet or exceed goals.

“Artemis Strategy Group’s innovative methodological approach was the key to understanding how so many products, brands and companies could benefit from a single marketing umbrella,” says Nagle. “It is uniquely powerful in finding the common thread of why people make decisions about their food.”