---
title: "Market entry research for a food brand | antedote"
description: "Target, positioning and creative research for a food brand entering a new market: ethnography, shop-alongs and creative groups."
url: "https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/food-brand-market-entry/"
author: "antedote"
---

# Planning a food brand’s entry into a new market

A market entry is hard to steer once the media money starts flowing. A food company wanted its entry built on evidence, so we researched the target, the positioning and the creative in turn, with the client and creative teams working alongside us.

**Client**
Food company

**Industry**
Food

**Kind of work**
Market entry

**Our role**
Target, positioning and creative research for a market entry

## What happened next

After its launch in the new market, the brand reported a lift in consideration.

## The question

Before any media money was spent in the new market, the executive team wanted the target audience, the creative platform and the pack settled on evidence.

The work also had a second audience. Partners at home would want to see the case for the entry, so the research had to speak to them as well as to the team planning it.

## Our approach

We built the work in stages, from the target to the positioning to the creative, so each stage gave the next a brief grounded in evidence.

To understand the target, we followed the whole journey: how people shop the category and weigh their choices, then how they store, prepare, cook and serve what they buy. Ethnography, shop-alongs, cook-alongs and time in people’s homes kept it close to real life.

We kept the stimulus moving. Guides and materials were adapted between sessions, and visuals reworked between groups, so each conversation sharpened the next.

## What the team came away with

Each stage gave the client and creative teams, who worked with us throughout, evidence to brief the next.

First came the target, then a direction for the creative platform, then the detail of each component, from pack to PR to digital.

For partners at home, we made a short film about shoppers in the new market, so the consumer story could travel with the evidence.

> “The research and strategy work we did with antedote was pivotal in informing our strategic decisions and helping us create a successful launch. It was comprehensive and completely aligned end-to-end process which meant we could shift some key KPIs with a relatively modest media budget.”

*CMO, food brand*

## Related work

[View market entry case studies](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/?work=Market%20entry#library)

- Food and agriculture

    ### [Choosing which regions to enter first on a new continent](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/choosing-regions-on-a-new-continent/)

    The exporter took the leading regions into a second stage and came away with a prioritized list of retailers and distributors to approach.

- Snacks

    ### [Choosing a snack brand’s role in people’s adventures](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/what-adventure-means-to-snack-buyers/)

**What we do**
[Market entry research](https://antedote.com/what-we-do/market-entry-research/)

## Considering a new market?

We’d be happy to talk through what it would take to know.

[Talk to us](https://antedote.com/talk-to-us/) · [hello@antedote.com](mailto:hello@antedote.com)

A partner or director will reply.