下一代品牌打造生态优势

Industry InsightsNext-Generation Brands:Ripples in Still Water What Do Next-Generation Brands Do?..............................................................................3Serve Vital Consumer Needs.............................................................................................4Build Authentic Aligned Relationships.............................................................................7Deploy Disruptive, Hyperefficient Marketing.................................................................10Innovate With Relevance and Pace.................................................................................13 In a consumer-packaged industry populated with large legacy equities and product forms, next-generation brands are creating ripples—and perhaps better said waves—in what has otherwisebeen relatively still water. We identify next-generation brands as those that are making sustainedmarket share inroads in large, fast-moving consumer goods categories and doing so in concert withfive motivating factors. These include a laser focus on serving vital consumer needs, building au-thentic aligned relationships, deploying disruptive hyperefficient marketing, innovating with rele-vance and pace, and employing new tools and technologies. When done well, the collective outcome Next-generation brands serve vital consumer needs, fulfilling essential functional and emo-tional roles. What Do We Mean?Next-generation brands serve vital and often insufficiently met consumer needs and, thus, are born by identifying, early and often, latent needs, aspirations, use-cases, and occasions. They arethen given form and potential by being configured to serve key functional roles such as nutrition,health and wellness, and productivity, and emotional roles such as self-expression, confidence,and companionship. Positioning on “higher order” functional and emotional roles helps ensure that the brand’s ad-dressable market is large and, when the brand is differentiated—via quality, service, and value—isa precursor and lays the foundation for the brand’s in-market success. Serving such higher orderroles can lend weight and duration to a value proposition, important in helping a brand break into Case Study: CelsiusThe Celsius story is a good example of serving functional roles such as fitness to help enable cat- egory penetration. In this case, Celsius has helped transform the energy drink category by posi- Before Celsius, the energy drink category was dominated by Monster and Red Bull, beveragesthat typically contained sugar and were relatively high in calories. The brands were supported by brands tended to resonate with more idiosyncratic use-cases (quick boost) and a restrictive demo-graphic (primarily male). sales of more than $100 million—through serving unmet functional consumer needs. Its bever-ages were sugar-free, low (or no) calorie, and, perhaps more important, uniquely formulated tobe better-for-you (seven essential vitamins, no HFCS or aspartame) and functional (metabolismenhancing, calorie burning). The brand was marketed in a more approachable fashion; that is, as afitness-oriented beverage that could (and should) be integrated into consumers’ everyday hydra-tion regimens across a wider range of use-cases (around a workout, with a meal, as a pick-me-up).The sticking point being Celsius made energy drinks feel aspirational and permissible across all • Unique product on taste, clean, vitamins, calorie burning• Inclusive marketing via “Live Fit Go” for women and men• Serve more occasions and across dayparts Outcome • Third-largest energy drink brand (share 12%)• Largest contributor to category growth• Broader gender appeal; over-index younger cohorts Bull and Monster) with a market share of the energy drink category in the double digits and had2024 reported sales approaching $1.4 billion. Over the past five years, Celsius has contributedmore than any other brand to the dollar growth of the energy drink category, which is particularlyimportant to retailers seeking incremental gross profit dollars in strategic categories. It has donethis in part by appealing to a broader cohort, with about half of its consumers being female and the Case Study: FreshpetThe Freshpet story is a fascinating case of serving emotional roles such as the need for (animal) food category by configuring the brand to acquire households and grow its share of requirements. Before Freshpet, the dog food category largely consisted of dry kibble, a form factor developedmany decades ago when dogs typically played a more utilitarian role, and, in turn, their treatmentwas more austere—for example, they were often kept in cages with chains around their necks andsheltered (including at night) in a doghouse outside the home. This treatment extended to their more than $100 million—catering to latent emotional consumer needs present with the changingnature of the relationship between dog and pet parent. Its dog food is more like fre