Alexander Dedovets – Cloetta

Alexander Dedovets is the Global Head of Insights at Cloëtta, based in Stockholm. Cloëtta is an important and well-known Swedish brand and the leading confectionary manufacturer in Western Europe. Cloëtta is the market leader in many categories, including candy, chocolate, pastilles, and chewing gum, in the Nordics and the Netherlands. Alexander Dedovets is responsible for all insights such as marketing data and analytics related to consumers and shoppers as well as exploring new categories and trends, for instance, brand health tracking, product tests, post-campaign or creative evaluation, and innovation.

“Cloëtta wants to elevate people’s lives with its products, making them smile – even making their lives a bit happier.”

EMOTION AS A DRIVER FOR PURCHASE

“At Cloëtta we want our products to be relevant and interesting for consumers so that they choose us every time.” says Alexander, “What I like about the product categories I work with is that they are based on emotions which are the main driver for purchase. We use the slogan ‘A power of true joy’ because our sweets and treats enable people to have their own moments of joy. Having a chocolate bar or chewing gum is an easy and inexpensive way of having a ‘me moment’, ‘family moment’, or also creating a ‘reward moment’ or a ‘give moment’. Cloëtta wants to elevate people’s lives with its products, making them smile – even making their lives a bit happier.”

A BALANCED PRODUCT AND MARKETING MIX

“Of course, our goal at Cloëtta is to outperform the market and gain market share across all different categories.” Alexander continues. “As ingredients for success, we use a balanced mix of pure business metrics like sales growth and margins, as well as longer-term KPIs for brand health and brand equity. Consumers need to know what the company stands for and have our brand on top their of minds. To achieve this, we need to stand out with a balanced product and marketing mix in order to have the best 360-degree coverage, both in terms of physical and mental availability.”

“As ingredients for success, we use a balanced mix of pure business metrics as well as long-term KPIs for brand health and brand equity.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL AVAILABILITY

Mental availability is an important topic for Alexander: “The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science (EBI) and specifically professor Jenni Romaniuk have done very interesting work regarding the importance of mental availability which is more complicated than physical availability. Not only do consumers need to be aware of your product, but more importantly, your product needs to come to their minds when a specific need occurs. For instance, if someone feels the need for an energy boost, you want your product to be in the category that comes to mind – such as coffee, energy drink, or pastille. Next, you want them to recall your brand or a specific product. That is our Moment of Truth.

SMART RESEARCH TO CREATE MOMENTS OF TRUTH

What role does research play at Cloëtta? “My team’s job, particularly the marketing team’s, is to gain insights from smart research and use those insights to ensure that our brand remains relevant and appears at the right moment, occasion, situation, or emotion.” Overall, the ultimate goal is to influence various Moments of Truth. In fact, we are working on a global scale to build a mental network of category entry points. To connect our specific product to a specific moment or real-life situation.

For example, when consumers wait for public transport, they need to distract themselves so they start to chew gum. We have a present brand in Finland called TV Mix, which is associated with the family and watching television together. In Sweden, we have a product called Cotton Blonded, which is a packed candy mix with a variety of candies so that everyone can find something they like.”

“Our job is to gain insights through smart research and use those to ensure that our brand stays relevant.”

RESEARCH AS A DRIVER FOR INNOVATION

“Our research is also an important driver for innovation,” elaborates Alexander. “It helps us to increase our market share and a more balanced distribution in terms of demographics. For example, we learnt that consumers in Finland prefer sweet flavours in pastilles, chewing and appreciate variety. So next to our classic Jennki pastilles with a minty flavour and added xylitol for healthy teeth, last year in Finland, we launched Jenkki pastilles with candy flavours such as toffee and caramel fudge. These new flavours led to great sales, higher than for the classic pastilles, boosting our market share. Another example of innovation through research is how we targeted Läkerol lemon to younger people in Nordics because our research taught us they like fruity and fresh flavours. This also led to a very successful product launch.”

“Research helps us to increase our market share and a more balanced distribution in terms of demographics.”

SALES AND BRAND EQUITY IN THE LONG TERM

One of the most important lessons the team at Cloëtta has learned is to leave out their personal opinions. “To be able to find these Moments of Truth we need to stay open-minded and realise that we are not our customers. It’s not about our own preferences but about what the consumer wants. In that sense, the consumer is our boss and we explore their interests and needs to make sure we meet them. That’s why we use focus groups to test our products and statistically validated data for marketing decisions. Research and testing take time but both are essential to our sales and brand equity objectives in the long term run. In the end, the customer is at the centre of everything we do.”