Fabrizio Testa - Ferrero UK & Ireland

Ferrero is one of the world’s largest sweet packaged food companies, with iconic brands such as Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac and Ferrero Rocher enjoyed in more than 170 countries. Fabrizio Testa, Senior Insights Manager at Ferrero UK & Ireland, has spent over eleven years working across different markets and roles within the company, from testing new products directly in-market to leading consumer and shopper insights. In this conversation, he shares his perspective on what truly drives brand growth at Ferrero: delivering exceptional product experiences while ensuring brands remain visible and accessible to consumers.

Experience and Exposure as the Drivers of Brand Growth

For Fabrizio, brand growth ultimately comes down to two key elements: product experience and consumer exposure. “For us, when we talk about brand growth, the first two words that come to my mind are experience and exposure,” he explains. “We must guarantee a good balance between brand equity and commercial exposure.”

Ferrero’s brands are built on the belief that if consumers experience the product, they will love it. This conviction stems from the company’s strict product development philosophy. “When the consumer has the possibility to experience our product, the performance delivery is always excellent. That’s part of our DNA,” Fabrizio says. “We take a lot of time to test and experiment with any product because we want to be sure that when we launch something, it’s not just to make the shelf crowded. We want to send a champion to the market.”

Yet even the best products cannot succeed if consumers do not encounter them in-store. According to Fabrizio, visibility and accessibility remain essential parts of the growth equation. “The problem is that in some markets we are not that visible to the average consumer,” he explains. “If I don’t see you, I don’t buy you.”

“When we talk about brand growth, the first two words that come to my mind are experience and exposure. We must guarantee a good balance between brand equity and commercial exposure.”

Different Brands, Different Growth Challenges

Ferrero’s diverse portfolio means that growth strategies vary significantly across brands and categories. Some products, such as Nutella or Kinder Bueno, already enjoy exceptionally high awareness levels. In these cases, the challenge is not awareness but maintaining penetration in an increasingly price-driven market. “For Nutella, the problem is completely different,” Fabrizio says. “The level of awareness is very high, but we are losing penetration in favour of competitors who may have more aggressive pricing.”

Other products face the opposite challenge. For example, Ferrero’s chilled Kinder products in the UK struggle primarily with awareness and visibility. “The problem we have there is basically a problem of awareness. Few people know us, and we are not that visible on shelf,” he explains.

Interestingly, the situation is very different in other European markets, where the category enjoys much stronger visibility. “In countries like Italy, France or Germany, when you enter the chilled area, you see the brand everywhere; brand blocking, a lot of stock,” Fabrizio says. “Here in the UK, when I go grocery shopping myself, I struggle to find our product.”

This illustrates how the same brand can require completely different growth strategies depending on the market context.

Quality and Trust as the Foundation of Long-Term Growth

While shelf visibility and distribution are crucial drivers of growth, Fabrizio emphasises that Ferrero’s strongest advantage lies in its product quality and brand trust. Product excellence is built into the company’s process long before a product reaches the shelf. “When we want to launch a new product, we always validate it with the consumer before,” he explains. Once the product is launched, we are confident in the taste delivery.”

In fact, Ferrero rarely changes product recipes after launch, even when faced with rising costs for key ingredients such as cocoa or hazelnuts. “The recipe is almost like a kind of dogma for us,” Fabrizio notes. This unwavering commitment to quality helps explain why Ferrero brands consistently rank among the most loved in consumer equity studies. “Whenever we do brand equity tracking, Ferrero brands are always in the top three, if not number one,” he says. “It’s rare to see brands that are so loved across so many countries.”

“When we want to launch a new product, we always validate it with the consumer”

‘La Valeria’: Consumer-Centric Thinking Ahead of Its Time

Ferrero’s consumer-first philosophy is deeply embedded in the company’s history. Fabrizio points to an anecdote from founder Michele Ferrero that still resonates within the organisation today. “Michele Ferrero used to say: ‘I’m not your boss. Your boss is La Valeria,’” Fabrizio explains. “La Valeria” referred to the archetypal Italian mother responsible for household grocery shopping — the real decision-maker in the purchasing process. “It was a romantic way to say that our boss is the consumer,” Fabrizio says. “Now every company says they are consumer-centric, but the foundations for Ferrero were laid more than sixty years ago.”

The philosophy remains highly relevant today. According to Fabrizio, maintaining the trust of this everyday consumer remains the company’s most important priority. “If we lose her trust, we are done,” he says. “That trust is something we can never compromise.”

“If we lose the consumer’s trust, we are done. That trust is something we can never compromise.”

Point of Sale: The New Battleground for Brand Growth

While brand equity and product quality remain Ferrero’s foundations, the company is currently facing new challenges in the UK market. One of the most significant is the impact of HFSS (High Fat, Salt and Sugar) regulations, which restrict how brands can advertise and what they can show in communications. “These regulations limit the biggest channels to create awareness,” Fabrizio explains. As a result, the competitive battleground is shifting increasingly toward retail environments. “I think the real battle now is at the point of sale,” he says.

In-store visibility, shelf presence and pack architecture are therefore becoming even more important. Ferrero is focusing on strengthening brand blocking, developing effective POS materials and optimising product formats and price architecture. “We need to understand how to play with formats and price architecture so that we can be winning with both the trade and the consumer,” Fabrizio explains.

The goal is not simply to increase visibility, but to ensure that products remain accessible to a broad range of shoppers.

“We need to understand how to play with formats and price architecture so that we can be winning with both the trade and the consumer.”

Looking Ahead: Winning the Shelf and Embracing AI

Looking to the future, Fabrizio sees two major areas where insights and analytics will shape brand growth. The first is continuing to win the battle at the point of sale. The second is learning how to integrate artificial intelligence effectively into the insights process. “The next big challenge for us will be how to master AI and how to win on the point of sale,” he says.

But despite technological advances, Fabrizio believes the core principles of brand growth will remain the same. “The best advice I would give is to guarantee two things: the experience and the exposure,” he concludes. “You need to deliver a great product experience, but it’s equally important to be accessible and visible to the consumer.” Because in the end, even the most loved product cannot grow if consumers never see it.