Putipiù • new Dodaco product line

market analysis • business design • strategic planning • creative direction

Designing a new product line: from positioning to go-to-market strategy

I collaborated with Dodaco, an Italian food packaging company specialising in spout-pouched organic fruit and vegetable purees, for a little over one year. The main goal of the project was to define the market positioning and design what was eventually named Putipiù, the first product line directly labelled and commercialised by Dodaco.
I am proud to say that Putipiù is currently marketed in several countries including Japan, UK, France, and Israel.

N.B. To honour my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and hidden confidential information in this case study.
All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Do.Da.Co srl.

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Project duration

1.5 years

Business goal

new product line design

Industry

Food & Beverage • Food Packaging • FMCG/CPG

Brief 1st Analysis Brand equity & Brand name 2nd Analysis Business design Go-to-market strategy Test & Deliverables Results & Impact

Brief

Dodaco had spent months creating and perfecting its original formulas for ready-made sauces, smoothies, and nutraceuticals. The company was then keen to understand whether its market positioning was ready to include their first privately labelled product line or if the best strategy would be to add the new formulas to their white labelled product portfolio.

In order to determine this, they asked me to design and deliver an in-depth brand and market analysis, their brand architecture and the potential go-to-market strategic plan of the new line.

1st Analysis phase

brand • stakeholders • trends

Given that the company’s goal involved resolving a dilemma, we decided to split the discovery phase into two steps. Firstly, focusing on defining the positioning of the new line in relation to other Dodaco products and services, then proceeding with an analysis of the competitors and target-markets according to the decisions made at the end of the previous phase.

Supported by a small team of researchers that I personally selected, I organised and managed a thorough two-stage discovery phase that provided invaluable data-driven insights.

We focused the first part of the analysis on the following aspects:

Stakeholders interviews
Service safari and contextual inquiries, in order to fully understand the production process and its elements of innovation
Dodaco’s brand, marketing and portfolio analysis, including the characteristics and technical aspects of each product already on the market
Stakeholder and target analysis, gathering data and statistics for each selected segment
Consumer and food trend analysis
Market analysis, at this stage focusing on the Agri-food Made in Italy market scenario

The findings of this research strongly influenced all subsequent phases, beginning with the strategic decision to position the new formulas for ready-made sauces, smoothies, and nutraceuticals as the first product line privately labelled by Dodaco.

Brand equity & Brand name

At the end of the initial analysis phase, I redefined Dodaco’s brand equity, competitive advantage and added values, then designed the intended brand experience to link to the new products.

The design of the new brand and service began with the naming process. I co-created the brand name for Dodaco’s new product line with Vincenzo Bernabei. We presented 4 hypothesis, each deeply tied to both the company and products’ brand values, and all with available web domains.
The chosen brand name, Putipiù, perfectly encapsulates to the following concepts:

Glocal [global + local] – The name allows a dual-level interpretation. On one level, consumers and local market players would be unlikely to miss the reference to the “putipù”, a typically Campanian instrument, characterised by an indisputable territorial affiliation. On a broader level, considering the national and international market, Putipiù undoubtedly ensures high recognition compared to competitors.

Wellbeing and added values – By inserting a simple vowel between the final letters “p” and “u” we generated a new word – “più”, meaning “plus” –, which gives the name a positive aura and refers to the pluses that the new brand product lines present [more natural, more genuine, healthier, more Italian, etc…].

Made in Italy and dynamism – Thanks to the rhythmic sound and the accent on the last syllable, the brand not only evokes the specific sounds of the Italian language, it also transforms itself into onomatopoeia with a cheerful, engaging, positive, energetic note.

2nd Analysis phase

competitors • target markets

Taking into account all the previous data-driven decisions, my team and I developed the second stage of the discovery focusing on:

Competitor analysis
We selected and critically analysed 12 companies worldwide focusing on brand, communication, marketing and pricing strategy of their smoothies, ready-made sauces, and/or nutraceutical product lines
Target market analysis
According to the initial analysis phase findings and with the active participation of Dodaco’s top management, we selected 3 countries that appeared to be most promising to launch Putipiù on the market. We then proceed to deepen our understanding of their economic and cultural contexts focusing on: agribusiness and organic market; Made in Italy food imports and consumption; home expenditures and eating habits.

This second stage of analysis produced a variety of insights I subsequently used as a guide during the design and development of the strategic proposals for the go-to-market phase.

Business design

In order to strengthen the foundation on which the project was based and to create high-level consistency, my first strategic activity involved a comprehensive business re-design. I reorganised Dodaco’s overall positioning, brand architecture, digital marketing and content strategy for both the Italian and the international markets, including:

re-defining the company brand equity
providing strategic consulting and creative direction throughout the project
defining the web architecture of the corporate website
SEO copywriting in both Italian and English for institutional webpages to present the company, its approach, and its products and services in detail
creating the content management strategy for the corporate blog

I also led a small team in restyling Dodaco’s digital brand identity and marketing materials, creating a new, more comprehensive website, and implementing the new digital content strategy.

Once the corporate digital marketing strategy was established, informed by the analysis findings and considering the characteristics of Dodaco’s new formulas for ready-made sauces, smoothies, and nutraceuticals, I personally designed the Putipiù range structure, this included:

target audience and extension
product range extension
product range architecture [3 hypothesis]
brand architecture
potential value-added services to implement

Go-to-market strategy

At this point, I delineated the branding plan and go-to-market strategy for Putipiù. I defined the brand identity specifics necessary for the design of the main marketing materials, which included:

ideating a range of trademark concepts, always focusing on consistency with the defined brand values as well as Dodaco’s brand identity
defining the packaging characteristics
structuring the label concept according to the consumer trends and values
selecting types and tailoring features of the marketing materials to develop for the launch
developing Putipiù’s web positioning and strategy, including web architecture
defining the first activities to start the go-to-market launch

In this phase, I was also responsible for the creative direction, supporting and supervising the graphic designer in creating Putipiù first brand visual identity items: trademark, packaging and brochure.

Test

The naming concept was validated by a trademark specialist lawyer and a number of linguists to confirm its appropriate meaning in a variety of languages [i.e. Japanese, Korean, Polish].

User tests and interviews were organised for each element of the visual brand identity and the marketing materials.

Deliverables

Strategic plan report
Market analysis report
Branding plan report
Ongoing strategic consulting and creative direction
Brand name and trademark
Marketing materials characteristics and contents
Website and corporate blog [web architecture and SEO copywriting included, both in English and Italian]

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Results & Impact

I supported Dodaco in the design and development of an entirely new line of business and establishing the go-to-market strategy of their first privately labelled product line, Putipiù.

I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to play a key role in shaping Dodaco’s entirely new line of business. What I particularly liked was the alignment between the company approach to this challenge and my own design thinking methodology.

Before our collaboration, the Italian food packaging company, which specialised in spout-pouched organic fruit and vegetable purees, was producing white-labelled products for private companies and distributors across various European countries. Simultaneously, Dodaco was working on a series of original formulas for ready-made sauces, smoothies, and nutraceuticals, and the company was considering whether to launch them under its own brand.

I contributed to determining their business goals and evaluating their current market position. Applying a variety of research techniques, I provided an in-depth analysis in order to better understand their products’ potential international targets, markets and scenarios, so to inform business decisions.

Subsequently, I helped re-organise their overall corporate communication and brand strategy as well as their web presence in order to prepare them for entry to the new market segment.

I co-ideated the brand name and designed Putipiù’s product line architecture, developed the range extension and the brand architecture, delineated the possible range evolution and the potential value-added services associated with it. I then outlined the go-to-market strategic plan, determining tools, media and their characteristics to be included in the launch strategy.

I was also responsible for the creative direction of the entire project. Supported by a small team, we developed Dodaco’s website and marketing materials, Putipiù’s trademark and the first items of the line’s visual identity, including packaging and brochure.