Although Fjording has had a stable growth and ended up with a pleasant score at the 2019 bestseller list at Vinmonopolet, I know most people in Norway doesn’t know about Fjording.
Yet.
So, we recently hired Opinion to do a nationwide research on the cream liqueur category. I wanted to know the exact numbers.
Simultaneous, we asked Opinion to do a qualitative research on people’s views about the Fjording design.
You see, before we entered the market in 2018, we did our own research on different bottle designs. An overwhelming majority of participants in the test groups cheered on the present design with transparent glass and the sober, Scandinavian look.
At that time, we were kind of surprised by the result. But happy - because this design made us stick out clearly from the international brands. And being different was our ideal from day one.
I honestly think we succeeded in sticking out. Winning the World Beverage Innovation Award is a clear indication on that.
However, now it was time to explore what views Norwegian customers in general had about our bottle and brand.
Perhaps they thought completely different than the industry jury?
The numbers
The survey revealed that 2% of the population had tasted Fjording, while 8% had heard of the Fjording brand.
Senior adviser Ola Gaute Aas Askheim in Opinion commented on the findings as follows:
”Fjording has moved into a category that is completely dominated by Baileys from Ireland (88% tasted, 97% knowledge). Most likely, only the Fjording entrepreneur himself uses the word "cream liqueur" about the category. In common language, everybody uses the term “Baileys”. That tells everything about the difference in strength”.
Personally, I choose to focus on the potential in the 98% that haven’t tasted Fjording yet. What a large chunk of the population to start digging into. The upside is enormous!
The age “shock”
When it came to Fjording's product design, the interviews also revealed some interesting findings:
Young adults enjoying Fjording
The Fjording bottle has better appeal with the target group "the young adults", meaning the population between 20-39 years. People in this group also have a significant higher knowledge about Fjording than other age groups.
The most shocking is that «oldies, but goldies» (age 60+) are most skeptical of our bottle, and have least knowledge about Fjording’s existence.
What?! The stereotype is that cream liqueur is an "old auntie drink". If that is correct, this group should have been well aware on what’s going on. But no, many of the elderly are obviously acting out of old habits; picking up Baileys without noticing the tasty, local competitor. That is no less than a scandal! Hehe.
Aas Askheim elaborates: “Those who react negatively on the design, find the color of the product problematic. The positive ones, associate the product with something exciting, tempting and exclusive. They associate Fjording with other tempting products such as chocolate and cakes, characterize the bottle as modern and trendy, and highlight the texture/surface as appealing. The trend is that the youngest members in the sample tend towards more positive associations than the older ones”.
Since it's out of the question for us to copy the traditional brands, we listen far more to the positive feedback, of course.
Getting to know all of this proved to be very interesting, though. And I look forward to do similar research in the years to come.
Cheers!
