Overview
Lakanto is a healthy eating company, and a sugar substitute is our flagship product. We experienced two recent shifts in PR that negatively impacted sales. The first was the decline in popularity of the keto diet. The second was the dip in public perception around zero-calorie sweeteners. Erythritol is the main ingredient in our sweeteners and received the most negative PR during this dip.
In response to this PR crisis, I helped with the release of a new ‘war on sugar’ campaign to redirect public interest where possible. We launched a new sweetener that uses an alternative ingredient (allulose) to slow the drop in sales as customers started to avoid erythritol. Most importantly, I formulated a new long-term strategy.
Here are the search terms for the top three alternative sweeteners to take a PR hit, with corresponding spikes when their disparaging studies were published:
Insights for a New Strategy
5 key insights pointed us to a product launch and a new approach.
There was a disconnect between our revenue and our focus. Our newly released sweeteners outperformed other product releases by 1200% on average. An internal survey revealed the majority of our time was spent on the other products, despite their low return.
Our target market believed in keto, but their attention has shifted to other dietary preferences. The clearest view of this insight is through Google Trends: click here to see.
Our replacement for erythritol, allulose, is likely to receive negative PR shortly. In 2023-2024 there were studies released and a corresponding dip in public perception for erythritol, sucralose, and aspartame. Based on the tone of recently released studies, and past patterns in customer perception, it is very likely that allulose will receive negative PR within the next few years as well.
Consumers tend to have a fairly simplistic view of sweeteners, seeing products as either ‘healthy’ or ‘scary’. They view products with a clear tie back to a natural source as healthy. Products with a production process that is beyond their understanding tend to scare them.
The natural sweetener category has shown steady growth with few new entries. Keyword searches, IRI product sales, and social trends show that this category is prime for entry. Additionally, I surveyed current customers, asking them what they thought was ‘healthy.’ 50% used keywords that were a good fit with our current product offering (sugar-free, low-carb, keto), and 60% used keywords that were a better fit for this new product category (natural, non-processed, few ingredients).
Conclusion
These findings point towards a new product that does not conform to Lakanto’s typical zero-calorie standards and that fills the demand for a natural sweetener, which falls into our most profitable product category. It appeals to new customers as well as our current customers’ demand. Take a look at the product concepts below.
