From the medicine cupboard into the mainstream

 

In 1974, the Vandermoortele family created a new food category with Alpro soya. After 35 years of category leadership, they sought fresh thinking to break through growth stagnation and evolve both the brand and business.

Reframing the Opportunity: From Niche Market to Mainstream Potential

The plant-based dairy market was largely seen as a medical solution for women over 45 and lactose-intolerant children. While Alpro had strong penetration in this Market, it was under-leveraged in the broader lifestyle health category.

We saw untapped growth by shifting from a narrow problem/solution positioning to a broader, lifestyle-driven proposition, aiming to expand Alpro’s share of market by repositioning plant-based as aspirational, not just functional.

Strategic Moves: Building Functional Value to Unlock Growth

  • Audience Recalibration:
We redefined the target audience by shared attitudes and values, not just demographics. ‘Caroline’ was developed as a core persona upmarket, educated, and health-conscious, but more likely in her late 20s than 50s. This shifted the brand into a younger, more dynamic space.

  • Brand Repositioning:
Alpro was moved from the ‘medicine cupboard’ to the breakfast table and coffee bar. The new brand ethos, Enjoy Plant Power, repositioned Alpro around energy, vitality, taste, and environmental consciousness embedding functional value into every touchpoint.

  • Product & Portfolio Expansion:
We used consumer insight to drive innovation, launching Almond and Hazelnut milks alongside Coconut and Rice, enabled by new production capacity. This broadened the brand's utility, increasing occasions and formats.

  • Experience-Led Marketing:
Sampling at music festivals and presence in digital lifestyle communities brought the brand into everyday cultural relevance. Content focused on health, taste, and sustainability helped reinforce functional and emotional brand value.

  • Digital Storytelling & IP Creation:
Enjoy Plant Power became a trademarked claim embedded in the logo, enabling unified storytelling across platforms, from retail to baristas.

Business Outcomes: Realising Market Value

  • Alpro’s growth accelerated from +5% in 2011 to +35% by 2015.

  • Market value reached €1.2 billion by 2015.

  • The brand shifted from a niche solution to a lifestyle leader, unlocking new user segments and multiplying use cases.

Functional Value Delivered

  • Utility Expansion: From a dietary solution to an everyday lifestyle choice.

  • Touchpoint Diversification: Supermarket, barista, festival, digital platform.

  • Product Innovation: New formats and flavours improved taste and flexibility.

  • Purpose-Led Engagement: Health and sustainability narratives drove deeper connection.

  • Organisational Alignment: Unified growth vision anchored in persona-driven strategy.

Recent Projects

Working with one of the UK’s largest retailers, our team helped define, plan, and scope a comprehensive loyalty programme that now serves as the foundation for a wide range of functional benefits. What began as a retail initiative has evolved into a platform that extends well beyond shopping—integrating seamlessly into the daily lives of over 8 million users and driving long-term engagement, utility, and brand value.

Our team has played a central role in shaping the processes behind a newly established fund, purpose-built to support the innovation ecosystem by improving access to capital. Recognising the unique challenges faced by venture capital, growth, and private equity managers, we collaborated closely with private asset managers across Europe and North America to design systems tailored to the specific financing needs of this sector.

Many brands face challenges integrating acquired businesses, often lacking a clear strategy for whether the brand should remain, merge, or be retired.

Our work with a leading insurance firm, following multiple acquisitions has helped build stronger collaboration across the organisation and contributed to a 165% increase in market value.

 

What we believe in

  • For over two decades, we’ve been observing, understanding, and engaging with human behaviour in all its complexity, capturing what makes us unique and what brings us together.

    At FIT, our researchers immerse themselves in the real world, because we believe the best way to understand change is to experience it up close, from within.

  • As Nicholas Negroponte noted, we’re shifting from atoms to bits. Data is becoming central to everyday life. But data alone, no matter how big, isn’t enough. On its own, it doesn’t lead to the right decisions.

    We go beyond surface behaviours to explore emotions, fixations, and deeper human needs. What truly creates value? How can that value be captured, and scaled?

  • We design projects in partnership with our clients and stakeholders, knowing that collaboration leads to real impact and practical results.

    Using collective intelligence and design thinking, we create artefacts, films, books, prototypes, products, and narratives that drive meaningful change.