The Call

A global retailer introduced a <30-minute delivery service for pre-made food items so consumers can have an alternative for their immediate hunger needs beyond fast food and traditional restaurant delivery. However, softening engagement and usage metrics (dropping visitation and retention) made it clear that more research needed to be done to understand how consumers view these prepared foods in the context of their current dining habits.

The retailer partnered with Catapult Insights to:

  • Prioritize barriers and motivating perceptions by consumer engagement with the service

  • Identify table stake brand and service perceptions

  • Identify the adoption drivers of the service

  • Determine the demographic makeup of lead users

Our Response

It was clear that both qualitative depth and quantitative scale was needed to answer the key research and business questions, but the insights were needed in a short turnaround time (less than 3 weeks) to inform strategy and product planning for the upcoming year which didn’t leave time for a multi-phase approach. Catapult Insights designed a non-traditional research program hosted on a traditionally qualitative platform that aimed to blend our quant and qual expertise into a single research instrument to answer key business questions, on time.

For this approach:

  • Our qualitative moderator designed questions to probe open-ended responses and selfie videos for consumers to understand their behaviors and perspectives

  • And our quant expert designed scaled and rating questions to produce quantitative measurements in this non-traditional survey environment

It was the perfect balance of qualitative depth and quantitative rigor needed to answer the complex business questions, on time.

The Celebration

Our approach proved to be incredibly effective – moderator designed probes and questions paired with quantitative rigor uncovered the key motivators and barriers to use and the perceptions consumers hold, and the context and reasoning behind them. The research also revealed that a subset of prepared foods are viewed by consumers as being a lower risk for disappointment and that retailer trust is paramount to mitigating consumer risk and encouraging service trial.

The service is fully launched and growing, fully supported by research-driven strategies and initiatives. Catapult Insights is always happy to search for new and creative ways to answer our partners’ research questions, especially when we have a chance to connect a cool new service with consumers that have a clear need.