The client
A flagship smoking cessation brand has been helping people quit smoking for decades. As one of the most recognised names in the category, they’ve built their reputation on effective products and trusted expertise. But even market leaders need to evolve to stay ahead.
The need for change
The smoking cessation market had become increasingly competitive and complex. Traditional ways of understanding the category weren’t delivering the fresh insights needed to drive growth. The brand team knew they had untapped potential, but they needed a completely new lens through which to view their market.
They wanted more than just another segmentation study. They needed a framework that could inspire fresh thinking across the business whilst identifying highly actionable opportunities for both immediate wins and long-term growth.
Bringing in STRAT7
As a trusted partner to the brand and its parent company, with deep category expertise and willingness to challenge conventional approaches, we jumped at this opportunity. Rather than applying a standard methodology, we took this as the chance to reinvent how segmentation could work for this category.
Identifying opportunities
We took a radically different approach – focusing on occasions rather than traditional demographic segments. Through large-scale, multi-market quantitative research, we mapped out when, where and why people use nicotine products.
Our data-driven methodology identified the most influential factors driving different purchase and usage behaviours. These ‘category entry points’ revealed unmet needs that traditional segmentation had missed entirely.
Each opportunity was sized, profiled and prioritised based on its untapped potential for the brand. Instead of broad consumer groups, we uncovered specific moments when people’s needs weren’t being met – moments ripe for innovation.
Implementing change
The framework’s beauty lay in its actionability. Each category entry point came with clear, concise insights that teams could immediately work with.
Because the depth of understanding was communicated so clearly for each opportunity, the brand’s team could quickly begin developing ideas. This structured approach meant that rather than working in silos, different functions could align their efforts around the same consumer insights, creating a more coordinated response to the identified opportunities.
The result
Within weeks, business leads were able to share a reinvigorated brand pipeline, generating their ideas across three key areas:
Communication: Fresh messaging strategies that spoke to specific usage occasions rather than generic user types.
Distribution: New channel opportunities aligned with when and where these occasions naturally occurred.
New product development (NPD): Innovation pipelines rooted in genuine unmet needs rather than category assumptions.
The framework united global teams around consumer-centric thinking whilst providing strategically sound rationale for investment decisions
