Loacker: One of the top brands of 2020 reveals the test market secret

Lebensmittel Zeitung today named the confectionery manufacturer Loacker as one of the top 100 brands of 2020. Congratulations! Andreas Wilkening, Managing Director Sales & Marketing at Loacker Germany, summarised the insights the company gained in the Bonsai test market in Bremen.

The traditional manufacturer Loacker sells its wafer and chocolate specialities in more than 100 countries. In Germany, they still saw potential and decided to conduct a comprehensive test market study to prepare a marketing offensive.

The Bonsai test market for Loacker

We (and many of our clients) guard test market results like bank secrets. After all, you don't want the competition to find out about the results - and draw conclusions about your plans. Andreas Wilkening took a different approach: The Managing Director Sales & Marketing at Loacker Germany used results from the Bonsai test market two years ago to explain his strategies for the German market in an interview with Lebensmittel-Praxis (LP): "Compared to the competition, we had five to six times the sales figures and twice the market share. That strengthened our conviction: if it works up there in the north, we can also score nationwide."

Bonsai conducted a performance test for Loacker in 20 markets, including Real, Marktkauf, Rewe, Edeka and Rewe-City.

Phase 1: Test off-shelf sales -with and without optimised shelf layout.

Phase 2: Two weeks of TV advertising only, followed by two weeks of parallel price promotions via flyers and secondary placements.

Phase 3: Test of sales after the broadcast of the TV campaign.

In addition, there were 15 control markets outside Bremen that were not influenced. "Only then did we have the absolute comparability for visibility, awareness and repurchase rate," explains Andreas Wilkening in the LP.

Success proves Andreas Wilkening right: Loacker has now been named one of the top 100 brands in Germany by Lebensmittel Zeitung (LZ). With the "Top Brand 2020", LZ awards the most successful brands in the most important product groups based on GfK figures. The award criteria are market share gain, sales development, number of buyers and buyer reach. Congratulations to Loacker Deutschland GmbH - and to Andreas Wilkening, Managing Director Sales & Marketing Germany and Brand Manager Mohammed Bahlaouane.

And there's more: at the end of April, the new global Loacker campaign was also launched in Germany. The German version of the spot on the Loacker YouTube channel alone has already had more than half a million views since then.