CASE STUDY
Consumer Goods Company
Unlocking growth with consumer insights and strategic opportunity mapping
Challenge
A global beverage company known for its innovation legacy identified a significant growth opportunity in the emerging legal cannabis market. With surging consumer interest and a shift away from traditional alcohol consumption, the company decided to pursue this adjacent, ownable space.
While poised for growth, the market was highly fragmented and rapidly evolving with shifting customer dynamics and complex regulatory environments. To enter the space credibly and successfully, the company needed to identify the most valuable, winnable opportunities grounded in future-forward consumer insights and build a clear roadmap for action.
The company turned to Prophet to conduct deep market analysis, uncover evolving customer behaviors across the category, and define the most relevant, ownable opportunity spaces with the goal of building a long-term foundation for differentiation in a fast-moving category
Solution
Prophet led a multi-phase engagement that combined deep-listening qualitative research, a robust quantitative study, cultural trend analysis, and category landscaping to create a holistic understanding of the needs and barriers of the cannabis consumers. This work informed a curated market landscape aligned with the company’s strengths.
We began by mapping the full spectrum of cannabis engagement. Segmentation revealed six distinct consumer types, which we overlaid with the emotional and functional occasions to understand the drivers behind cannabis usage.
Across these dimensions, Prophet built a demand landscape that identified opportunity spaces, each defined by the user motivations, behaviors, and product expectations, and were contextualized alongside the existing business demand spaces.
To prioritize where the brand could play and win, we applied a strategic lens, evaluating each space for business attractiveness, consumer credibility and alignment with internal capabilities. Four high-potential opportunities emerged.
For each, we developed detailed “how to win” profiles outlining target audiences, functional and emotional benefits, product design cues and messaging strategies. Scenario-based market sizing was applied to account for future shifts in regulation, consumer sentiment and category education. Throughout, we partnered closely with the company’s innovation leadership team to secure alignment and buy-in across the executive team.
Results
Armed with a data-rich foundation and a consumer-led framework, the company is now well-positioned to enter the cannabis market with confidence and strategic clarity. The work aligned internal teams on where to play and how to win—balancing near-term feasibility with long-term growth potential.
Importantly, the strategy demystified a complex and often misunderstood category, turning fragmented market signals into clear and actionable growth paths. As a result, the company is now equipped to create future-ready products and experiences that resonate in a dynamic, high-growth market.