Sprint scenario

Established FMCG brands are being challenged from several directions: changing consumer expectations, stronger private-label alternatives and improving category-wide quality are giving people more reasons to question the premium attached to familiar names.

For Frank, the warning signs are emerging before the brand has reached a crisis. His classic coffee brand still has recognition, distribution and decades of equity — but its relevance with the next generation of coffee drinkers can no longer be taken for granted. The question is how far the brand should evolve while there is still time to shape its future from a position of strength.

The pressure on established brands is measurable: in recent resarch, 58% of consumers said they do not care whether a product is a national brand or private label.

Meet Frank

Frank is one of the fictional archetypes in the AI Business Council, representing a CMO within a global FMCG company and responsible for a broad portfolio of brands. His challenge provides the starting point for this AIBC Lab sprint.

The challenge

How can we make a legacy brand relevant to the next generation—without losing the equity that made it successful?

Identify enduring equity

Starting with Frank's commercial and CMO perspective, we use AI to broaden the view across the Nordic product category. Category dynamics, private-label development, changing consumer expectations, current positioning, distinctive assets and sources of perceived value are brought together.

The Value Proposition Canvas asks what consumers are actually trying to achieve in the category, what frustrates them about alternatives and which functional, emotional or social gains still give the established brand a meaningful role.

It also challenges which supposed strengths matter to consumers — and which matter mainly inside the company.

Synchronize insights

Market · Segments · Competition · Growth · Customer jobs · Pains · Gains

Simulate & stress-test

Product concepts · Positioning · Consumer relevance · Behavioral response · Competitive alternatives

Test brand futures

Rather than jumping directly to a rebrand, we create several plausible futures and territories for the same brand.

These territories are challenged through simulated perspectives such as existing loyal customers, younger category buyers, value-oriented shoppers, premium-oriented consumers and private-label buyers.

The Value Proposition Canvas tests meaningful value; DISC adds a behavioral lens around decision style, openness to change, information needs and perceived risk without treating personality as a predictor of purchase behavior.

The purpose is not for AI to declare a winning brand. It is to expose assumptions, reveal tensions between heritage and future relevance, and strengthen the directions worth taking further.

Shape the brand

The strongest territory is brought back through senior human judgment: which direction creates enough new relevance while protecting the brand assets that are genuinely valuable?

The selected direction is then made tangible through future positioning, proposition, visual identity direction, packaging and communication territory — a credible hypothesis ready for further validation and development.

Decide & activate

Future positioning · Proposition · Brand expression · Packaging · Communication territory · Validation priorities

Potential sprint outcome

A credible future for an established brand, including a future positioning and proposition, a visual identity direction, a packaging concept, a communication territory and priorities for further validation.

More sprint challenges