North Star

Challenger Brands, Meet Illuminator. We are thrilled to announce that North Star has partnered with Worldpanel by Kantar to launch the UK's First Challenger Brand Shopper Insights Platform. Our mission has always been to level the playing field, believing that challenger brands shouldn’t have to make crucial business decisions without critical data and insight. ‘Illuminator’ – designed specifically & exclusively for challenger brands, was built to transform shopper understanding, and in turn, accelerate challenger brand growth. It's been custom-designed to give ambitious start-up and scale-up brands an unparalleled understanding of their existing and target shoppers’ key behaviours. With Illuminator, Challenger brands will now be able to understand & act upon 5 critical insights, which winning brands all understand: 👉 Which shopper behaviours are driving my performance? 👉 How incremental is my brand to the category? 👉 How well do I know my shopper? 👉 How are shopper behaviours impacting the category? 👉 Which Retailers are winning with shoppers… And why? We can't wait to share it with you. Get in touch to be one of the first to get access: https://lnkd.in/grPKTiif

North Star X HUNGRY. We’re thrilled to announce that North Star has partnered with Dan Pope to sponsor his fantastic podcast, HUNGRY. HUNGRY. is the podcast for Challenger brands wanting to pour gasoline on their growth. Dan interviews successful founders and thought leaders, exploring their unique journey from painful failures to glorious triumphs. His goal is to provide listeners with immediately actionable lessons to scale faster with less stress. Previous guests include: 👉 James Averdieck - Gü Desserts & The Coconut Collab 👉 Laura Harper-Hinton - Caravan Restaurants & CARAVAN COFFEE ROASTERS 👉 Rory Sutherland - Ogilvy UK 👉 Jamie Laing and Edward Williams - Candy Kittens 👉 James Bailey - Waitrose & Partners By partnering with HUNGRY, we aim to raise awareness within the Challenger Brand community that a new way to supercharge growth is open to them. By partnering with North Star, they can achieve their goals faster and more efficiently – helping them get listed, stay listed, and grow. In the latest episode, Dan sits down with Giles Brook, Commercial Director & General Manager for UK & Ireland at innocent drinks, and CEO of Vita Coco EMEA for 12 years. Giles and Dan discuss a particular bug bear of Giles’ – the cost of data. Giles recalls the 6-figures it took to get data on a single category for Bio&Me I B Corp, which he deems “so prohibitive it’s ridiculous” for challenger brands. This is North Star’s reason to exist - offering affordable access to data and insights, to level the playing field that until now has been insurmountably uneven for challenger brands. Take a listen and subscribe to HUNGRY. from the link in the comments. Huge thanks to Dan and the team at Hungry for championing Challenger Brands.

Big news for the drink aisle! Diageo's rolling out fancy ready-to-drink cocktails. Think Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, and Cîroc in a can. This is huge. It means more people will be eyeing the cocktail section. And that's brilliant for the challenger brands we love to root for, like: MOTH Drinks Tapp'd Cocktails Ltd FUNKIN COCKTAILS | B Corp™ NIO Cocktails Served Drinks Diageo stepping in? It's not just competition. It's proof our favourite underdogs are on to something big. So, to the challenger brands out there, keep shaking things up. Your unique twists, your bold flavours, they're what make this space exciting. At North Star, we're all about helping you get your drinks out there, and grow. Because when one of us shines, we all do. https://lnkd.in/easywjqy #FMCG #ChallengerBrands #NorthStar

What's keeping you up at night? That's the question we asked our clients this January, and the responses poured in, painting a vivid picture of the ambition and uncertainty that drive the heart of every challenger brand. From "How do I understand where to play and how to win?" to "How can we convince investors our category is a huge growth opportunity?", these questions are more than just queries. They're reflections of a journey filled with potential, challenge, and the relentless pursuit of retail success. At North Star, we've taken these questions and turned them into opportunities for growth and clarity. Here's how: • Understanding where to play and how to win using data, identifying leading brands, and crafting strategies that place our clients ahead in their category. • Creating data-led retailer decks combining brand stories with hard facts, ensuring buyers see the undeniable potential of our clients' brands. • Expanding distribution through range review proposals and suggesting strategic adjustments for retail optimisation. • Demonstrating sub-category growth transforming niche into necessity and positioning our clients as category innovators with buyers. • Exploring successful strategies from other markets, providing blueprints for expansion into new categories. • Convincing investors of growth opportunities by outlining a vision that's irresistible to stakeholders using current trends with future forecasts. Each question represents a step on the path to retail excellence, a challenge to be met with the right mix of creativity, data, and strategic insight. As the challenger’s champion, North Star is here to guide you through these questions with proven strategies, deep market insights, and a commitment to your growth. Ready to take your brand to the next level? At North Star, we help brands get listed, stay listed and grow >>> https://buff.ly/3SyWIFy #ChallengerBrands #RetailSuccess #GrowthMindset

Are you doing these 5 things to supercharge growth in 2024? At North Star, we're the challenger’s champion, guiding FMCG brands towards data and insights-driven growth. Our latest blog uncovers five critical strategies for success in 2024. We delve into expanding market channels, seizing opportunities from major events, and more. It's about proven tactics, not just gut feelings. Learn from the best to give your brand a competitive edge. Ready to turbocharge your FMCG brand? Discover the 5 strategies here: https://lnkd.in/gJJmd77n #FMCG2024 #GrowthStrategies #ChallengerBrands

Change is happening 🍃 And it’s not just taking place within niche categories. Challenger brands are disrupting some of THE BIGGEST categories in-store, as shopper behaviours change and they move at pace to meet these new demands. Within the sauces fixture, we’ve historically seen brand leaders retain over 60% market share and a firm place on tables across the country 🍅 Fast forward to 2023, and consumers are changing their historic behaviours and moving away from sugar-laden products. It’s hugely positive to see the likes of Dr. Will's , Rubies In The Rubble, Hunter & Gather, Sauce Shop and Stokes Sauces ket(chup) with the household brands, offering outstanding alternatives in one of the UK’s leading categories. In what other categories do you think we'll see this pace of change accelerate in 2024?

🥥 We’re (coco)nuts about providing category-changing data 🥥 Pun fully intended [keep reading to find out more 👇] 🧃 Within the chilled juice category, Private Label plays a crucial role, making up over half of the share of the category. 📉 However, inflationary pressures have led to volume declines, which has enabled brands (especially challenger brands!) to take advantage as consumers switch out of private label into a branded offering. When Nurture Brands recently approached North Star to become their insights partner, we worked alongside the team to illuminate the huge potential for them within the chilled juice category. And, with the use of the North Star insights platform, they now know that their raw coconut water brand, Rebel Kitchen, is growing at a whopping 60% YOY - bucking the declining trend across the category. 💥 An invaluable tool as they develop their brand plans & selling stories for forthcoming retailer conversations.👏 #insights #data #challengerbrands #challengerschampion

Why do we love this image!? ❤️ Because we get to see so many challenger brands being allocated sub-category fixture space, helping to signpost shoppers to the range and grow brand awareness. And why is this so great for other challenger brands wanting to grow their listings? 🧐 ✅ It helps when you’re having commercial conversations with Buyers. Having the ability to refer to a real-life, in-store example helps commercial teams to visualise the fixture and make conversations more actionable. ✅ It shows that retailers can see the positive impact that challenger brands are having on their category, which helps to support further segmentation in-store for other categories as we head into 2024. We’d love to see your in-store images showcasing the incredible challenger brands out there 👇 #challengerbrands #challengerschampion #data #insights

🚀 Checked out our blog yet? 🚀 We’ll be posting regular insights, articles, updates and more! Head on over to give our recently launched ‘3 Ways to Grow your Challenger Brand Beyond £5m’ post. As a sneak peek, our top 3 tips include: 1️⃣ Getting Your Category Argument Clear 2️⃣ Solidifying Your Brand Strategy 3️⃣ Mapping Out Your Tactics If there’s anything you’d like to see featured, pop your thoughts in the comments ⬇️

Want to know the top 3 ways to grow your challenger brand beyond £5m? 🎉 Following the successful launch of our ‘Are Challenger Brands Winning in the UK Market?’ report, we’ve since been in conversation with Nigel White, CEO at The Marketing Place, to take a deep-dive into the characteristics of brands that have successfully moved beyond the £5m annualised sales tier. Head on over to the newly launched North Star blog to find out more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWV-EFsQ And keep your eyes peeled on our blog page for more articles, thought-leadership pieces and market-leading insights! 👀 #blog #challengerbrands #challengerschampion #data #insights