Mandioca Case Study

The Backstory:

Brazilian Cheese Buns have been a welcome addition to virtually every occasion, from morning coffee to big family gatherings, and everything in between for decades in South America. Given the uniqueness and root origin of this snack, there is a lot of North American sales potential.

Mandioca is a cheese bun manufacturer located in the Kitchener – Waterloo region. They are committed to offering delicious, nutritious, and easy-to-prepare buns that bring the traditions and tastes of South America to Canada and US markets.

The challenge Mandioca faced was to establish the best ‘go to’ market strategy, branding and packaging that will ultimately deliver its vision of operating a manufacturing facility and developing a distribution network.

What We Delivered:

Marketing Strategy

We began with building a strategic marketing plan for Mandioca that translates the business goals into marketing priorities and outlines how to execute and reach them. The first step involved market research including a “Take & Bake” test. The results were analyzed to determine the primary target audiences for the product. From the outcomes of the market research, our marketing plan comprehensively defined the four Ps to launch a new product and a new brand into new markets.

Branding & Packaging

The client initially was leaning towards a modern & clean idea for the packaging, much like other newer grocery products. Our team felt that this approach didn’t utilize the cultural strength of the product or the energy of the founder and so presented an option that pulled in visuals directly linked to Brazilian culture – textiles, patterns and colours.

The Mandioca team unanimously agreed with this more playful, vibrant design and gave the thumbs up to roll through all 4 flavours along with product photography (wonderfully executed by Langen Studios) followed by a number of sales tools and marketing assets.

Website

To support the team work towards their sales goals, the website needed to introduce the brand and position the products as healthy, good-for-you snacks for Canadian families to enjoy. It also supported distribution partners with a “where to buy” section, making it easy for consumers to find the stores selling the buns.

Building on the playful elements introduced on the packaging, the website visuals continued to deliver a consistent brand experience. (For more of what we delivered, check out this page.)

The Results:

Mandioca products have been on the shelves of more than 100 stores in the GTA, as well as being offered through a Quebec distributor. They continue to negotiate to enter the big retail chains as well.