Behavioral Strategy for CPG Launches

Awareness doesn’t build brands. Repeat usage does.

A behavioral strategy for CPG launches focuses on designing specific consumer habits rather than just generating initial awareness. It identifies the exact usage behavior desired—such as packing a product in a lunchbox or using it on a specific day—and systematically removes the emotional and physical friction preventing that action. By engineering these habits from the start, brands can drive sustainable growth through repeat purchases rather than relying solely on expensive acquisition channels.

The best launches are designed around one question: What behavior are we trying to create, and what friction is stopping it?

1. Pick the Target Behavior

Trial is not a behavior; usage is. A common mistake in CPG launches is focusing entirely on getting the product into the consumer's hands without defining what happens next. To build a habit, you must define the specific context in which the product should be used.

How to apply it: Instead of a vague goal like "drive trial," define a precise behavior such as "use it on Tuesday nights," "pack it in school lunches," or "swap it for your morning coffee." This clarity allows you to tailor your marketing messages to trigger that specific action.

Example: Olivieri fresh pasta was something people bought for special occasions. We set the target behavior as an ordinary weeknight dinner and built the campaign around messy midweek pasta meals. Baseline velocity rose 14%, a sign that people were buying it again and again.

2. Remove Friction

Friction is the enemy of habit formation, and it is rarely just about price or availability. Often, the biggest barriers are emotional or psychological.

How to apply it: Identify the hidden hesitations stopping consumers. These might include:

• Uncertainty: "Will I like the taste?"
• Intimidation: "Is this hard to cook?"
• Embarrassment: "Is this brand for people like me?"
• Habit Gravity: "I always buy the other brand out of routine."

Example: When we worked on Gardein, the barrier to trying plant-based food was identity more than taste. Mainstream shoppers were telling themselves "I'm not that kind of person." The "Start a Healthy Relationship" campaign invited them to try something new without asking them to become vegetarians. Gardein grew from zero to roughly US$65 million in branded sales in about five years.

3. Design New Occasions

Occasions are a secret growth lever for CPG brands. Growth often comes not from finding new people, but from finding new moments for existing customers to use your product.

How to apply it: Map out a consumer's day and identify "white space" moments where your product could fit. Then, create campaigns that explicitly link your product to that moment.

Example: Think of how orange juice brands expanded beyond breakfast by promoting "brunch" or "cocktail mixers." By designing a new occasion, they unlocked volume without needing to change the product itself.

4. Leverage Creators to Model Usage

People copy people, not brands. In the context of a launch, influencers and creators serve a critical role: they demonstrate the behavior you want consumers to adopt.

How to apply it: Don't just pay creators to hold the bottle and smile. Brief them to show the context of consumption. Have them film the preparation, the specific moment of use, and the immediate benefit. This "social proof" validates the behavior you are trying to instill.

Example: For Olivieri, we partnered with creators and real families to show ordinary weeknight pasta dinners instead of styled food shots. The content modelled the habit we wanted people to copy, fresh pasta as a midweek meal.

5. Integrate Retail

Behavior needs a physical signal. Your retail strategy should reinforce the habits you are trying to build.

How to apply it: Use shelf placement, signage, sampling, and bundles to trigger the desired behavior at the point of purchase. If you want your product to be a "dinner solution," it needs to be merchandised near complementary dinner ingredients, not just in its category aisle.

Example: Potatoes are usually sold as an anonymous commodity in clear bags. The Honest Potato used craft-paper packaging and large typography to give shoppers a reason to notice a brand at the shelf and choose it. Sales velocity rose 10%, and the retail distribution footprint grew 40%.

6. Track Habit Formation

Traditional launch metrics often focus on vanity numbers like impressions or initial sales spikes. A behavioral strategy requires tracking indicators of long-term retention.

How to apply it: Shift your focus to metrics that indicate a habit is forming:

• Repeat rate: Are people coming back?
• Velocity: How fast is the product moving off the shelf?
• Household penetration shifts: Are you gaining loyal households?
• New occasion adoption: Are people using it in the ways you suggested?

Category Takeaway

Launches that win don’t just chase attention; they engineer habit. By defining a clear behavior, removing the friction that stops it, and reinforcing it through creators and retail signals, you build a brand that becomes a part of your customer's daily life.

Related Cases:

1. The Honest Potato
2. Mike’s Hard Lemonade
3. Olivieri

About the author

Shannon Thorndyke is Head of Strategy & Performance at Bob's Your Uncle. In more than two decades she has worked with brands including Dove, Nestlé, Nike and General Mills, and Pinterest contracted her to help build its online shopping portal. She writes about connecting brand strategy to results a business can measure.