URC's flagship snack brand Jack 'n Jill holds a commanding market share, but new local and international competitors constantly enter. If you joined the marketing track, what approach would you take to help defend our market leadership for a core snack like Piattos?

Situation

During my internship at a local bottled tea startup, we noticed a bigger competitor had launched a similar flavor at a 15% lower price, rapidly eating into our supermarket shelf space.

Task

My task was to recommend a response strategy within two weeks without triggering a price war that would hurt our margins.

Action

I interviewed five sari-sari store owners and three supermarket category managers. I discovered that consumers in our segment valued 'naturalness' more than price savings. So I proposed a two-pronged approach: first, we refreshed our packaging to highlight 'no artificial sweeteners' and added a QR code linking to ingredient sourcing stories. Second, I designed a 'buy 2, get 1 free' trial pack exclusive to the competitor's stronghold stores for four weeks, not a blanket discount, but a targeted conversion tool. I created a simple tracker to measure weekly scan data from the target stores.

Result

In the eight target stores, our sales volume recovered to pre-entry levels by week three. Two independent retailers voluntarily started placing our product at eye-level instead of the bottom shelf. The brand manager later adopted the QR code idea across the whole product line.