Sinebrychoff partnered with Nepa to decode the shopper journey, driving data-driven brand and marketing strategies.
THE OVERVIEW
Sinebrychoff
CLIENT
Sinebrychoff
Sinebrychoff
Year
1819
1819
Industry
Beverages
Beverages
SOLUTIONS
Shopper Journey Mapping
Trend Tracking
Retailer Deep Dives
Category and Activation Strategy Support
Shopper Journey Mapping
Trend Tracking
Retailer Deep Dives
Category and Activation Strategy Support
Founded in 1819 in Helsinki, Sinebrychoff is the oldest brewery in the Nordic countries and Finland’s leading brewery, producing beers, ciders, long drinks, soft drinks, and energy drinks. Sinebrychoff is part of the Carlsberg Group.
In 2022, Sinebrychoff partnered with Nepa to map complete shopper journeys across key beverage categories in Finnish grocery and retail channels.
As category complexity increased and retail dynamics shifted, Sinebrychoff and Nepa launched a new quantitative shopper study in 2025. The study re-ran and expanded the 2022 work to track change over time in beer, cider, long drink and RTD, while enabling sharper collaboration with agencies and key retail partners.
THE CHALLENGE
Understanding change in alcoholic drinks shopper dynamics
By 2025, Sinebrychoff needed to move beyond a one-off journey mapping exercise and understand how shopper behaviour in alcoholic drinks had evolved since 2022. Across who buys, where, when, what and why.
The re-run also needed to focus more deeply on four priority categories: beer, cider, long drinks and RTD, without losing comparability with 2022.
Balancing planned and impulse purchases in a shifting category
The study needed to clarify how much of the purchase mission is decided before entering the store, and where influence still happens in-store.
Creating retailer-relevant insights
A key goal of the 2025 re-run was to provide Sinebrychoff’s key retail clients with a clearer view of how their shoppers move through the category. From store choice to touchpoints, product selection and consumption occasions.
The insights needed to highlight the role of the store within the beverage journey and pinpoint strengths and improvement areas in the purchase path for each chain, supporting joint category growth.
Making insights usable across teams and over time
Continuity was critical. The 2025 study reused the proven 2022 questionnaire to enable robust trend analysis, with selected updates to inclusion of new topics such as higher-alcohol products in grocery and the role of digital channels.
Results needed to be easy to activate across Insights, Brand and Marketing, Trade Marketing and Key Account teams.
The Approach
A robust, comparable shopper study
To understand how behaviour had shifted since 2022, Nepa conducted a quantitative shopper study with approximately 1,000 recent buyers per category (beer, cider, long drinks and RTD). Each respondent was asked about their most recent purchase in a randomly selected category, creating a broad and representative view of shopping behaviour across Finnish grocery stores and online.
The method followed the same questionnaire framework as the 2022 study, ensuring clear trend comparisons over time. At the same time, selected updates were made to capture new realities in the market and latest consumption trends.
The analysis was structured around the full shopper journey – from need states and degree of planning, through channel and store choice, in-store touchpoints, price and assortment evaluation, to usage occasions and emotional drivers. Results were delivered both at total level and split by retailer, enabling targeted deep dives for key retail clients and giving a shared fact base for joint category growth.
“Nepa’s solution was chosen due to its holistic approach, giving us ability to utilise the project in brand and marketing planning, towards retail customers as well as agency partners.”
THE RESULT
Shopper-led growth: Turning journey insights into joint value
A nationally representative quantitative shopper study was launched and re-run to map Sinebrychoff’s shopper journeys in alcoholic drinks, focusing on beer, cider, long drinks and RTD, with approximately 1,000 recent buyers per category.
The framework followed the full journey, from need states and planning degree to channel and store choice, in-store touchpoints, product selection, usage occasions and emotional drivers.
Several concrete growth levers emerged and building on the core study, Nepa and Sinebrychoff co-created deep-dive analyses for key retail clients, showing how their shoppers move through the journey, which touchpoints matter most, and how assortment, placement and promotions can be optimised to increase category value.
The insights are now widely used across trade marketing, customer collaboration and retail partnerships, as well as in Sinebrychoff’s brand and communication planning.
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