The Challenge
Straus Family Creamery had strong brand recognition in the organic dairy category. Their paid media was running — across Meta, Google, and retail media networks — but performance had stalled. Impressions were up. Conversions at shelf were not.
The instinct was to fix the creative. Refresh the ads, try new formats, test different copy. But the creative wasn't the root problem. The audience was.
Straus was spending media dollars reaching a broad, loosely defined audience — when the buyers most likely to convert at retail were a much more specific group with a very specific reason to choose Straus over every other organic option on the shelf.
Who is most likely to pick up Straus at shelf — and what has to be true about them and their mindset for that to happen? That’s the Kingpin question.
The Approach
We ran in-depth interviews and surveys with existing Straus buyers and lapsed organic dairy shoppers. The goal: understand what actually drove someone to pick Straus specifically — not just "organic" generically — at the moment of purchase.
Customer research surfaced a specific, high-converting buyer profile — tighter than "organic shoppers" and defined by real behavioral signals and purchase motivations. We rebuilt the audience targeting in Meta, Google, and retail media networks around this profile.
We rewrote the creative brief, rebuilt the ad creative, and retooled the retail media placements — all anchored to the real purchase motivation of the real buyer. Every touchpoint spoke to the specific thing that made Straus the obvious choice at shelf.
The Results
Monthly retail conversions climbed 118% over 6 months — driven by reaching the right buyer with the right message, not by increasing spend.
Shelf velocity increased across key retail accounts — a direct result of better targeting pulling the right buyers to the right shelf location at the right moment.
The redefined buyer profile became the foundation for ongoing media strategy — eliminating wasted impressions and improving overall media efficiency across every channel.
From The Client
Schaefer has been a game changer for our digital marketing strategy. Bonus — Schaefer is a fun, approachable, organized, and responsive team.
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