How FRoSTA identified shopper-driven category opportunities with YouGov Shopper

Facts & figures

Global HQ: Bremerhaven, Germany

Founded: 1905

Employees: 1778

Annual revenue (global): € 638 million (2024)

Business challenge

Across FMCG, many categories continue to report revenue growth – but much of this growth is increasingly driven by price increases and promotional activity rather than genuine category expansion. Behind positive sales figures, manufacturers and retailers are facing stagnating buyer penetration, declining purchase frequency, and growing price sensitivity among shoppers.

For FRoSTA, this raised two key strategic questions:

1. How can frozen food remain an attractive and relevant category for shoppers?
2. Which short-term category activation levers can unlock untapped shopper potential at retail level?

To answer these questions, FRoSTA needed a more shopper-centric understanding of category performance – going beyond traditional sales metrics to uncover what truly drives shopper satisfaction, relevance, and category growth.

Solution & research results

FRoSTA partnered with YouGov Shopper to identify growth opportunities within the frozen food category by combining behavioral and perception-based Shopper Intelligence.

This combined approach enabled FRoSTA to connect actual purchasing behavior with shopper attitudes, expectations, and satisfaction drivers across the frozen food category.

The analysis identified several key drivers of category performance, including:

• clear and intuitive shelf structure,
• relevant assortment,
• strong value perception,
• and the availability of shoppers’ favorite brands.

By combining behavioral and perceptional insights, FRoSTA gained a deeper understanding of hidden category barriers and retailer-specific growth opportunities – helping prioritize actions that improve shopper relevance, category attractiveness, and shopper conversion.

Business outcomes

The project provided FRoSTA with a data-driven foundation for category growth strategies rooted in real shopper behavior and perceptions.

Key outcomes included:

• deeper understanding of hidden category growth barriers,
• clearer identification of shopper-centric optimization opportunities,
• improved prioritization of category management initiatives,
• stronger understanding of the importance of favorite brand availability,
• and actionable insights to support more shopper-centric category management decisions