You are Amara Osei, a junior brand manager at Halo Brands in Reading, in the United Kingdom. This year you own four launches, one a quarter, each for a different group of customers. Today, Friday 16 January, the launch committee expects your sign-off on the first at five o'clock: a plant-based protein powder for Priya.
The situation
Halo is a mid-sized British consumer-goods company: food, drink and household products sold through supermarkets, online grocers, convenience stores and its own website. Its 2026 strategy is to stop launching products "for everyone" and to build each new one around one defined group of customers; inside the company they are called tribes. The first belongs to Priya: 34, lives in London, earns £65,000 a year, trains four times a week, reads every label and trusts specialists over supermarkets.
Four teams have each prepared four proposals for you. Product offers basic whey with artificial flavours in a plastic tub; standard whey with natural flavours; a premium plant blend with 25 grams of protein and added amino acids; or an organic plant-based powder with 30 grams in compostable packaging. Pricing proposes £15, £28, £38 or £52 a tub. Sales offers discount grocers; a large online marketplace; an upmarket supermarket plus direct sales through specialist gyms; or invite-only pop-ups and boutique studios. Media offers daytime television and press; paid search and display; small fitness and wellness influencers; or billboards and elite sport sponsorship.
Every option has a sponsor. Sales likes wide distribution; media likes campaigns it can measure. Grace Adeyemi, the finance partner, reminds you that a better product costs more to make and that each launch's profit will appear in the board pack. After the launch a focus group and a market test will report fit with the tribe, consistency of the mix, purchase intent, the sales forecast and profit, and the committee will award one to three stars. Three more tribes follow and, in the fifth quarter, the board will ask you which launch did worst, and why.