The pandemic situation has changed people's behavior in daily life and also their attitude toward candy. According to the last study about candy usage during the pandemic, there was some transformation in need for candy. Furthermore, the candy market shows that there has been more phenomenal growth than the market after the pandemic situation, even though the competition has become tighter. And our client, one of the biggest candy producers, needs to monitor their product after launch.

To fulfill our clients' needs, doing a post-launch evaluation is excellent. It will help our client to measure the penetration of brand awareness and usage, including the source of information and moment of truth. Besides that, it will also enlighten our client about brand perception. Through brand perception, our clients will understand how the consumers perceive their brand regarding price and effectiveness.

Our client will also deeply understand the following marketing strategy to meet the goals. They will get the recommendation directly from the market on extending to which categories and crafting the right marketing strategy.

• To get the best result, Clove did two phases during the research process; quantitative (face-to-face home interview) and qualitative (online focus group discussion).
• For 180 respondents’ criteria in three coverage areas are male and female; 18-35 years old; SES Upper I, Upper II, Middle I; consuming coffee candy at least once in two weeks; decision-maker of consumed candy; aware of the brand.
• The respondents were recruited by random sampling (random based on population distribution).
• All data is collected computer-aided and will be uploaded directly after the interview.
• To get the proper respondent for online FGD, check the respondents based on the list from quantitative phases with the criteria and share with the client for approval.
• Conduct online FGD with one moderator to guide discussion and three respondents per group that represent “aware not try,” “repeaters,” and “lapsers.”

• Through this study, we analyze the Brand Perception (aware, not try) and Reputation (repeater and lapser) of our client's brand with the competitor.
• Our client's product wins the consumers' hearts as a product with several flavors in one pack suitable for those who get bored easily (43%) and fulfills the desire of consumers who like coffee (33%). Besides that, the product wins with the attractive packaging (29%) that is also easy to carry anywhere because it fits in the pocket.
• Refers to a place of purchase, the product hard to find in small shops and only available in minimarket.
• Furthermore, the respondent sees if our client has to maximize the marketing strategy (bundling, ads or campaign, and many other things).

Our client has some issues that have to solve. The first is that our client still bonded with a competitor that makes their product unfamiliar enough, even though the market still needs to learn that our client launched a new variant. Then our client has to do extra to push on promotion through social media, YouTube Ads, and Facebook Ads, and also to put the placement near a similar product. Bringing great communication that represents the product will be excellent, too, such as creating the image of the product as preventing sleepiness.

The second is the need for more taste. It caused the original variant not to be strong enough or still too sweet, and to be able to solve the problem by asking for other variants in the same series; do sampling products, and launching one pack with only one variant. The last is about availability in stalls or general trade in the individual pack when the competitor makes it more accessible. Then entering the public trade market will create the image as a product that is easy to find everywhere and will be more recognizable and grab more market.

Through this study, understanding the essentials of post-launch evaluation will be great to do. It will let you know all the issues and how to solve them.