Highlights
The Dannon Company is committed to creating the highest-quality yogurt and helping consumers maintain a healthy lifestyle. With the objective of communicating the category strategy internally, the Strategy Development of Marketing and Sales Plans department outlined the 3 main points of their presentation for their redesigned deck.
1. The strategy is misunderstood.
What is strategy and what isn’t it?
2. The tactics are familiar friends.
Solving problems for retailers is important.
3. Enablers are the key that retailers care about.
How does Dannon approach the category?
Challenges
In the yogurt category, there had previously been several years of growth. But recently, it experienced decline. The presentation needed to address members of The Dannon Company’s South Division – highlighting the necessity of producing a holistic category strategy, while driving company-wide growth. In addition, it was required that the narrative message and slide design appeal to both intuitive and analytical thinkers, as well as extroverts ranging from ages 25-54. According to the information we received from our Dannon contact and Director Category Strategy and Insights, Nathan Schy, the expected audience would need to hear and see evidence to support any ideas proposed throughout the course of the presentation. Since the presenter of this specific deck would certainly be dealing with an audience composed primarily of visual learners, we would have to devise a plan of action for including visual representations of information. We focused on 3 primary fixes based off of the original presentation.
1. Excessive text on slides
2. Unfocused illustrations
3. Unclear call to action
Solutions
With Ethos3’s presentation design approach, The Dannon Company began transforming their slides to reveal a more audience-focused message. That included lessening the text on each slide instead of treating space intended for design elements like a notepad for the presenter. In addition, The Dannon Company switched from a PowerPoint 4×3 format to the widescreen, 16×9 format. By implementing this change, Dannon modernized its deck and produced a more convenient landscape for our designer to display their content in an aesthetically pleasing and immediately comprehensible way. Ethos3 overcame the challenges presented by Dannon’s deck in the following ways:
1. Utilize speaker’s notes
Some of the slides in Dannon’s 30-slide presentation had more text than an audience would or could read. We noticed that much of the text was included as an aid for the presenter. By placing that text in the speaker’s notes in the redesigned deck, we minimized the slide text and produced space for the designer to craft compelling visual elements.
BEFORE
AFTER
2. Redesign illustrations and reimagine content display
Many of the illustrations in the original Dannon presentation showed all of the important information, but in a convoluted manner. Our Ethos3 designers maintained the meaning and message behind the illustration below, while utilizing white space to draw the viewers’ eyes into the most compelling parts of the graphic.
BEFORE
AFTER
The Ethos3 content and design duo assigned to this presentation also relied on the power of iconography, big imagery, and bold text to highlight the main points.
BEFORE
AFTER
3. Create a clear and defined call to action
Before creating a deck with us, Dannon concluded their presentation on the following note:
BEFORE
AFTER
After collaborating with our Content Strategist, the redesigned deck reviewed Dannon’s 3 main points – allowing the audience to remember and retain the most crucial elements. Then, it urges retailers to mind the gap, to bridge the gap. It’s a clear call for audience members to focus on strategy, tactics, and enablers in order to maximize the opportunities described throughout the presentation.
Results
Since the Strategy Development of Marketing and Sales Plans delivered their redesigned deck to 200 people, they have seen 8% growth on the business. The South Division has begun to put in place the initiatives necessary to position The Dannon Company at the heart of how millennial America consumes food – through creating their season, selling event activation, being more precise, and becoming a test laboratory.
“The presentation was about a cross functional strategy for the division (35 people). We are actively executing this strategy in the market. Staring at double digit assortment gains, shelf efficiency and bottom line P&L favorability.” – Nathan Schy, Director Category Strategy and Insights at Danone
Due to the overwhelming clarity of content and consistency of design demonstrated through Dannon’s revised deck, Nathan and the rest of his team were able to secure positive feedback for their idea and corresponding concepts, as well as inspire listener’s and viewer’s to action for the improvement of the company as a whole.
Are you interested in learning more about the Ethos3 philosophy? Or maybe you’d like to see how we’ve improved other client decks during our nearly 11 years in presentation design and training? Check out the following resources and discover how you can join our Presentation Revolution and establish more impactful messages today!
Fun Ways to Engage Your Audience
The Presentation Personas Who Are Natural Storytellers
A Writer’s Guide to Preparing a Presentation
Meaningful Messages: 6 Tips for Editing Presentation Content
Why Visuals Matter for Engaging Millennial Audiences
How We Get Inspired: The Story of Mood Boards
