How Sun Pacific makes faster, more confident marketing decisions

Sun Pacific uses consumer research to guide high-impact marketing decisions and validate creative ideas across its brand portfolio.

Creative testing
F&B
California, US
500-1,000 employees

Challenge

Sun Pacific manages a diverse portfolio of brands – from household names like Cuties, Mighties Kiwi and Sun Pacific Navel Oranges, to newer brands such as Famous Vineyards. Across this portfolio, marketing decisions range from high-level creative strategy to highly tactical choices like logo design and promotional incentives.

Historically, many of these decisions were made without formal consumer research, with teams relying on internal data and opinions. Sun Pacific needed a faster, more objective way to stay close to their consumers and confidently guide marketing decisions.

Traditional marketing research is expensive and slow. Our stakeholders are growers and our business is fruit which requires quick, fiscally responsible decision making. For most decisions, we relied heavily on historical performance, anecdotal evidence, and the input from leaders, employees and partners. The problem with this approach is that it is subjective and prone to confirmation bias.

Sarah Deaton, Director of Marketing, Sun Pacific

Solution

Sun Pacific uses Attest as a flexible, always-on consumer insights engine to support concept testing across the business. The team relies on Attest to inform major strategic questions – from creative direction and message prioritisation to tracking brand health over time – as well as more tactical decisions like visual design and promotional mechanics.

The biggest game changer has been the ability to design major studies, recruit participants, and get results back in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

Sarah Deaton, Director of Marketing, Sun Pacific

Attest enables the team to move at speed without sacrificing rigour. Studies can be designed and launched quickly, with access to highly specific target audiences – even down to the Designated Market Area (DMA) level – and results returned in days.

This speed and scale has unlocked new use cases that would previously have been unrealistic. For example, Sun Pacific was able to field a large brand tracker wave immediately before Thanksgiving, recruiting over 1,500 respondents in just two days – a timeline that would have been unthinkable with traditional research methods.

Impact

Embedding rapid consumer insight into everyday decision-making has had a tangible impact across Sun Pacific’s portfolio.

For Cuties, Attest was used to test options for a “gift with purchase” promotion. While internal teams and agency partners had a preferred direction, consumer testing revealed that this option ranked near the bottom. Instead, respondents showed a clear preference for a more practical and useful gift – allowing the team to pivot early and avoid wasted time, spend and resources.

Similarly, for Famous Vineyards, Attest was used to test logo designs and assess fit with the brand’s positioning. The results challenged internal assumptions, with consumers favouring a different design to the one preferred by senior leaders. This insight led to further optimisation of the logo and packaging before finalisation.

The biggest value Attest brings is the ability to easily stay in touch with our consumers and their needs. It lets us make the right decisions quickly, confidently and efficiently. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of having unbiased, quantitative data to support your decisions. It’s allowed us to secure more funding, move quicker, and focus our efforts on the most promising opportunities.

Sarah Deaton, Director of Marketing, Sun Pacific

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