How Schilling Cider Uses Researcher-Driven AI to Guide Brand Strategy and Rebrand with Confidence

At IIEX NA 2025 in Washington DC, Rachel Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer of Schilling Cider, joined Aneesh Dhawan, Co-Founder and CEO of Knit, to share how the brand used Knit’s Researcher-Driven AI to reimagine insights at a pivotal growth moment.

Schilling Cider was riding a wave of rapid growth — but didn’t know why. With a lean team and a mandate to rebrand, Rachel needed to bring structure, evidence, and consumer voice into the process. What she found in Knit wasn’t just data. It was a way to change the role of insights across her organization.

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The Challenge 

When Rachel joined Schilling, the brand was growing fast — faster than its understanding of why.

“We didn’t know why we were growing. We knew the drink was good, the packaging was fun — but we had no idea if our messages were landing.”

Her task: rebrand four product lines in a category where hard cider represents less than 1% of the total beverage alcohol market. But selling the need for research internally was a challenge. The leadership team had been burned by past vendors, citing delays, confusing data, and research that “died where it was.”

Rachel needed a partner that could:

• Flex with a team of one, without requiring deep analytics support.
• Deliver fast, clear answers to guide brand and packaging decisions.
• Help turn consumer truths into creative confidence across the organization.

That’s when she found Knit.

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Why Schilling Turned to Knit

A colleague shared a Knit study on Gen Z beverage preferences — where Schilling was mentioned by name. Intrigued, Rachel reached out.

From her first conversation with the Knit team, it clicked.

Knit’s Researcher-Driven AI platform gave her:

• Flexibility to launch studies on her own schedule — even after a full day of meetings.
• Human support from Knit’s research team when she needed it.
• AI-powered UX that guided her through study setup, question design, and analysis.
• Quant + qual in one view, powered by video-based feedback that brought real consumer emotion to life.

“I’ve always been told I ask too many questions — the insufferable ‘why’ child. Knit let me be curious again.”

Human + AI: A Partnership That Scales

Rather than replacing her expertise, Knit amplified it.

Rachel leaned on AI to handle logistics — prompting better questions, surfacing early trends, and separating signal from noise — while her own human instincts, along with Knit’s research team’s, brought interpretation and brand context.

“I could see data in real time. If I was slow to respond, they kept things rolling without losing speed.”

This hybrid approach made it possible for a single marketer to run complex packaging, messaging, and go-to-market studies without missing a beat.

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From Koala to Clarity: The Power of Video Insight

One of Schilling’s first Knit studies tested new packaging concepts during its rebrand. For a brand that stands by the phrase “Characters Welcome,” its suite of engaging animal mascots was becoming a staple of the brand.

But when diving into new package testing, a fan-favorite design — a beach-loving koala — triggered negative reactions among Gen Z consumers.

At first glance through quantitative data, it looked like a rejection of the character altogether. But by watching video responses, Rachel uncovered the real “why”:

“It wasn’t that they hated koalas. They hated beach bro koala.”

That nuance changed everything. Schilling avoided costly creative missteps, saved a beloved character internally, and refined the tone of its design direction — while previewing a future mascot trend (hello, penguins).

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Turning Insights Into Strategy

Through Knit’s quant + qual video responses, Rachel found that:

• Nearly 50% of shoppers discovered Schilling through in-store displays.
• Social media and events were neck-and-neck as the next major discovery drivers.

Those findings drove a reallocation of marketing budget:

• Doubling down on displays — where Schilling could “be the weird brand we are.”
• Investing in social media — which scaled faster and more efficiently than field marketing.
• Keeping in-person activations lean but powerful.

“The data didn’t just give us a direction — it made the decision for us.”

Shifting Culture Inside the Organization 

What started as skepticism turned into enthusiasm.

After sharing Knit’s showreels — short, edited clips of real consumers reacting on video — Rachel’s leadership team “dorked out.” The voices of actual customers made the data impossible to ignore.

“It’s my favorite thing to hold over their head. I love being able to say, ‘I told you so.’”

Today, the Schilling team regularly requests new studies — even niche ones — to gut-check sales trends, marketing ideas, and packaging updates.

“Now they nerd out on connecting consumer data with sales data.”

The Results

Faster, more confident decisions: Packaging, message testing, and channel strategy grounded in real consumer feedback.

Higher internal buy-in: Executives now see insights as essential to brand direction.

A scalable system: One person can manage a continuous insights pipeline — powered by AI, guided by curiosity.

“Knit changed everything for me. As an insights team of one, I finally had a platform that could flex with me — whether I had 20 minutes between meetings or needed a partner to help keep things moving. I could dig into data when curiosity struck, see insights in real time, and actually feel connected to the people behind the numbers. We didn’t just get data — we got understanding.”

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