Stretching Existing Brands To Address Emergent Market Trends
RAPIDLY TRANSFORMING OPPORTUNITY INTO VALIDATED PRODUCT CONCEPTS
Service: Growth & Innovation Strategy
Industry: Food, Beverage & Agriculture
\ Challenge
We love the challenge of a one-word scope. When we partnered with Kellogg’s in 2009, it was “What can we do in FROZEN?”
At the time, frozen was not seen as a healthy option; however, seed trends pointed to the expansion of wellness-driven options into the freezer. And, while Kellogg’s had a small foothold in the breakfast section of the frozen food aisle, their share was much smaller than the more diversified presence of competitors.
Kellogg’s saw an opportunity to leverage their healthful brand portfolio (Kashi, Bear Naked, Special K, etc.). They asked NewEdge to apply our Opportunity Thinking approach to build a landscape of opportunities in the frozen food space — all the way through the opportunity middleware layers to the development of new project concepts.
\ Our Approach
We began by exploring the three elements of opportunity — conditions changing the landscape, needs of consumers and potential value propositions derived from organizational capability.
A key trend of interest was the increased frequency of families dining out, and the ripple effects that included new expectations regarding convenience and personalization. How could we replicate this experience — time savings and individuality — at home?
We found an unlock through “center-of-the-table” options that, like the restaurant experience, encouraged sharing and participation, all without the much feared “but I want mine this way” battle.
All together, four opportunity areas were developed, leveraging insight from a broader ecosystem of nutritionists, mommy bloggers, school lunch staff, etc., to vet and strengthen potential concepts. Then, in a collaborative co-innovation session, we utilized our rapid design and insight process to build-test-build the concepts with lead consumers.
Success!
At this stage, Kellogg’s would have normally conducted BASES testing on the concepts, but we persuaded them engage in another round of qualitative insight, allowing us to further refine the concepts.
The approach was incredibly impactful. Where Kellogg’s typically hit a rate of 20%-30% concept approval in BASES, our concepts reached 80%. It was also cost effective, filling not only the current innovation pipeline, but broadening the portfolio into entirely new categories.
“YOUR WORK IS HEAD-AND-SHOULDERS ABOVE ANYTHING I HAVE RECEIVED. THE PROCESS, THE THINKING, THE OPPORTUNITIES, THE IDEAS AND THE HEART, YOU GAVE IT... ALL PHENOMENAL!!!”
- Director of Innovation, Frozen Foods, Kellogg’s Inc.