Beyond Ingredients
Food brands think of ingredient suppliers as transactional vendors.
We set out to change that narrative.
Context
A global food ingredient supplier engaged our team to help them differentiate from other suppliers as the go-to innovation partner for launching new food products. Most ingredient suppliers compete on price, ability to meet demand, and quality, but our client wanted to offer more. We helped our client explore value-add experiences for customers and demonstrate our client's ability to innovate and bring meaningful products to market.
Services
User Insights
Innovation Strategy
User Experience Design
Methods
Stakeholder Interviews
Segmentation
Co-Creation
Storyboarding
Insights
In the current food production landscape, everyone is being asked to do more with less. Food brands have limited resources for product development, distributors are just trying to keep up with demand, and brokers are more focused on logistics than ingredient innovation. This creates a big challenge… but also a big opportunity for suppliers like our client to take the lead on bringing innovative food products to market.
Our discovery process included interviews and site visits to ingredient distributors, brokers, and consumer brands to better understand opportunities for suppliers to bring more value to the table. We spoke with twelve companies across four different countries spanning industries from food products to health sciences. Here are some of our top insights gathered in the field that informed our innovation strategy.
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Food companies are looking for suppliers that know their business inside and out. Just supplying ingredients isn’t enough, brands want suppliers to take the next step and envision their ingredients in viable products that are aligned with their brand growth strategy.
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Food manufacturers know that working with a global ingredient supplier with a strong brand means there are many resources to tap into. Our client’s experience launching new products globally can be leveraged to help clients be successful.
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The food industry is rapidly changing. From manufacturing methods to new ingredients to emerging consumer health studies, food brands yearn for more two-way communication with their partners to inform market strategy. It can be risky to share trade secrets, but the reward can far outweigh the risk.
Solution
In an industry that is hard-pressed for resources, value-add offerings from suppliers was a welcomed prospect. We worked with strategic partners to co-design new customer experiences that would meet the needs of brokers, distributors and food brands alike. We discussed specific product innovations, but we also looked beyond product to explore innovative ways to handle logistical challenges, share market insights, and even radical partnerships for launching new products.
We tested experience prototypes with strategic customers to identify the strategies that resonated most, and got to work building them out.
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For many customers, it is not enough for a supplier to pitch a product idea. They want to see a physical product that fits squarely within the strategic business goals of their organization. This concept aims to create market-ready prototypes, test them in select markets, create a viable business plan, then identify the perfect customer partner to launch it.
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Companies yearn to understand specifics about their consumers' behaviors, purchase patterns and lifestyles. Many don't have the time or resources to do their own market research to inform their next move. Our client is in a unique position to offer deep market insights as a monetized service to their most strategic customers.
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This concept utilizes innovation facilities and resources that function as a customer-facing collaboration space. Design sprints can be conducted in a physical space at the client headquarters or an external facility, but our client would facilitate and resource the design sprints for a fast, effective product development.
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Many customers don't need help developing a product... but they need help with everything else: packaging, manufacturing, distribution channels, retail relationships, etc. Our client was uniquely positioned to help customers big and small get their products to market. Pulling from in-house retail capabilities, strong network relationships, global brand presence, and strong brand equity, our client is poised to help their customers overcome any product launch hurdles they may face.
Impact
Market Impact
The Customer Innovation Lab was selected as our first innovation strategy and launched with a full test kitchen, product prototyping capabilities, and sampling events that allowed consumers to test emerging products.
This concept was met with rave reviews from our client’s strategic partners and is already changing the game for the way they bring value to market.
The innovation lab is changing more than perception. During the course of our work, we selected our first product to develop, a brand new product category for our client in the pet food space. Utilizing a berry product once thought of as food production waste, this ingredient is now bringing big health benefits to pet food products.
Client Impact
In addition to accomplishing the goal of differentiating our client as an innovation leader, we also made an impact on our client through the project itself. Our client was left with a cohesive innovation strategy, driven by a clear voice of customer. The sky is the limit for this group going forward and we look forward to many great products emerging in the future.
