The mantra “fail fast, fail often” highlights the demand for speedy innovation in today’s food and beverage marketplace. The pressure to stay ahead of the curve is stronger than ever, but the sobering reality is that approximately 9 in 10 new product innovations fail.

Great innovation isn’t just fast and creative. It must also be demand-driven and future-oriented. Put simply, you need to understand the “why” behind trends before you can innovate on them.

Our approach to innovation is grounded in this “why.” It’s the common thread that guides us to strategic opportunities for your business that are both cutting-edge and consumer-centric. So how do we do it?

Trends presentations

Establishing a foundational understanding of today’s food culture landscape will ground your innovation efforts. We offer insights from our extensive in-house data and intellectual capital that will push you to think more expansively, digging into:

• Macro trend analysis: socio-cultural shifts, demographic changes, etc.
• Consumer insights: articulating aspirations, needs, pain points, etc.
• Food trend charts: what consumers are adopting

Ideation facilitation

To properly ideate on that inspiration, you need a partner who not only understands how to maximize engagement and creativity, but how to identify ideas with the most potential for impact. Drawing on decades of experience, our team acts as the voice of the consumer AND cultural consultants in this process. We’ll lead your team through:

• Idea brainstorming
• Idea bucketing and prioritizing
• Concept build-out and sharing

Concept scorecard development

Now your creativity is really buzzing — but these new ideas need to be pressure-tested. Our customized concept scorecards help identify which ideas hold the most promise for consumer acceptance and in-market success, weighed against your specific objectives. Typically, these include metrics like:

• Solving a consumer need
• Differentiation from competition
• Fit with the brand
• Disruption rating
• Consumer stickiness

So as you build your innovation pipeline for this year and beyond, let's make sure your ideas aren’t just creative, but consumer impact-oriented. Connect with our team today to move from idea to action.