How to accelerate innovation in the food sector
The fight for shelf space has always been tough in the food industry. However, as more and more talented start-ups enter the market and shake up the industry with innovative products, competition has become increasingly fierce.
This also increases the pressure to innovate on established market players. Without new products, no food manufacturer can survive in the long term.
As a result, investors and management expect product concepts to reach market maturity ever more quickly and accurately and - of course - ever more cost-effectively.
If you want to survive in the food market, you should always question your standard procedure, which you generally use to fill your innovation pipeline.
Because time-to-market can certainly be shortened. All you need is a willingness to explore new avenues.
And this is one of them:
1. Focus on innovation projects that are worthwhile
Innovations abound, but when it comes to accelerating the innovation process, you should focus on the processes where early decisions on the market relevance of the product idea can make a tangible difference.
In the following, I will therefore focus on the product innovations with the greatest significance in the food sector: those of management professor André Reichel so-called
classical innovation approaches: the expansion of production and consumption opportunities through novelties.
What do we mean by "novelties" here?
Certainly not innovations that would replace existing product categories. Product innovations are definitely more than just a new flavor within an existing product range. But an existing product category does not necessarily have to be revolutionized.
Rather, what is meant is:
- neue Verwendungsanlässe,
- neue Touch-Points, possibly in new sales channels, or
- new packaging solutions.
The last point in particular illustrates very well the type of innovation that is worth accelerating:
The topic of sustainability has become much more important in recent years and has led to increasing demand for sustainable packaging among consumers and retailers. Those who bring their innovative packaging solutions to market earlier than the competition will be able to exploit this potential.
In the end, what counts is whether relevant added value is created for your company: You should focus on these projects.
2. Create flexible framework conditions
There is no silver bullet for accelerating innovation processes. Depending on the issue at hand, very different paths will lead to the goal.
However, it is clear that the following approach makes less and less sense:
- Put a long battery of concepts on paper in a single output.
- You then optimize the concepts with your supervisor and possibly colleagues from the marketing department.
- Finally, you check the concepts with a quantitative concept test in the known target groups.
Instead, I advocate making this process more flexible by only defining a rough framework for the innovation process at the beginning and leaving enough room for creativity and new approaches, perhaps even outside the company's own product categories.
It is important that you check the expectations of the stakeholders with the help of this framework in order to avoid unnecessary development loops in this regard.
When defining the framework, I often ask myself questions like these:
- For which target group should new products be developed? How exactly do I already know this target group or the personas and their needs?
- Why should innovations be developed for this target group in particular?
- What are the preferred distribution channels?
- In what time frame should the innovations reach market maturity? The smaller the time window, the more focused and close to the existing situation the innovation process must be planned. If I have a time window of two to five years, I should definitely think bigger.
It is just as important to draw clear boundaries so that the process does not get lost in a fog of vagueness:
- In which direction do I not want to go? In which area should my team not generate ideas?"
It is important to recognize as early as possible whether a concept idea is relevant for consumers, for the buyer and also for the retail partner. To ensure this,
- you need a cross-functional team: if possible, put together your project team from internal and external members in such a way that diverse perspectives and expertise expand the spectrum of possible ideas.
- A consistent consumer focus. The question of the needs that a product or packaging idea would fulfill should carry more weight than the question of whether the idea could currently be implemented. You should therefore discuss questions as openly as possible and attach sufficient importance to consumer insights.
One reason why you should only roughly define the framework for an innovation process should not be neglected is chance.
Or rather the possibility of the unexpected: After all, an overly rigid framework will prematurely stifle the play of creativity. You miss the chance to discover the unexpected, perhaps even outside your own product categories. You can sort out or deprioritize soon enough.
3. Adapt your approach to changing situations
A flexible framework makes it possible to test the relevance of a concept idea at an early stage.
I would like to use three scenarios or tasks to briefly illustrate how this can work.
Scenario 1: Better understanding of new target groups
You want to develop a new food product to appeal to a specific target group that is not currently one of your usual users.
The problem: your knowledge of consumer behavior is still imprecise.
Here I recommend starting with a qualitative market research approach. Use a market research institute that already has experience with agile innovation management. Then you can optimize initial concept ideas several times in just a few days and adapt them to the target group's needs.
The important thing here is:
- a briefing that clearly formulates the question, but leaves room to actually learn new things about possible future users and reasons for use
- the willingness, to optimize the concept components directly in the process in a small but heterogeneous team and to review alternatives in the renewed confrontation with the consumer. In other words, start the process with an open mind and be guided by consumer needs.
Use the market researcher as a consultant to sharpen the methodological approach and their accumulated knowledge of these consumers in the subsequent process. For example, in an ideation workshop or shortly before the market launch as part of communication development, to gain an outside perspective on whether the type of approach suits the researched target group.
The effect: You work more accurately as a team, avoid unnecessary pirouettes and thus increase your chances of future success in the market.
Scenario 2: Quick validation of a product idea
You know your target group, but don't yet know whether your product idea will convince them.
The problem: You can't wait for an answer, you need it promptly.
In this situation, it is impossible to go through the usual process and put it to the test.
Instead, you could work with your design agency to draft initial concept variations and have these checked on an insight automation platform using suitable criteria.
This way, you validate your product idea in advance. And you accelerate innovation: instead of laboriously approaching an answer, you can start product development after just a few weeks.
Scenario 3 Diverse "out-of-the-box" ideas with high innovation potential
Do you want to generate many new product ideas for product development over the next few years, but don't want to rely on a quantitative concept test to evaluate them because this approach may overlook relevant consumer insights?
One solution here could be design thinking approaches, which diverse points of view, but rather bring them together:
As a mindset, Design Thinking is characterized by several key principles: a combination of divergent and convergent thinking, a strong orientation to both obvious and hidden needs of customers and users, and prototyping.
The application of such methods must be prepared accordingly. Nothing works without a sensible composition of the project team. For example, it might make sense to recruit the thought leaders in your development department, the creatives among your sales colleagues and finally your agencies for the team.
Tight timing is also important. The intervals between face-to-face or digital workshops should be very short. Qualitatively validated and prioritized product ideas should ideally be available to you as the marketing manager after around eight weeks.
4. Digitize your innovation process
Even if it sometimes seems to be just hype, the digitization of work processes is accelerating many things, including innovations in the food industry. I would like to mention two developments here: the digitalization of workshops and that of market research.
Digital and hybrid workshops
While before the pandemic it was often thought that creative workshops thrived on personal exchange, ideally over several days and in the most inspiring locations possible, we have now all experienced that workshops in virtual locations can be just as creative and productive as those in real ones.
In addition, digital workshops are easier and cheaper to organize. After all, the travel of participants, especially from other European or non-European countries, has already made the organization of a workshop much more complicated and expensive.
On the other hand, workshops that take place digitally need excellent preparation, a trained moderator and regular, creative breaks more than ever.
And it is also true that you won't always want to do without face-to-face meetings. Face-to-face meetings are particularly useful for the kick-off with a view to team building, but also for implementing certain creative techniques.
Digital market research
Automated market research platforms have been used for some time, especially if the question is not too complex. However, driven by the pandemic, qualitative market research institutes have now also gone digital and are conducting group discussions online.
These online discussions have the great advantage of immediacy:
Firstly, because you as the project manager are no longer sitting behind a screen and watching the action from afar. During a video call, you can observe the participants much more closely - and therefore understand them better.
But it gets really exciting when you incorporate group discussions directly into a digital ideation workshop. Direct working with consumer opinions in real time will have a fire-accelerating effect on your workshop!
Conclusion: Be flexible, be fast
In the food industry, companies are under strong pressure to innovate, and a fast innovation process is vital for manufacturers: ideas must be tested quickly and concepts must be implemented quickly.
To do this, you need to focus on innovations that create added value. But above all: deviate from rigid procedures and take advantage of opportunities to validate product ideas at an early stage.
