Building Bolder Flavors

The Challenge

Helping a major retail company design a new approach to developing flavor concepts that have greater cultural relevance, consumer resonance and disruption power.

Our client was developing new flavors for their food and beverage products based on competitor and category activity, rather than deeper human needs and problems to solve- resulting in a plethora of “me-too” concepts. They needed a new process for how to develop disruptive flavor platforms, in order to position their brand as a leader in flavor.

The Approach

We started by immersing ourselves in the client’s existing research, synthesizing their content to set the stage for a highly interactive, half-day workshop at their headquarters. We designed the session around a comprehensive 4Cs framework (Company, Culture, Consumer, and Category), guiding cross-functional teams through a collaborative process of divergent and convergent thinking to constructively break down their initial concepts, expand their perspectives, and refine their strategic platforms for rapid ideation.

The Impact

We delivered a concise, executive-ready narrative featuring a refined set of evolved innovation platforms, clear articulation of supporting concepts, grounded in defined consumer needs as well as projected business impact. And we left with some serious cravings and a bold new vision for the future of flavor!