In my role as a food brand strategist, ideator and innovator, I regularly meet individuals embarking on a new venture seeking support and advice to help them develop their new food or drink business idea.
Successful food and drink innovation starts with exploration of all aspects of relevant research, current consumer behaviour and the impact of accelerating trends in shaping products for tomorrow, not just today – and by doing so, the creation of a clear vision and foundation for the idea and the focus for both the product and brand concept development activity
By developing a robust strategy for translation into fabulous products and brand ideas, I ensure product concepts and brands are optimised to engage target consumers and convert their attention into a product purchase.
Core to my work is the identification and creation of powerful, emotional and intrinsic attributes which can go on to influence consumer behaviour, igniting a change in their purchasing habits and leading them to try the new.
To facilitate this, I remain ever curious about the world and the very heartbeat of life – and how constant, societal changes present new opportunities to make consumers respond in new ways.
And of course, the pace of change is ever-increasing so a myopic view of current sectors and consumer behaviour is very dangerous as it can lead to the development of ideas targeting existing opportunities where the competitive threat is significant – rather than defining ideas optimised to take advantage of emerging and growing opportunities.
AI is a powerful tool in trawling and collating data and can significantly reduce the research workload as well as providing the very broadest search.
But getting the data is no more than the starting point and analysing and interpreting the findings to identify the eureka elements relevant to the task at hand is where my expertise comes to the fore.
My work with my clients helps them look in new directions, discover the unexpected and harness their strengths by bringing learnings from other sectors and applying them in new ways.
Focusing on these techniques is key in readying a new product idea or business concept for launch. The emphasis I place on forensically understanding all market and consumer-related data (including social media sentiment) is crucial in giving a new market entrant the strength to rapidly gain a competitive positioning.
Typically the aspects we explore include:
- Mega societal trends
- Product-relevant trends
- Sector-specific market data
- High growth opportunities
- Current sector players’ performance data
- Competitive threat
- Development of a competitive advantage strategy
- Product enhancement and optimisation
- Positioning, proposition, USP’s, pricing strategy
- Routes to market.
A 360-degree view of all these aspects is vital – ensuring that all the dynamics which can impact an idea in relation to the entrant sector are properly considered. This ensures that the work that manifests from this activity is a robust foundation for the product development and creative work that will follow, providing the stimulus for exciting and future-focused differentiation.
With this strong foundation in place, identifying how product ideas and concepts can be optimised for success becomes very clear.