Looking beyond new flavors for a home drinks business

The question

A home drinks business, built around its own machine, wanted its next growth to come from beyond new flavors, in drink categories it didn’t yet serve.

Every idea would test two things at once: what the machine could make, and what people would trust it to make well. The company had to choose which categories to reach into, which needs it could credibly serve, and where engineering and pipeline investment would earn its keep.

Our approach

We started from the company’s own map of drinkers’ needs, so the strategy spoke the language its teams already planned in and could sit beside work already under way.

Each need was set against each drink category and judged on whether the brand could credibly compete, stand apart or disrupt, and every promising area came with first thoughts on ingredients, pack and the machine itself. The client’s team then worked through the whole map with us in a strategy session.

What the team came away with

A demand map set every option against the whole field of drink needs, with each drink category the company might enter in view.

Each innovation area brought its needs, an estimate of its size and technical thought-starters together, so the teams could weigh engineering effort and the pull from drinkers in the same conversation. Nothing on the map was an idea in isolation: each was tied to a need and a category.

From the strategy session, the program moved into concept development and a share-out with the executive leadership team, with the map ready as a reference for the choices ahead.