Developing new products for a free-from food brand

The question

A free-from food brand had built its name with people who must avoid certain ingredients, and more brands were arriving in its category.

It wanted a pipeline of new products across the categories it already sold in and some it didn’t, shaped with its teams across markets and its developers. Each idea had to work for people who avoid ingredients by necessity and for those who do so by choice.

Our approach

We sized where to grow before anyone wrote an idea, from a survey of free-from buyers and the brand’s own data.

The brand’s team chose the priority areas with us and created ideas in short online sessions, some live and some in their own time, so people across time zones could take part.

In screening, each concept was shown only to people open to its category, with every concept’s sample balanced on the same profile and set against products already on shelf.

What the team came away with

The brand had one body of evidence from start to finish: a growth map, a documented idea bank, buyers’ feedback on early ideas, designed concepts and the screening report.

Because each concept faced the same kind of buyer on the same terms, against products people already know, the team could compare ideas from very different categories, and weigh what each would add to the brand as well as to the category.

The ideas not taken forward stayed in the bank, organized by category, ready for the team to return to as its plans moved on.

The designed concepts came ready to progress, so development could begin from ideas already shaped with the people who would buy them.