Weighing a snack brand’s pipeline ideas against its current range

The question

A snack brand had more ideas in its innovation pipeline than it could develop, and each would have to earn a place beside products already on shelf.

So the question went beyond which ideas people liked. The team wanted to know what each idea would add to the business, set against the range it already sold, and to agree a shortlist it could stand behind and explain.

Our approach

We started with the company’s own documents, reading hundreds of pages of earlier work so the screen built on what the team already knew.

New ideas and current products went through the same screen on identical terms, with a MaxDiff exercise feeding TURF analysis built on the core range, so every idea was judged by the reach it could add to what the brand already sold.

In data labs, the brand’s team worked through the data with us, mixing evidence and strategy, and agreed the shortlist there.

What the team came away with

A scorecard set out the shortlisted ideas and those set aside, with the reason recorded for each, drawn from the data and the team’s own discussion in the labs.

Beside it, a map placed every idea and current product by who it is for, when it fits and what it delivers. We built it as a thinking tool for planning the range, ahead of any final portfolio.

With each reason written down, the team could explain its shortlist to the wider business, and come back to any idea it had set aside knowing exactly where it stood on the evidence.