Planning the upgrade of a savory snack in three markets

The question

A snack brand’s global team wanted to improve one of its products with R&D technologies and claims that people would notice and value.

It wanted an experience noticeably better than the competition’s, and that meant looking at all of it, from the shelf to the last crumb. The answers would inform which technologies R&D pressed on with, and which claims went forward to quantitative testing.

Our approach

The work began inside the company. Immersions with R&D became a library of the technologies in development, so the research started from what R&D was already building.

Then we followed the experience itself. Online, people in each market showed us how they chose, opened and ate a pack. In groups, they tasted prototypes, some after seeing claims, with sensory panel work alongside.

With the client’s teams, we turned the evidence into a verdict on each technology tested and a framework describing the whole eating experience. We wrote a large set of claims and, with the client, cut them to a shortlist for quantitative testing.

What the team came away with

The team had a library of technologies, a verdict on each one tested, a claims shortlist and an eating-experience framework in six stages.

We mapped the technology and pack workstreams across the whole experience, so every team could plan against the same picture.

With the team, we also designed a staged process that turns product questions into technical briefs for R&D, with a steering committee deciding what moves forward, and we led its work on flavor and emotion.