The J.M. Smucker Company*
Innovating within the pet specialty channel
Consumer Insights - Innovation Strategy - Design Thinking - Ideation Workshop - Concept Development - New Product Testing
Challenge
The J.M. Smucker Company had just acquired Natural Balance and Nature’s Recipe from Big Heart Pet and was focused on growing these brands within the pet specialty channel. They knew consumers in this channel were extremely loyal, and tapping into that could increase overall market share. Working alongside the VP of Innovation, the Senior Brand Manager of Innovation enlisted our help to jumpstart this initiative.
Approach
To better understand key motivations and influences, we started by reviewing previously completed research on customer segments, attitudes and usage, and purchase structure.
From this, we partnered with the company to select the richest strategic growth opportunity areas and developed three innovation platforms to inspire ideation and stretch thinking.
We then designed and moderated a full-day ideation workshop, utilizing the design-thinking concepts of diverge, converge, and iterate. We also leveraged the help of an illustrator to sketch these ideas to bring them to life.
Result
The ideation resulted in over 35 ideas, of which 12 concepts were fully developed for consumer validation. Five concepts received excellent test results in research, and two of the product propositions were launched into the pet specialty channel.
*Completed by Stephanie Louie during her tenure as Senior Director Brand Strategy at Anthem Worldwide