Breaking Free from Your Desk: The Power of Real-World Feedback
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about consumer product goods (CPG) innovation, it’s that you might be shocked at what happens when you take a product into the actual selling environment. Yet, at most companies, innovations are iterated mostly from our desktops.
Breaking out of the Linear Innovation Testing Process: How to Innovate Holistically
In consumer product goods (CPG) innovation, it’s inevitable that some products, even the well-thought-out ones, fail. In my work, I often see that disappointing results aren’t because the product idea is bad or that testing hasn’t been rigorous. Rather, it’s that various aspects of the product have been tested in isolation. A holistic approach, on the other hand, tests all aspects of a product together, ideally in a real-world setting.
Exploring the Edges of Innovation: How to Push Your Brand’s Potential
Think of the hole of the donut representing the easiest of line extensions… your core product re-executed as a new flavor, size or packaging – all of which add variety but none of which help your brand solve new consumer problems. Now think of the space past the donut as being a space that shatters current belief systems… things that go beyond a consumer’s expectation of what your brand/product stands for. Sticking too close to the core results in me-too products easily copied by competitors, while going too far can feel disingenuous.
Harnessing Everyday Consumer Hacks for CPG Innovation
Developing breakthrough innovation concepts is about understanding your audience deeply, recognizing patterns, and leveraging insights about their behavior. It’s about observing and understanding nuances of how consumers use products, including their habits and workarounds.
How In-Store Tests Can Prevent Product Fizzle in CPG
In-store tests help our clients fine-tune positioning, pricing strategies, packaging designs, and communication tactics before launch, answering questions with more accuracy than other types of testing.
Transactional Testing: A Tale of Two Beverage Innovations
By the time we get to in-store testing, a new product has often gone through multiple rounds of virtual or conceptual tests. But the grocery environment is a tough one to stand out in. You can’t know how a consumer is going to respond until you get the product on shelf.
4 Exercises to Illuminate Packaging-Concept Blind Spots—and Get to Market Quicker
Conducting myriad rounds of packaging-concept testing before testing an actual product with consumers at shelf might seem like a smart way to proceed. There are a couple reasons we recommend rethinking this, though: One is time. The other is money.
The fact is you don’t need 1,500 people to tell you what you and your team can assess about your packaging on the fly. Consider: Very few products fail because the packaging wasn't perfect, but a lot of great products fail because they missed their window
The Surprising Success of Imperfect Products in CPG Innovation
Here’s the thing: Consumers simply don’t notice small differences in packaging colors or formulations like you and I might. Consumers typically won't compare the minute details of a new product's packaging with its parent brand.
What Small-Scale Manufacturing Can Do for Big Innovators
Startups thrive on small-scale manufacturing, which fosters flexibility and innovation. Discover how we bridge the gap for large companies by connecting them with small-scale co-manufacturing partners.
Bold Moves: How to Gain Confidence in New Categories
Part of our job at Mission Field is to give CPG companies the confidence to leap into new categories. Blind spots are inevitable when innovating outside of established categories. To avoid those (and the costly pitfalls that can result) and innovate with confidence, I have the remarkable job of helping facilitate a process to explore, test, and reflect on insights that will result in successes at shelf.
Stifled by in-house constraints? outsource to make innovations real
When you’re a big company, in many ways it’s hard to be a disruptive innovator. Time and again, I’m reminded of how challenging concept development and testing can be for big companies. It’s not that our clients don’t see the benefit of making products real in order to test them. Rather, they’re limited by existing supply chains and manufacturing systems.
2024 Expo West Trends
Another fantastic year at Expo West has wrapped up, where the future of food and beverage was on display and innovation and sustainability took center stage. Here are some trends and brands that caught our eye!
3 Steps to avoid squashing disruptive innovation ideas
Building confidence in disruptive ideas isn’t easy, which is why the most exciting ideas tend to get squashed. Big companies aren’t entrepreneurs—there’s a lot more at stake. It’s so much simpler to stick with what has worked in the past, to conform ideas to fit the existing model, instead of championing break-out ideas and taking the first steps to test them in the marketplace.
What can we do? Here are three steps to consider.
Happy New Year & 2023 Favorites Innovations
All of us at Mission Field wish you a phenomenal end of 2023 and fantastic start to 2024!
As we close out 2023, our team wanted to share a few of our favorite new innovations that caught our eye and made it into our homes this year. Hope you enjoy
