Building a consumer validated innovation pipeline

Opportunity:

A long-standing brand in the frozen category saw the opportunity to take its better-for-you equity beyond the category in which it historically lived to reach new consumers and drive business growth. The team needed to narrow down which better-for-you areas of expansion had the most potential and best fit with the brand and its target consumers.

Approach:

Linkage guided the brand team through a process to validate its future innovation pipeline, including:

• Trends Immersion & Brainstorm: A deep-dive into which better-for-you ingredients, production methods, and categories are fastest growing which informed the concept brainstorm.
• Qualitative & Quantitative Concept ValidationL The concepts from the brainstorm were then shared with consumers in a Qualitative setting to narrow and build upon them before going into a Quantitative Idea Screen.

Impact:

Through this process the brand team qualified 5 concepts which tested better than the top selling in-market offering. The team is equipped with a pipeline of qualified innovations to deliver future growth.