Put Insight at the heart of every decision

Insight-driven Innovation

Insight-driven Innovation (IDI) is our end-to-end, 4-stage process for protecting your core range or launching NPD

Using a blend of market data from the likes of Kantar, Nielsen and IRI, bespoke insight and direct consumer feedback, delivered through an agile methodology fine-tuned over 200 food & drink projects

Each stage can also be accessed individually, depending on your needs….

Insight-driven Innovation

Stage 1: Evaluate your category, to identify opportunities to strengthen your brand and range

Don’t make changes based on out-dated assumptions. Make sure you have a current understanding of the category and it’s consumers, including how behaviours might have changed recently

Reduce the risk before investing in changes to your brand, existing range or developing NPD

Stage 1: (4 weeks)

Category Snapshot

  • Understand the key drivers of category behaviour. From top line sectors, to drilling down further into brands and SKUs

  • Understand how motivations and attitudes are evolving, especially during the cost of living crisis. Who buys what, and why?

  • What’s the size of the prize for you, and the retail buyer?

An initial report combining bespoke category insight with optional key market data (EPOS and Panel). Followed by a workshop with your cross-departmental team to identify real commercial opportunities

Stage 2: (6 weeks)

Validate your proposition

  • Why should shoppers choose you over other alternative products and brands? And why should retailers put you on shelf?

  • Direct feedback on your early-stage product concepts, from a robust panel of consumers

  • Have you misunderstood your target market at all? If so, identify potential mistakes or barriers and move on with confidence

Our established innovation process, with workshops to create and develop your early-stage product concepts, then testing them with a robust panel of real shoppers

Stage 3

Develop & Target

  • From a complete brand refresh to individual product design choices, decisions are so often made without robust consumer input.

    The MD likes one design, the Marketing team like another. As a business, you want confidence that you’re going down the right route, and help to make that decision.

    We’ll test your designs with a sample of at least 250 of your category consumers and get their feedback, giving the whole team confidence about which design or format to progress with.

  • What are the category parameters such as depth of promotion, household penetration and purchase frequency, etc.

  • Identify the top launches in your category over the past 12 months and understand why those products were successful, or unsuccessful

  • Set realistic targets based on other launches in the category. This could include targets for sales, volume and household penetration.

Test design concepts with your target market to be confident you and your team are going down the right route. Access key market data prior to launch, to create a realistic business case and set achievable targets, based on those who have gone before you

Stage 4

Review & Iterate

  • Identify how you’ve performed against other recent launches. Quantify your impact on the category….have you contributed to incremental category growth, or switched spend from other products (cannibalising sales)

  • Use market data and bespoke shopper insight to identify gaps in your performance to date, and potential areas to improve your presence on shelf.

  • Maximise your space on shelf by identifying which products are contributing to category growth. This could be at the expense of products in your range that are under-performing

Post-launch review, after 12 or 24 weeks of trading. Using market data to measure your performance in the context of the wider category, and bespoke shopper insight to gather reaction and feedback to your products. An opportunity to fine-tune and strengthen…

Other services…

Bespoke category insight

Most Food & Drink suppliers use market data to track performance, but have no understanding of WHY shoppers choose them in the first place. In our experience, many don’t have a strong understanding of who their consumers are.

With core ranges coming under more pressure, suppliers need to convince retail buyers why they should retain their space on shelf.

We don’t just ask the questions on you behalf. We understand what your team needs to make key commercial decision and to impress retail buyers. From brand awareness, to why shoppers buy you versus your rivals, we gather robust insight on your behalf and analyse it using our skills and expertise.

Analysis and reporting of Category data

For Food & Drink suppliers who need to access category data, but don’t have the necessary insight resource to maximise the use of this investment.

The TRKR team works with the agencies who provide both consumer panel and EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) data including Kantar, NielsenIQ and IRI. We help our clients to identify the key questions that:

  1. The team needs to answer internally

  2. They will be challenged on by retail buyers

  3. May help identify key commercial opportunities for brand and category growth

This shapes the data required for analysis and reporting. Finally, if companies don’t currently buy data but require it for retailer discussions, we can source the relevant quantity and blend of data on their behalf.