Are you hoping to innovate your way to the next big food and beverage trend? Then this guide on generating food product ideas that appeal to consumer appetites, is a must-read.
Developing new exciting ways to connect with consumers can be a challenge. You need to either come up with an idea that disrupts habitual purchasing patterns or uses them to your advantage.
As humans, we psychologically crave novelty. So, new products - provided they’re properly marketed and match (if not exceed) the quality of their market competitors - will often pique consumer interest. They also begin with idea generation. It may seem like an obvious statement, but before we discuss ideation and idea screening, it is worth defining it.
Idea generation in new product development (NPD) is a process in which food industry professionals use market knowledge and scientific research as the basis for new creative ideas.
They then screen the ideas to determine which ones are most likely to make their mark. It only takes one good idea to significantly impact market share and profitability. As a result, no article on idea generation is complete without examining the principles you’ll implement when screening new ideas.
This process begins with the evaluation of the idea itself before engaging in a more detailed analysis. To make this possible, the idea should be framed, so that its potential can be assessed. A clear product description is the first part of this. The idea statement that describes a concept should include some of the thinking that went into it.
Firstly, indicate the context in which the product may be used and define the target market. You can then ascertain how the product could be positioned in your current range and how it compares to your competitors. If the concept looks promising, the following factors are then investigated more closely before moving on to the next steps (you can explore these in more detail in our guide to NPD in the food and beverage industry):
Because brainstorming encourages a free flow of thoughts and ideas, it’s commonly considered to be the most popular idea generation technique. Everyone has different tastes and preferences when it comes to food, so they should be given free rein to articulate any thoughts or ideas that they think would appeal to today’s consumers. During the session, evaluation and critique are off the table to ensure the focus remains purely on capturing ideas.
Focus groups are a form of qualitative research, consisting of group interviews structured to represent people with a wide range of characteristics. You might use focus groups to identify new product ideas, or you can use them to uncover broad indications of what your market wants. Alternatively, you can bounce the results of a brainstorming session off a focus group, providing early indications of consumer reactions to new ideas while still in the ideation phase of NPD.
Mindmapping focuses thoughts on a central concept expressed as a single word or phrase. You can use it in brainstorming or to focus ideas on a board concept. You can do it on your own or you can involve others, encouraging them to contribute their thoughts and associations. These might not be ideas on their own, but additions to the mindmap will contribute to idea formulation.
The advantage of SCAMPER is that it directs attention to what you already have. The acronym stands for:
BRIDGeS stands for benefits, risks, issues, domain knowledge, goals and solutions. It begins with describing the problem your idea intends to solve from the subject’s perspective. This subject could be an organisation or a segment of the market. Participants then use BRIDGeS to build out the subject by adding relevant and applicable information.
After deciding which descriptors should be prioritised, it’s time to look for product ideas that match the subject’s primary goal, evaluating them based on the benefits, risks, and issues that match them. This approach has the benefit of including a basic form of preliminary new product idea screening as part of the ideation process.
Visually represent research findings on a storyboard and look for ways to link them to possible conclusions. For example, market research may indicate a specific set of consumer needs. Your ideas contribute to a match that brings the story to a satisfactory conclusion.
Stuck in conventional mindsets? Question everything you’ve previously taken for granted as a way to encourage novel ideas. A theoretical scenario illustrating this could be a company that produces meat products questioning their paradigm, leading them to branch out into meat substitutes for vegetarians and vegans. Their reverse thinking would have transformed the question: “How can we develop a new meat-based product?” into “How can we develop a product with no meat content whatsoever?”
New ideas bring fresh opportunities, and once they’ve been screened and approved, complex NPD workflows are triggered. We recommend implementing a stage-gate process, and our software makes it easy for you to stay in control. You’ll also want to track recipe development and formulate specifications for everything from raw materials to retail packs.
You can drive your NPD process with Foods Connected’s food product development software. It’s just one of the ways in which our technology helps food businesses stay ahead of the curve.
Request a demo today to find out more about our award-winning suite of software solutions for the food and beverage industry.