Food & Bev Innovation
Helping Companies Pivot Fast with Innovation.
Retailers are hungry for new innovative products now more than ever, as they try to get a leg up in the “new normal.”
Eureka! Inventing engagements fill your product pipeline with 8x More Bold New Product Concepts AND help you get them to market 6x faster.
Talk to an Expert Now +1.513.271.9911
Ways We Can Work Together
How we can help you innovate:
Brainstorming & Ideation Sessions
Our experienced team will facilitate your next session to create meaningful and breakthrough innovations that grow your business.
Disruptive Innovations
Grow your sales and profits with new offerings that break through the clutter.
Product Development
Ideas are prototyped, torture tested and vetted with customers and stakeholders so you have proof they work. We do cycles of learning to problem solve and accelerate development.
Strategy Sessions
Improve alignment within your company by setting a clear mission and boundaries. We work with your leadership team to navigate through these uncertain times.
Learn Why You Should Innovate Now
What the 2008 Recession can Teach Us About How to Restart Your Business After COVID-19.
Innovation Assessment
Find out how innovative your company is and get actionable advice to improve.
We’ve Been Doing Disruptive Innovation For Over 35 Years
In 1986 our founder, Doug Hall, left P&G after shipping a record 9 new projects in just 12 months. He founded what’s now known as the Eureka! Ranch, an innovation think tank to help companies invent, filter and fast track big ideas.
We’ve invented and tested over 25,000 concepts. We’ve created over $18 Billion worth of innovations. The average home has 18 products/services that we’ve helped create.
Speak to an Expert Now:
+1 513.271.9911
proud to partner,
again & again
We believe the hallmark of good work is repeat. Below are just a handful of 100s companies that we’ve worked with 5 or more times.
Let’s Build Something Together
Don’t see your question listed? Use the chat function in the corner of your screen and instantly connect to someone that can answer.
Do you need to be in-person for these engagements?
No. While certain activities like hackathons and qualitative research can be done in-person, they can also be virtually and be just as effective.
Can you work under extremely fast time pressures?
Absolutely. In the world of innovation today – that’s “table-stakes” as far as we’re concerned. In matched studies, we’ve found our approach is typically 6 times faster than your “normal” timelines.
How can I be sure this is going to work?
With over 1,000 cycles of learning through previous projects and an 88% client repeat rate, we have a good track record for delivering results. But even with that, we have dozen’s of “fail safe’s” to make sure we get you where we need to be – including an agile design that lets us change course instantly if we need to adapt as we go.
Have you worked in food and beverage - including supply chain, retail, CPG and food service?
Yes. We’ve worked extensively in all of those categories. And that diversity of experience works as a wonderful asset as we help you innovate within that ecosystem. We’re familiar with the challenges of your customers, your suppliers and the opportunities that can arise. (We also work in completely different industries – which can be a great source of stimulus to shake up a category.)
What does an engagement include?
Every project starts with a strong grounding in what you want to achieve and what constraints you’re under. From there we construct an engagement gameplan that can include: hackathons, quantitative and qualitative customer/consumer research, prototyping, cycles of experimentation, forecasting, upstream R&D, technology scouting, accelerated development, operational planning, business model scenarios, competitive analysis, ethnographies, design thinking, agile development, ingredient sourcing and sometimes manufacturing.
ACTIFY INNOVATION™
Get quick impact ways to improve how you create, communicate, and commercialize innovation.
Experts in Innovating Under Pressure
Since 1986 we’ve been the people you call when you had a challenge that was complex, constrained, impossible yet critical – and needed to be done yesterday. And it’s no different today.
In the last recession it was helping brands like The Macallan Scotch with a pipeline of innovations that yielded 1,200% growth. Or helping an international confection company create new products in 30 days to save 100s of jobs.
Today it’s helping you respond to new demands of retailers and consumers in the “new normal,” like:
- new products that resonate in a recession
- sanitary, prepackaged meals over self-serve
- Food & Bev products that speak to the “new normal”
- insight-based Innovation Pipelines
Retailers are making fast reset pivots right now to support companies with vision, insight-supported direction and a robust pipeline of differentiated new products. It’s not too late to get your seat at the table (or lose it.)
We can help with:
Express Concept Development: 24 Concepts in 48 Hours
Disruptive Products & Services that break through the clutter
Breakthrough Business Models for a New World
Business Development Systems
Proprietary Technologies and Platforms
Outsourced R&D
ReImagined Operations & Supply Chains
dollars of innovations in active development
Completed Projects
Concepts Created & Tested
%
Client repeat rate
Samples of Our Work
We’ve done over 1,000 projects. Below are just 6. If you’re wondering if we can help with your challenge, chances are we’ve worked on a something similar before. Contact us to learn how we can help and get relevant case studies.
Create a Pipeline & Business Plan for Disruptive New Products
Problem: When you’re vertically integrated you have leverage. But if you don’t have demand pull from customers, it doesn’t matter.
Solution: We co-created new meals, sides, snacks and desserts to fill this client’s pipeline for years. In under 8 weeks we:
- invented 100+ ideas
- did qualitative and quantitative consumer reserch on 30 ideas
- got Top Box concept scores
- created prototypes
- vetted production options
- created full “investment grade” business plans
SNACK DEVELOPMENT DOUBLE PLAY :: Disruptive Ideas under Impossible Timelines
Have to be plant-ready in 8 weeks but have yet to fill the future pipeline? No problem.
We not only helped our food manufacturer client invent wow snack concepts, we also:
- repeatedly tested them with over 600 consumers to make sure we had real winers
- created prototypes and formulations to ensure they were manufacturable
- drafted provisional patents for breakthrough technologies to deliver entirely new snack formats and experiences
- developed a complete business plan assessing all relevant risks and problem solving solutions.
Disruptive New Product & Proprietary Technology Wins Customers & Awards
Problem: Millennials are not eating frozen seafood, Sales are Falling.
Solution: Powered by consumer research revealing Millennials don’t buy frozen fish because they’re worried they’ll mess it up, this new brand and technology ensures they will never mess up cooking this to perfection.
- Idea to Invention to Market in a record 9 Months
- 3 Patents Filed
- 3 of 4 Items Became Top 10 Frozen Food In Learning Lab Test
- 2018 Winner of BrandSpark International’s 2018 Best New Product Award
ReImagined Operations to Launch a New Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
Problem: A craft spirits manufacturer wants to pivot drastically to help first responders and the community in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Solution: Leveraging our Trained Brains in supply chain, operations and a CDC-trained Epidemioligist, the new venture was fulling operational in less than a week. In partnership with P&G, CVG Airport and the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, it is now on track to bottle, package and distribute 2,000,000 ounces of hand santitizer to the Greater Cincinnati Metro Area.
OUTSOURCED R&D
Problem: With Scotch drinkers as your main customer, how do you try something altogether experimental to get the attention of a new audience?
Solution: Using accelerated Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles of learning – our team went front lines to invent, prototype, pioneer, brand, market and produce a completely new twist on traditional whiskey.
In order to create great new products, the entire process of whiskey making had to be reinvented, still fitting within the guidelines but revolutionizing the method, resulting in not only incredible taste and preference, but 9 patents filed.
Breakthrough Business Models
Problem: When you make or break your year on holidays, how can you increase access outside your footprint?
Solution: HoneyBaked Ham® is a mainstay at the holiday table, but long lines at stores can deter some customers. By optimizing access points, creating a ‘store within a store’ concept and learning through test markets – the new buisness model became a win-win. The pop-up stores are large grocers helped to sell more ham, but drive foot traffic for partner retailers.