From idea to insight in one minute: How Kroger uses Tastewise to innovate faster

Kroger’s innovation team is responsible for identifying what customers will want next and turning those signals into successful products. The team sees its role as the voice of the customer: anticipating needs, exceeding expectations, and predicting what shoppers will want next.

But identifying the right opportunities early can be difficult when food signals are scattered across recipes, menus, and social conversations. Using Tastewise, the team can analyze real consumer demand signals across these sources to understand what trends are emerging and why consumers are responding to them.

Instead of relying on intuition or waiting weeks for research, Kroger’s innovation team can validate ideas in minutes and move forward with greater confidence.

Kroger needed a faster way to validate innovation ideas while staying closely connected to evolving consumer preferences.

• Trend signals were difficult to interpret early. Emerging food trends appear across many platforms, making it hard to determine which signals truly matter.
• Concept validation could be slow and expensive. Testing weak ideas too late in the process often meant wasted time and research budget.
• Innovation teams needed deeper consumer context. Understanding why certain ingredients or dishes resonate with shoppers is critical for building successful concepts.

Tastewise became Kroger’s real-time insight layer, helping innovation teams move from trend observation to confident decisions.

• Real-time demand signals. Tastewise analyzes recipes, restaurant menus, and social food conversations to show which dishes and ingredients are gaining traction.
• Instant concept validation. Teams can check ideas in minutes by exploring how similar products, flavors, or ingredients are performing across the food ecosystem.
• Understanding the drivers behind trends. Tastewise reveals the consumer needs, occasions, and motivations shaping demand.
• A repeatable innovation workflow. Instead of manually collecting signals from multiple sources, Kroger can rely on Tastewise as a shared platform for insight and decision-making.

With Tastewise, Kroger’s innovation team moved from slow research cycles to faster, evidence-based decision-making.

• 1 minute to insight
  Innovation teams can validate ideas instantly by checking how similar ingredients, dishes, or occasions are performing across consumer demand signals.
• $1,000s saved on concept testing
  Early-stage ideas are screened using demand signals before moving into formal consumer research.
• Stronger consumer-first innovation
  With clearer visibility into the behaviors and motivations behind food trends, Kroger can build concepts that better reflect what shoppers actually want.