Real-time insights and data-driven decision-making propel Kroger's innovation process into a rapidly changing AI landscape.

Kroger, a leading retailer in the United States, understands the critical importance of staying ahead in the fast-paced food industry. In their pursuit of maintaining a competitive edge, Kroger has partnered with [Tastewise](https://tastewise.io/platform), a cutting-edge platform that provides real-time consumer insights. By leveraging Tastewise's data-driven approach, Kroger has transformed its innovation process, achieving greater efficiency, consumer-centricity, and success.


Introduction

The food industry demands continuous innovation and a predictive understanding of ever-changing consumer preferences. In order to maintain a competitive edge Kroger needed to:

- Anticipate emerging trends and consumer demands.
- Validate ideas swiftly and effectively before investing resources.
- Align their product offerings with evolving consumer preferences.


Challenge

Tastewise emerged as the ideal solution for Kroger, addressing their innovation challenges comprehensively. By partnering with Tastewise, Kroger gained the following advantages:

- **Real-time insights for confident decision-making:** Tastewise provides Kroger with actual data to validate emerging trends and make informed decisions. With up-to-date insights, Kroger can confidently identify and explore new opportunities, ensuring their ideas cater to dynamic consumer preferences.
- **Accelerated innovation timeline: **Tastewise's one-minute turnaround time for insights enables Kroger to swiftly validate ideas and refine their product development process more efficiently. This agility allows Kroger to stay ahead of competitors by adapting to changing consumer demands and preferences promptly.
- **Consumer-centric approach: **Tastewise offers a comprehensive understanding of consumer needs and behavior. By aligning their product offerings with consumer preferences, Kroger ensures their products connect deeply with the target audience and enhance customer satisfaction.


Why Tastewise

Kroger's collaboration with Tastewise has revolutionized their innovation process. By leveraging Tastewise's platform, Kroger:

- Understanding consumer preferences: [Tastewise insights](https://tastewise.io/product-innovation) empower Kroger to exceed expectations and predict future demands. Crafting dynamic product offerings with consumer preferences in mind ensures effective adaptation to developing trends.
- Evidence-based decisions: Tastewise sheds light on consumer needs, enabling informed decisions throughout the innovation process. By relying on data, Kroger minimizes risks and increases the success of new products and initiatives.
- Streamlining decision-making: Tastewise's real-time insights and data-driven approach transform Kroger's decision-making. With evidence-based strategies, Kroger stays at the forefront of innovation in the ever-evolving food industry.

Solution

Kroger's collaboration with Tastewise has yielded significant results:

- Saved valuable time and resources: With Tastewise acting as the fourth team member, Kroger swiftly validates ideas and refines their product development process more efficiently. This high-speed insight delivery not only saves valuable time but also thousands of dollars on concept testing, with insights delivered in just 1 minute.
- Stayed ahead of competitors: By promptly adapting to changing consumer demands and preferences, Kroger has maintained a competitive edge in the food industry.
- Enhanced consumer satisfaction: By aligning their product offerings with consumer preferences, Kroger has created products that resonate deeply with their target audience, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.








Results


Ready to revolutionize your brand with data-driven decision-making? [Let’s talk](https://tastewise.io/). 

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How Kroger Harnesses Tastewise for Next-Level Success


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How Kroger Harnesses Tastewise for Next-Level Success

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The latest news, views and insights in food trends

Customer Stories

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As a strategic marketing agency, Stephan & Brady (S/B) needed:

- A faster way to do food and beverage trend research 
- To make more strategic campaign decisions 
- To back up client pitches with easily understood, real-time data when presenting new campaigns 
- To identify opportunities in the food and beverage industry that will lead to successful marketing campaigns
- To understand the consumer needs and motivations behind what people put on their plates, what they order, and how they cook


Their Challenge

- **Enhance the agency’s research abilities** - Using Tastewise, Stephen & Brady are now able to be much more efficient with their research and find actionable insights faster. 
- **Be a data-driven marketing firm** - Backing every decision, idea, recipe, marketing pitch, or client communication with real-time consumer data  positions Stephen & Brady as industry leaders.
- **Create winning marketing strategies** - Stephan & Brady use Tastewise to get inspired and find innovative ideas for new marketing campaigns, content, and social media strategies for their clients. 

The Solution

Before Tastewise, S/B spent a lot of time and effort on market research to create exciting recipes, content, and social media posts for their food and beverage industry clients. Using Tastewise, the agency is moving forward with: 

- **Smarter long and short term planning** - S/B are able to create long term and short term campaigns, content calendars, and marketing creative deliverables that drive success for their clients 
- **Faster, more successful campaigns** - The agency now saves valuable time on research by using Tastewise to access real-time consumer insights quicker 


The Impact

"Tastewise has helped us move forward a lot, more quickly and efficiently, and made us better and smarter all around."

-Mckenna Sokol, Senior Account Executive, Stephan and Brady 





The Bottom Line

How does S/B Strategic Marketing use Tastewise to uncover real-time insights into the consumer behavior that matters most to their clients? 

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How Stephan & Brady used Tastewise to become an industry- leading marketing firm


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How Stephan & Brady used Tastewise to become an industry-leading marketing firm

Ah, pickles: those salty and sour creations that we love to add to our favorite burger, dice up straight into our chicken salad, or snack straight from the jar. According to the Tastewise Index, **pickles are featured on 45% of restaurant menus** in the US. It’s hard to imagine visiting a restaurant that doesn’t include pickles as an ingredient in at least one dish on the menu.

[TreeHouse Foods](https://www.treehousefoods.com/home/default.aspx) knew exactly this when looking to reposition their already successful line of pickle products. They needed to understand what types of ingredients are paired together with pickles to create new dishes that people will be talking about — and want to put on their plates. 

In order to understand exactly how people talk about their pickle products, TreeHouse Foods needed real-time data from social media - and fast. The other methods of research that the TreeHouse team used at the time presented outdated consumer insights, and weren't reliable in a quickly changing market. Using ingredient discovery within the Tastewise Explore solution, they were able to understand what consumers wanted to eat with their pickles: fish sandwiches!

The main takeaway? The combination of fish sandwiches & pickles has grown the fastest among trending dishes. This data point became the driving force behind creating new recipes, shooting an exciting new campaign, and developing compelling sales collateral. 

TreeHouse Foods created a successful sales campaign backed by Tastewise's real consumer data - and it all started by identifying consumer excitement around the combination of fried fish sandwiches and pickles. 

This discovery influenced: 
- A creative product photo shoot 
- A new, data-backed guide suggesting pickle applications for food service vendors
- A new set of recipes shared across all teams and incorporated into sales collateral and presentations 
- Commercial materials used in food service restaurant magazines 


- Campaign (and product!) success: TreeHouse Foods succeeded in introducing a well-penetrated product to a saturated market by creating an innovative campaign for their pickle products based on data-driven insights.
- More efficient innovation processes : TreeHouse Foods also implemented new work processes before each campaign shoot to ensure that every recipe or creative idea is first backed by Tastewise’s real-time consumer data. 


How does TreeHouse Foods use Tastewise to create successful campaigns in a noisy market? 

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How Treehouse used Tastewise to put the spotlight back on their pickles sales 


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How Treehouse used Tastewise to put the spotlight back on their pickles sales 

The Waitrose innovation team needed to:

- Create dishes and concepts to inspire the culinary teams working on the supermarket’s own-label products
- Validate all new product ideas with actionable data while working under a tight schedule


Waitrose innovation team uses Tastewise to:

- Explore social media discussions to understand what excites their customers 
- Use data on consumer needs to learn about dining occasions and seasonal food trends 
- Find the most popular home-cooked dishes and curate newsletters with the perfect home cooking concepts for their monthly reports 
- Validate ideas that lead to future best-selling products  



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The Waitrose innovation team was able to:

- Create successful products such as the [classic creamy Basque cheesecake](https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-basque-cheesecake/416617-767361-767362) - a top-selling own label dessert
- Save significant time on research by accessing insights quicker 
- Successfully create widely-read monthly and seasonal internal newsletters based on real food and beverage trends 
- Improve cross-functional collaboration with the chef teams and suppliers 

“If you’ve got an ingredient and you want to know how it’s being used, it’s so easy to access this insight with Tastewise.” 

Lizzie Conlon | Innovation Manager at Waitrose 



With over 331 shops in England, Scotland, Wales, and the Channel Islands as well as a successful omnichannel business, Waitrose is committed to creating delicious own label dishes which boast quality ingredients at good value prices, to inspire and delight customers. 

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How Waitrose created a top selling, own-label dish using real-time consumer data


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How Waitrose created a top selling, own-label dish using real-time consumer data

The category team at Del Monte faces a unique challenge: it’s hard to innovate a banana. When you can’t iterate on the product, it all comes down to marketing. Del Monte is already an expert in produce harvesting, logistics, etc. but is facing a new opportunity: the need to create great new brands that bring consumers to their produce. 

How can they create branding that differentiates their banana from their competitors’?

To make matters more complicated, the category of bananas had seen a significant drop in retail sales and consumer interaction. Del Monte needed to find a way to reinvigorate the category, given steep competition from two primary competitors in the market and the rise of more specialty fruits, like super fruits, creating distraction from historically well-established categories -- like bananas. 

**Del Monte's category team needed to:**

- Create an impactful brand to get bananas in front of customers after lagging sales
- Introduce new marketing angles for produce in an oversaturated market 
- Back up their retail research with real-time consumer data



The Challenge

The solution in differentiating produce is to have a story that adds *value* to the actual ingredient (in this case, a banana). Typically, Del Monte relied on static retail data; today, they’ve also introduced Tastewise to understand what is happening in customer consumption and menu presence. 
 
**Using Tastewise, the team:**

- Validated retail insights into declining banana engagement, using consumer data from social media & recipes
- Created new innovation processes  to get accurate insights, fast - crucial for the produce category 
- Created a successful banana brand focused on fair trade, reinvigorating a stagnant category to increasing sales

The team used Tastewise to complement and reinforce insights they pulled from retail: that bananas were losing share across the board with consumers and losing traction to more popular, "trendy" fruits. This validation was the starting point needed to create a new, compelling story that would “bring bananas back to the minds of consumers”. 

This story resulted in a successful campaign introducing Del Monte's new organic banana line, which in turn increased sales of the product and brought interest back to the category. 


**The Del Monte team is now able to:**

- Approach innovation more effectively, with faster time to insight
- Use a data-driven approach for decision making
- Stand out from competitors with unique, validated market positioning 
- Quickly identify and validate market white spaces within produce categories
- Create campaigns that speak directly to consumers


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The category team at Del Monte faces a unique challenge: it’s hard to innovate a banana. When you can’t iterate on the product, it all comes down to marketing. Del Monte is already an expert in produce harvesting, logistics, etc. but is facing a new opportunity: the need to create great new brands that bring consumers to their produce. 

How can they create branding that differentiates their banana from their competitors’?

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How Del Monte created a successful, data-driven brand & increased sales with Tastewise

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**Before using Tastewise, the UNFI team needed to:**

- Extend their research capabilities beyond retail & transactional data and focus groups to capture consumer trends. 
- Access in-depth consumer data typically unavailable in static reports.  
- Monitor social media for consumer insights to stay informed about brands, industry and consumer trends.

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**The UNFI team used Tastewise to:**

- Boost their research capabilities: Tastewise offers a real-time data approach to research projects based on real consumer motivations. 
- Impact marketing strategies and sales pitches: Tastewise data inspired packaging and product photography strategies, and has elevated data insights to support sales deck presentations.
- **Hello Koyo Ramen Noodles!** UNFI successfully elevated a sales deck by integrating real-time consumer data, social media trends, and home cooking insights, to help support the placement of their Koyo products to a major retailer during a category review.

Our Solution

**The UNFI team is now able to reach:**

- Faster consumer trend insights
- More recipes & consumer usage inspiration 
- Greater insights to drive new product development


> “Once we're able to drill into Tastewise and see that the consumer needs that are coming up aligned with our product, it’s an extra layer for the sales team to help sell the product.”

**Alissa Bessette, UNFI | Brand Manager**


How does the UNFI insights and marketing team use Tastewise to identify product formulations and help guide product development based on real-time consumer insights? 

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How UNFI Was Able to Support the Placement of Their Koyo Products at a Major Retailer Using Tastewise

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For the past two years, Campbell’s marketing, insights, and foodservice teams have used Tastewise to push innovation, content strategy, and sales further in more modern and fresh ways. 

The Campbell’s team needed to:

- Improve the efficiency of their research, marketing, innovation and sales projects. 
- Back up their research with real-time consumer data.
- Introduce new marketing and sales angles for well-established products in the market.

**Using Tastewise, the team:**

- Saves valuable time by consolidating research, marketing, and food service projects under one platform. 
- Uncovers food trends, new flavor pairings, recipes, and menu innovation in significantly less time. 
- Validates insights with accurate data on consumer motivations, unique ingredients & flavors, social media trends, and more.

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**The Campbell's team is now able to:**

- Bring a modern, fresh, and data-driven approach to every stage of product development, from insight to marketing campaigns, product positioning, and content creation.
- Keep their finger on the pulse of what consumers really want to eat (& how!) and be first to market with the next best-selling soup product.

"Campbell’s team uses Tastewise in multiple stages of innovation: “From the vision to the idea, to the flavors, to how we tell consumers to use the product, and how we draw in new customers and position our brand in modern and fresh ways. Having the ability of using real-time information and know that we really have the pulse on what consumers are talking about is really instrumental and has a great impact”.

**Amanda Hershon  |  Communications Specialist**

“Speed is definitely one of the biggest benefits of Tastewise. A quick search and a couple of clicks and I’m on my way to figuring out where I need to go and what I’m looking for.”

**Greg Boggs | Senior Chef North America Foodservice**


For the past two years, Campbell’s marketing, insights, and foodservice teams have used Tastewise to push innovation, content strategy, and sales further in more modern and fresh ways.

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How Campbell's redesigned their innovation processes with an efficient, data-driven approach


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How Campbell's redesigned their innovation processes with an efficient, data-driven approach

The Givaudan Marketing and Consumer Insights teams are the vanguard of innovation at Givaudan. By keeping their finger on the pulse of consumer trends, these teams are responsible for identifying the next food & beverage flavors, colors, experiences, and more that consumers will love - and sharing them with their clients and the broader market. Within the scope of their work, the Marketing and Insights teams use consumer insights to answer customer briefs, as well as create market-leading trend reports that influence the wider industry.  

To retain their position as thought and innovation leaders committed to providing the best solutions to both their customers and the market, the Marketing and Consumer Insights teams need access to the most up-to-date information possible. 

In a rapidly changing market, this is made complicated as consumer preferences, tastes, and expectations constantly evolve.
How did Givaudan tackle these challenges to successfully answer customer briefs -- and provide market thought leadership? 

**Using Tastewise’s platform the team could:**

- Actively pitch customers with campaign ideas based on real-time flavor trends, new flavor combinations and relevant consumer motivations.
- Answer customer briefs with a unique perspective, knowledge and inspiring insights while increasing win rates.
- Have a competitive advantage and being first in the market with the right trends.
- Utilize social media insights in every 2nd research project.

**10X faster time to pitch** : The Givaudan Marketing & Consumer Insights team was able to save a significant amount of time on research and reach relevant insights 10 times faster.

**3X more briefs answered**: The Givaudan Marketing & Consumer Insights team was able to work on over 100 projects with customers over the past year. Every 2nd research project uses social media insights!

**Increased project inflow and new wins**: Thanks to a unique trend perspective and differentiating insights on consumer needs and emerging ingredients, the Givaudan Marketing & Consumer Insights team increased customer project inflow and delivered new winning solutions -- resulting in additional business growth. 

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> “We wanted to build perspective on colour trends - what does it mean to consumers in the context of food & bev categories, which colours are more popular in which product category, what are the consumer motivations and what are the ingredients trends linked to colour. Tastewise can track colour trends in social discussions, and this gives us a unique view on the latest insights on colour trends in food & beverages”.

**Tatiana Luschen, Consumer Sensory Insights Manager Innovation & Foresight Europe, Taste & Wellbeing**

> “Tastewise is the only system that actually allows us to gauge where a flavor is in terms of its evolution cycle.”

**Martinique Buys, Marketing Director UK & Ireland, Taste & Wellbeing**

Givaudan is a global leader in taste & wellbeing, providing flavor and ingredient innovation across various food and beverage categories.

Customer Stories

How Kroger Harnesses Tastewise for Next-Level Success

How Stephan & Brady used Tastewise to become an industry-leading marketing firm

How Treehouse used Tastewise to put the spotlight back on their pickles sales

How Waitrose created a top selling, own-label dish using real-time consumer data

How Del Monte created a successful, data-driven brand & increased sales with Tastewise

How UNFI Was Able to Support the Placement of Their Koyo Products at a Major Retailer Using Tastewise

How Campbell's redesigned their innovation processes with an efficient, data-driven approach

How Givaudan successfully answered customer briefs based on real-time consumer data

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