Opportunity
Consumer insights guide the creation of an on-trend bakery product
A major food and beverage manufacturer in Thailand and Vietnam with expertise in extruded snacks and bakery products wanted to launch new products that would appeal to consumers with a growing appetite for fresh taste experiences. They approached Kerry APMEA to help them develop concepts that would appeal to a market open to novel flavours and formats.
Approach
Balancing health, indulgence and premiumisation with BC30®
Instead of simply creating new flavours, Kerry sought to develop a stronger, premium positioning for the customer. Primary research showed that bakery is an indulgence-driven category and brands need to keep consumers excited by innovating with unusual and luxurious flavours as well as contrasting textures. However consumers in Asia are also now seeking healthier options, even in their treats. Using Kerry Trendspotter™, our proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) tool that focuses on emerging food and beverage trends, we identified local flavours and natural ingredients, including natural sweeteners, that could be used to create “guilt-free bakery” concepts. Armed with our insights and harnessing our taste and nutrition technologies, we created and presented multiple concepts to the customer within two weeks of receiving the brief. The winning concept—a fruit-flavoured bakery item made with yoghurt and BC30 our well-researched, spore-forming probiotic—was ready for launch in approximately eight weeks. our well-researched, spore-forming probiotic—was ready for launch in approximately eight weeks.
Impact
The tasty and healthy bakery item was a first-to-market product that delivered on consumer expectations and immediately raised our customer’s brand profile.
"Kerry Trendspotter supports customer confidence in their new product development. Often, they come to us for regular updates on food and beverage trends. Trendspotter has helped us forge a closer innovative partner-customer relationship."
—Preenawan Rattananupap, Senior Marketing Manager, Kerry Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia
The Kerry Difference
Communication between our teams—including the use of Trendspotter—allowed for a short brief-to-launch turnaround. The combination of authentic fruit flavour, creamy and indulgent cheese and the probiotic ingredient BC30 ticked the boxes for trending flavour, texture and function, elevating the product to a premium position and satisfying consumer demand for healthier baked treats.