McCain
2015, U.K.
Brought an aging staple down a new shopping aisle.
Overview
McCain, the global frozen food manufacturer, asked Bow & Arrow to look for a NPD outside the frozen food aisle, where they called home for over 50 years. Along with rapidly changing consumer behaviours, we had the opportunity to help them explore uncharted territories and create meal time relevance again.
Brief
As a growth consultancy focused on innovation, it was vital to create a product that spanned multiple dimensions:
Create a successful business proposition for the McCain portfolio.
Create relevance for the brand in the chilled aisle.
Engage with a new audience.
Data showed McCain was missing out on market share by not engaging with an emerging type of shopper - small households without kids, who shop impulsively for the meal of the night, often on the lookout for new flavours and aspiring meal options.
Process
Over 3 months, I led an immersive process for our team to innovate a new product that included workshops with McCain’s R&D team, supermarket analysis, ethnographic research with prospective consumers, deep dives into consumer trends and behaviours and obviously, tasting lots of potato-based products.
Outcome
Drawing inspiration from restaurant trends and emerging home cooking techniques, we launched two new McCain ranges aimed at small households: McCain Shake Shake Fries, a new packaging format with exciting flavours encouraging consumers to shake up their mealtimes. And McCain Gourmet Chips: seasoned crispy Triple Cooked Chips, focused on recreating a premium restaurant experience at home.
We designed the packaging to signal a step-change in McCain's products whilst retaining the brand’s existing equity. In order to appeal specifically to customers looking for a more special in-home meal, it was important to move away from conventional packaging formats. And instil fun and convenience to cooking.
Results
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Since launch Shake Shake Fries have sold over 2.7M units with sales of £4.5M and have won 6% share of the chilled potato category.
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DBA Design Business Effectiveness Awards 2018 Bronze Prize