Client

Stern-Wywiol Gruppe

Sector

Food & Beverage, Corporate Startup, for-profit

Briefing

Create a new product, brand and eCommerce business for a functional food product from scratch.

Challenge

Identifying an addressable market niche and bringing an eCommerce infrastructure to it, crafting an attractive brand and gaining traction in a saturated market environment.

My Role

Lead Project Manager with strategic and operational responsibilities in user research, product development, brand strategy, marketing and eCommerce infrastructure as well as team building.

Process

Design Thinking phases: Understand, Explore, Materialise

Duration

2018-2020

Phase 1: Understand

User story: what is the job users seek to accomplish?

Job-to-be-done 

Users seek control over ingredients and taste of beverages as situations and preferences change, e.g. at home vs. away.

Gains

- Easy and convenient energy intake
- Control over nutritional balance
- Source to get plant-based proteins
- Substitute non-dairy milks

Pains

- Packaging waste
- No control over ingredients
- No control over nutritional value
- Once opened, product expires quickly 

Problem Statement

Users face a convenience dilemma to get the job done: either ready-to-drink at the cost of packaging waste or diy drinks at the cost of time.

Research Methods

Insights and personas drawn from an ethnographic field study with 14 participants, their food diaries and store observations.

Persona workshop in collaboration with Barbara Blenski (innoshot.com)

Defining Personas

Mainly associated with the lifestyle of health and sustainability.

Age range

Between 25 and 45

Food types

Plant-based, local and ethically responsible consumption

Motives

Reduce carbon foodprint, increase animal welfare, healthy food for the family.

Phase 2: Explore

Creating the desired experience for our personas

The problem statement framed the playing ground for product ideation.

Solution Statement

Organic plant-based drinking powders that can be mixed with water and portioned as well as sweetened as users prefer.

Value proposition

The user stays in control and reduces the packaging and food waste as the powder stays fresh for months.

Ideation workshop in collaboration with Barbara Blenski (innoshot.com)

Testing concept desirability 

50% like the concept and would buy the product when the price is okay. 

Online survey results

50% would use the product and 50% wouldn’t use it as they find drinking powders to be unnatural.

Main purchase criteria:

Organic, no artificial ingredients, whole and healthy, natural taste, sustainable and self portionable, nice design

Usage motives:

- As milk substitute for muesli, shakes and smoothies
- Use as flour substitute for plant-based baking
- When out of home and without refrigerator

A/B Testing: Product & Brand positioning, story telling & packaging design

68% preferred a product positioning as plant drinks in a humanised packaging design

Survey design

We surveyed 400 participants from the target audience via app-based real-time research with Appinio.

A more functional design showing ingredients and suiting colours.

Phase 3: Materialise

The Kate & Carl plant drink powders ready to market viably & feasibly

Brand & packaging design for a digital first communication 

Animated characters tell the product lifestyle story across digital touchpoints.

Social Design

Brand and packaging design in collaboration with Bureau Elias Sturm
Webshop design and development in collaborartion with herrlich media
Social design in collaboration with Valerie Voss Contreras
Photos: Til Wagner, Unsplash

© 2022 Jan-Willem Böttjer