Mondelēz International goes new ways

SnackFutures Innovation Hub develops innovative snacking concepts

04-Oct-2021 - Germany

Vegan snack bars made from "saved" ingredients and hearty snack balls made from organic raw materials - the SnackFutures Innovation Hub of Mondelēz International is currently testing forward-looking snacking solutions in German supermarkets. In doing so, SnackFutures is pursuing the goal of developing novel snacking solutions and business models that lie outside the core business. The mission of SnackFutures is in line with Mondelēz International's ambition to offer people the right snack at the right time and done in the right way.

Following its own claim of "Leading the Future of Snacking", Mondelēz International launched the SnackFutures Innovation Hub in Germany in 2020. In the US, where the SnackFutures program originated back in 2018, innovative snacking products - such as CaPao and DirtKitchen - are now on the market for further development and testing. In Germany, the team is currently piloting different snacking concepts and brands. Among other things, market-ready prototypes are being test-listed in selected German supermarkets.

"This gives us the opportunity to validate concepts under real-life conditions early in the innovation process and determine a general product-market fit. We optimize the concepts based on the direct feedback from consumers and retailers. We call this approach Transactional Learning," says Kai Thornagel, who heads the SnackFutures Hub Germany.

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How retailers benefit from the product tests

Products that the team is now testing in the market using this approach are, on the one hand, a vegan snack bar made from "saved" ingredients that are left over from the production of fruit juices and almond milk. And secondly, savoury snack balls, which are made from organic and vegan ingredients and aim to provide an alternative in the savoury snack sector. These pilot products will also test different branding and design concepts for the products. The products will be given different brand appearances and packaging designs, some of which will differ significantly in style, tonality and core messages. In this way, it becomes clear which product-design-brand combinations find the greatest acceptance with which target group.

On the choice of testing methods at SnackFutures, Thornagel explains, "For us, there is no one methodological approach to validating concepts. We always think backwards from the consumer and hypothesize when, how and where consumers want to find a certain snacking solution. The methods must be able to prove or disprove these hypotheses in the real environment. For example, we were also able to validate concepts in personalized nutrition that included interactive elements using digital prototypes."

As for how SnackFutures Hub Germany will proceed, Thornagel explains, "In addition to launching our own innovative snacking solutions, we will focus more on closing partnerships with startups."

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1172972/mondelz-international-goes-new-ways.html