Active Kids Get Cooking

Product Case Studies

There are 10 product case studies in this section and they all follow a set format: When you enter each product area you will find 6 different sections :

    1. Introduction
    2. Development story
    3. Manufacturing Process
    4. Retail placement
    5. Read the label
    6. Special Focus

Introduction

Every product in a supermarket belongs to a product family or portfolio. Food products rarely exist in isolation and therefore they have to compete with other similar products to grab attention. Biscuits for example are displayed together. Within the biscuit market there are many categories such as:

• Luxury biscuits including Taste the difference;
• Healthy choice low fat low sugar biscuits including Be Good to Yourself; 
• Basics range of low cost value for money biscuits; 
• Every day biscuits (e.g. digestives, rich tea);
• Seasonal biscuits ( Christmas and Easter);
• Chocolate coated cream filled ( custard creams, bourbons);
• Savoury biscuits (cream crackers, oatcakes, rice cakes);
• Organic
• Freefrom

Competing products

Within each range you will find a selection of branded and own label products as well as own brand. This creates plenty of choice for consumers who all shop in different ways depending upon many different factors.

These include:

• Income level
• Personal taste
• Families with young children
• Values (organics, free from, healthy eating)

Supermarket buyers work hard to ensure that there is a good choice to meet all consumer preferences. New products are constantly introduced to the market area and existing products promoted from time to time with different marketing tools such as :

• Buy one get one free
• Extra 50% free
• Buy two get third one free 
• Price reductions (25% off)

The Development Story

All products have their own unique development story. The effort and input here by the NPD team depends on how different the new product is and the ingredients and processes used in its production. The development stories here will give guidance on how to simulate developing a new product as part of your coursework. The first steps for anyone whether a student or a food product developer is to understand the market niche their product fits into e.g. 'Kids' Taste the difference or Be Good To Yourself and know what already exists within that market. You certainly don't want to waste time with an idea that has already been successfully carried out and launched. This area takes you through the way 10 different products have been researched and developed from ideas conception to launch.

Manufacturing Process

Here you will find pictures from factories of each product featured in a case study actually being made. Each image is explained as the raw ingredients arrive at the factory until the product has been made, packaged and labelled ready to be dispatched into the stores. Some case studies have more detail than others it just depends on how sensitive the company is, Food manufacturing for retailers is such a competitive business that machinery used, techniques and ingredients are often a closely kept secret. However there is more than enough detail here for you to get a sense of how products are made in industry. A lot of these you will be surprised to learn are not that different to how we make food at home but it just takes place at a larger scale with huge pans and mixers and ovens. Using this information will help you makes decisions about how your product might be made commercially.

Retail Placement

All products have a predestined place within a supermarket where they will be displayed for sale. This depends upon how they need to be cared for e.g. refrigerated (chilled ready meals), frozen (peas and other vegetables) or kept warm (Rotisserie chicken). Ready meals for example can be sold in several different formats. The most popular are chilled and sold from the chiller cabinets but you can also find ready meals in cans, in ambient stored vacuum packs and in the frozen section. Here we discuss where you will find the product featured in the case study but also where products which are similar will be found.

Read the label

All the food we eat makes a positive contribution to a healthy diet. Getting the balance of food right  ensures that our diet has the right mix of nutrients such as energy (measured in calories), fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Here each product is discussed in relation to a healthy diet. Some, you'll find are fine in small quantities and others you can eat more of as long as is it in balance with the rest of your diet.

Special focus

For each case study we take a topical subject regarding food for you to understand in more detail. For some of the case studies it helps if you read the special focus before you look at the development story as it helps contextualize why the product was developed.

Practical Skills  - It's cool to cook

You cannot work in the creative field of product development unless you have good practical skills with food. Food ingredients like any design materials behave differently when they are manipulated by adding other ingredients or by applying energy. By experimenting you can start to get a feel for why certain things happen. Knowledge of ingredients and preparation methods all play an important role in this.

Even if you don't want to work with food as a career having basic skills with food is fundamental to your ability to lead a healthy balanced life. If you can cook you won't become dependent on high fat / high salt take away or processed foods. You will have access to a more varied diet and enjoy the fun & relaxation that cooking brings with it.

Cook something new today!

Active Kids Get Cooking 2006