Insights: food trend scouting
- Qualitative interviews via street research (food truck)
- International literature, studies & current trade press
- Trend Scouting (Desk Research & Store Checks)
We conceive and design for the love of food. Food packaging design and innovation would be unthinkable without the daily exploration of flavors, products and concepts. That’s why we keep our eyes open and actively monitor product assortments, consumer trends, media usage patterns and food design trends.
Everyone is talking about user-centered design. But how do you do that in times of shorter product life cycles? We provided an answer with our Top Tool and were awarded for it. The idea: We combine street interviews about our food truck with design sprints and rapid prototyping. This is how concepts are created on the basis of real customer opinions – directly and in the shortest possible time.
And it teaches us again and again the value of listening. Brands and designers need to listen precisely to consumers and take their wishes on board. Our imperfect, early-stage “street” testing atmosphere allows us to talk to people in an informal setting and to cut through the jargon. Sometimes this can hurt – for example when a concept that we loved is torn to pieces by the “user” in our tests. But nothing saves more money than throwing out a bad idea before it is developed further. It allows you to focus your budget on the right activities and ideas. One of the basic principles of agile working: no nonsense!
In addition, we are quite simply interested in food and its markets around the world. So our Food Lab also serves as a source of inspiration for the design team. Because that’s where we come into contact with real food as part of the regular team tastings in Frankfurt. Here we get to the heart of the matter: the food itself in all its natural beauty – long before it needs packaging and branding. All right: Maybe we already have pictures in the back of our minds when we get to taste the latest innovations from the Food Lab. In any case, it sharpens the senses and adds great value to the design process.
Our Material Lab also shows us the way to think further as F&B packaging designers in a neo-ecological way. Not every project is suitable for the specific use of unusual materials. Often it must be the best possible standard. But we are convinced that soon many of our current Material Lab “stars” will have become the new standard. The nutrition turnaround is moving forward. And we are the partners of change. We look forward to exciting years ahead through 2030. There will be a lot of testing. The “first movers” are the winners of this period and our top tool makes it possible to be in front.
Everything starts with an idea
