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Company
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Fresh Creations
About the company In 1996, Sainsbury's employed a team of specialists to create a department of food excellence and innovation called the Food Centre. Here they develop their own label products, in-store leaflets, on-pack recipes and undertake quality and sensory testing. Historically, own label product development was led by suppliers. They presented their ideas to Sainsbury's buyers who adopted or rejected them. In addition, they now employ development chefs to work with the buyers, bringing specialist expertise to the development process. The team of product development and marketing specialists work together to consider the best ways to promote, enhance and develop products within every sector of the store. For more information about the work of new product development at Sainsbury's, click here.
back
to top He felt there was a niche for
a do-it-yourself 'meal kit'. This would be a meal that was sold partly
prepared, but would have the 'fresh-cooked' taste that is often missing
from ready meals. The preparation would need to be completed by the
consumer, but would be quick and simple to do. The idea needed a further trigger
and this came from the Sainsbury's fish department who knew from research
that consumers below the age of 35 were not regular purchasers of fish.
They were happy to choose fish from a restaurant or take-away menu,
but less able or willing to prepare it at home. Stephen was asked to come up with
some fishy ideas that would appeal to this younger, affluent market.
There were already plenty of prepared fish products on sale, so it needed
to be something more unusual and original. The 'meal kit' idea seemed
a perfect solution. Sainsbury's had been criticised in the trade press
for copying, rather than leading, innovations in the chilled food sector
and wanted to do something to improve this image. One of the unique
selling points of this product would be its closeness in taste, quality,
appearance and texture to the original dishes prepared by the development
chef. This attention to detail in the development of the range was carried
out by a team at Hazelwood Foods who manufacture the product for Sainsbury's.
back
to top The format for each product in
the range would be: The meal kit would
be packaged in 'easy grab' transparent boxes, rather like take-away
boxes. Each kit would serve one and be priced between £3.79 & £4.99.
The range was to be 'idiot proof' for the consumer to prepare, so it
had three simple cooking instructions for either conventional oven or
microwave (75% of UK households own a microwave). When
the first samples were shown to buyers, the company realised that they
may be on to something big. It was suggested that they might launch
a whole range of 'meal kits' featuring meat and poultry as well as fish.
The marketing department decided to commission some research, because
the concept would cost the company a significant amount to develop.
A key part of this
research was to show factory samples to consumers to gauge their reactions
to the product concept and packaging: Research was undertaken
in three areas of England - Staines, Central London & Birmingham. Different
households were targeted, egs. pre-family, main-Sainsbury's shoppers
and post-family, secondary-Sainsbury's shoppers. The main findings of
the research were : Other research
already conducted in 1998 was also used, because it related to the consumption
of convenience foods:
back
to top Many of the dishes, eg. risotto
cakes, were made individually by hand. This is extremely labour intensive,
but necessary for the freshly prepared, 'hand-made' image. The type
of equipment used in the production of this type of product is less
automated or 'high-tech' than might be imagined. This is because the
volume of output is much lower than for standard product lines. Also
because the recipes could be abandoned or changed at any time. High-tech
machinery is not always flexible enough to cope with this level of uncertainty
and so is a less appropriate choice, as well as being expensive.
This product range presented a
challenge to the manufacturer as all three components of the 'meal kit'
had to be treated and processed in completely different ways. The main
factor was that all elements must take no longer than 10 minutes to
prepare and that the cooking instructions had to include both microwave
and conventional cooking guidelines. Some vegetables, egs. green beans
and broccoli, were left raw with a little water in the base for microwaving,
or with instructions to cook conventionally (ie. steaming or boiling).
Vegetables that were pre-cooked were carefully timed so that they would
be of the best possible eating quality even after being re-heated.
Some individual recipes presented
a challenge, eg. a sea trout used for a recipe dish was not recognised
by consumers and they were wary of it. They understood trout to be pink
and tender with small, thin fillets. The sea trout being trialled was
the size of salmon which was not what consumers expected, so the product
was renamed chunky trout. A change in name has helped gained sales and
consumer confidence. All products were developed with a 4-5 day shelf
life. This was not achieved with the risotto cakes which went soggy
during shelf life tests and did not present well after 2-3 days. They
were, therefore, withdrawn after an initial trial period.
About
the marketing Originally 20 recipe ideas were
put forward of which 12 ended up in the first product launch. So, for the first products in
the range, the team stuck to more traditional style recipes and developed
more radical ideas later, when the range was extended. This was an interesting decision
considering that the range was being marketed directly at the young,
pre-family and single household market who were most likely to be more
adventurous with their choice of food. These are people who have little
time to spend preparing food ('time poor') or who simply do not want
to spend their spare time in the kitchen. Packaging design is an integral
part of product development. Packaging designers were asked to develop
the product pack from an idea the development team brought back from
Japan. They had been on a tour of Japan to investigate its food, products
and culture. They were impressed with the simplicity and elegance of
aluminium lunchboxes (oblong with three tiers or compartments) seen
there. The design team were asked to focus on this idea, but to use
clear plastic instead of aluminium because the product was to be visible.
The product information was to
be presented on labels around the product, not on the bottom of the
pack. This was to avoid consumers turning the pack upside down to read
the product information, then putting the product back on the shelf
with the clear film smeared with the contents. This had to be avoided,
since the packaging is used to sell the product, as well as to protect
the contents. Fresh Creations is no longer available at Sainsbury's because it was
discontinued, but it is still an interesting example of how a product
range is developed. About
issues and values A much wider variety of fresh
foods is now available in the UK due to advances in technology and design.
Many of these foods are also convenience foods, which means that those
who do not want to spend too much time in the kitchen can eat conveniently,
but still enjoy fresh foods. But how much innovation and how many new
products do consumers need and want? Does the food industry respond
to consumer need, or does it encourage consumers to respond to the retailer's
need to sell increasingly more products? The food industry is, after
all, in the business of being commercially successful and making money.
Making
use of the case study - things to think about and do
buying a dish from one of
these ranges a single business person who
works long hours
Further
useful resources ©foodforum.org.uk
2000. All rights reserved |
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The
protein element would be pan fried. Cooking time from start to finish
would be 10 minutes. The consumer could also put some of their preference
into the dish, eg. by choosing to cook their steak rare, medium or well
done in the case of fillet of beef with wild mushroom sauce.
The
key factors controlling the selection were set by the development team,
according to what they thought would and would not sell. They were concerned
about the range being considered too 'new wave' (trendy). Sainsbury's
has tended to stick to more traditional style products and was concerned
that they would be unsuccessful if they left this safety net.