McCain Snacking: Ushering in an age of innovation for frozen snacks
The Situation
McCain had entered a licensing partnership to develop a new line of frozen snacks. On paper, the deal was a perfect match – McCain provided the food production capabilities, while their partner provided a household name snack brand that consumers already knew and loved.
However, McCain lacked a cohesive plan for how to actually merge these two worlds. They didn't have a clear product development pipeline or a strategy to market this new product line in a way that could live up to the reputation of the household name.
The Task
Our mission was to create a strategic "master plan" that could help McCain develop products that live up to the household name, while building a cohesive brand identity that turned this collection of products into a powerhouse frozen snack franchise.
The Challenge
Our research revealed a deep emotional consumer tension. People were starved for excitement, but felt guilty about splurging on fun purchases. They were constantly trying to justify their search for joy, and often settled for cheap novelty snacks to fill the emotional void without breaking the bank.
Unfortunately for us, the frozen aisle was not part of their thrill-seeking journey. To them, frozen snacks were not an "affordable luxury" so much as a sad compromise – something to eat only when they were tired, broke, or busy.
The opportunity was clear. Consumers were looking to snacks for a hit, but the current frozen snack landscape was too pragmatic and uninspired to deliver it.
The Solution
We interrogated both brands, touring McCain's production facilities to understand technical limits and innovation capabilities, and auditing the licensing partner's brand DNA to understand what made it a household name.
We realized that at the core of our offering was a mutual obsession with cheese and all the things that can be done with it. The pursuit of "Absurdly Cheesy Satisfaction" became the foundation of our innovation platform.
With Absurdly Cheesy Satisfaction as our North Star, we created a set of innovation principles that would ensure every product in our pipeline could deliver the novelty hit that consumers were missing from the frozen aisle. These innovation principles accounted for changing food trends, but also tapped into McCain's operational strengths.
The Results
By approaching McCain's licensing deal through the lens of brand strategy and product innovation, we delivered:
A 3-year pipeline designed to meet consumer needs. We provided McCain with an actionable product pipeline designed to deliver absurdly cheesy satisfaction and fill the "emotional void" in the near term. The product ideas were so compelling that McCain greenlit one of the concepts for their R&D test kitchen just weeks after our proposal.
A long-term vision that upended frozen perceptions. By anchoring our innovation pipeline in "absurdly cheesy" experiences, we ensured that future products would be seen as an exciting choice – shifting our frozen snacks from a sad meal to a fun treat.
A unified powerhouse franchise. The Absurdly Cheesy Satisfaction platform gave McCain a way to translate a household name brand into product innovation in the freezer aisle. Every new product and campaign can now feel like part of an exciting snack franchise rather than a collection of disconnected licensed items.