Launching a Premium Hot Smoked Seafood range in M&S
A case study in how to go that extra mile for private label Retail buyers…
Last month (April 2022) Marks & Spencer’s launched a new range of premium hot smoked salmon, mackerel and prawns, within their Collections range.
The launch was the culmination of a new approach to NPD taken by supplier Associated Seafoods (A.S.) based in Buckie on the Moray Firth coast in the North of Scotland.
Exceeding buyer expectations
When they received a standard M&S brief for a new premium salmon range, the team at A.S. decided it was time to try a new approach to innovation and NPD.
Their aim was not only to meet the brief, but to exceed the expectations of the M&S team. It was seen as an opportunity to become even more valuable as a key private label supplier, and to protect and further establish their relationship with M&S.
Insight-driven Innovation (IDI)
A.S. enlisted the support of Edinburgh-based Innovation agency TRKR, firstly to help the team challenge their thinking about the new products, and especially about the target audience.
Rather than a product-led approach of suggesting new flavours and manufacturing techniques, the team instead focused on the needs of the M&S shopper and devised a new Premium Top-tier concept range based around meeting those needs.
Hopefully in a way that would be better than other Premium ranges such as Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference and Tesco Finest.
The 2nd phase of the project was to get direct insight and feedback from 1,000 fish and seafood shoppers across the UK, including M&S shoppers.
Deep-dive category insight
From their survey, A.S. were able to provide the buyers at M&S with new category insight, over and above the standard EPOS market data, including:
The attitudes and motivation of M&S fish and Seafood shoppers, why did they choose certain products
Specifically behaviour towards new products
Customer segmentation across the range of products
Understanding who shopped elsewhere for these products i.e. outside of M&S, and why
The survey also gave A.S. direct feedback (and a huge thumbs up) on the new proposition. This enabled them to fine-tune some of the features on both the product and packaging, as well as a robust understanding of who would be more likely to buy it and what flavours they would prefer.
Why choose you?
Through the IDI process, A.S. were able to identify why consumers would choose the new range and articulate this to the Buyer.
Perhaps more importantly, A.S. gave the Buyer new reasons to choose the company as a trusted and valued supplier.
Neil Greig, Commercial Director emphasised the benefits of the new approach “taking an Insight-driven approach to NPD not only got the team thinking more about the end-shopper, but also about how we could go that extra mile for the team at M&S, which ultimately is good for Associated Seafoods as well as for M&S shoppers”.
Interested in taking a similar approach to NPD?
This is just one example of the outcomes our clients achieve by taking an Insight-driven approach to Innovation with TRKR. Please get in touch to find out more.