Innovation in CPG can take many forms, but all look to fill unmet consumer needs. Here are five major avenues that CPG companies pursue to make something new or put a twist on a classic or favorite.
- Packaging: Packaging is so important to a customer’s perception of a product. It communicates if a product is cheap or premium, easy or hard to use or open, and. Graza changed the olive oil game by packaging their product in a squeeze bottle, and then got more media attention again by putting refills in a tallboy-style aluminum can.
- Flavors: As the American palate evolves, flavor innovation can come from many different areas – other cultures or cuisines, or from one side of the grocery aisle to the other.
- Functionality: Think of this as “food plus.” Innovators take an ingredient that has some functional property and add it to a normal food or beverage to enhance it, like adding cognitive-enhancing Reishi and Lion’s Mane mushrooms to ground coffee.
- Health & Diet: Home cooks and entrepreneurs alike ask themselves, how can I take this thing I love and tweak it to fit my new diet or lifestyle? Ice cream is the perfect example: whether you want classic dairy, A2 dairy, ketogenic, protein-packed, or plant-based, you’ve got options.
- Convenience: How can a product be easier to consume, or more frequently consumed?
