Illuminating Intense Snacking Occasions

Challenge

Helping a food and beverage company map and illuminate occasions where people gravitate towards spicy foods to uncover drivers, motivations and desires to inform future comms and innovation.

Our client, a global food and beverage company, wanted to turn up the heat on their comms and innovation. They came to us to help map out all the occasions where people reach for spicy food, and dive deep into the most promising occasions that would unlock new opportunities in the future.

Approach

First, through a factor and cluster analysis, we uncovered the landscape of human-centric motivations underlying spicy food occasions – illuminating situational context and differences between spicy meals and snacks.

Then, we dialled up the intensity, and brought the motivations that represented the biggest opportunities for the brand to life. We conducted digital diaries to deeply understand the underlying motivations and nuances of each occasion, uncovering their desired sensory experiences, current solutions, and unmet needs that could be used in service of comms and innovation.

Impact

Our report identified two occasions that offered immediate opportunity for future comms and innovation, and illuminated a path forward for acquisition.