The Challenge: The client faced stagnation in its mass market canned soup products and sought growth through new products. But new flavor combos had a very low success rate. They came to us looking for a way to increase the odds of a new product’s success.

Our Findings: Soup is a product that inspires emotional connections in its consumers. For some, a bowl of soup evokes memories—of lunch with their grandmother, or staying home from school with a cold. For many, it represents much-needed personal time. Our unique methodology revealed that these intangible qualities are as motivating to customers as taste, ingredients, labeling or brand.

Our Strategy: With our facilitation, the client designed sharper messaging and advertising focused on the emotional connections. They used this to create the concept, name and positioning for a new premium soup product.

The Results: This new product thrived as the first mass-market premium ready-to-heat soup line. It’s still growing as a brand a decade later.