General Mills Empowers Snack Launches with Connected Innovation
In late 2011, General Mills launched Fiber One 90-Calorie Brownie, a delicious, wholesome snack available initially in two flavors, Chocolate Fudge and Chocolate Peanut Butter. In one year, those two flavors alone generated more than $100 million in retail sales. To put that in context, the industry benchmark sets a standard of $15 million for a successful new product introduction.
In 2012, the company introduced Nature Valley Protein Bars, which contain 10 grams of protein and are made from ingredients you can see and recognize, such as roasted peanuts, almonds and decadent dark chocolate. Nature Valley Protein Bars were the No. 8 item on Symphony I.R.I’s 2012 New Product Pacesetters list, which recognizes the top 100 CPG product launches each year. Additionally, the product was named “Most Innovative Product of 2013” by Consumer Goods Technology magazine.
Building on this success, General Mills launched a wide range of new grain snacks in 2013 and 2014, including Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares, Fiber One 90-Calorie Lemon Bars, and most recently, Fiber One Soft-Baked Cookies, to name a few. In 2013, Nielsen reported General Mills’ dollar share of the grain snacks category had increased 9 points since 2008, gaining share each year.
So, what do these breakthrough products all have in common?
Besides being tremendously well-received by consumers, these popular products were all launched by the General Mills Snacks division and all incorporated a significant portion of open innovation, meaning the products were developed in collaboration with strategic external partner companies.
Since launching its open innovation strategy, the General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network (G-WIN) in 2007, General Mills has challenged its teams to be more connected throughout the innovation process, both externally with outside partners and suppliers as well as internally among divisions and cross-functional teams.
One of the first divisions to embrace this new approach was the Snacks division, largely fueled by the enthusiasm of the group’s senior leadership team, including past division president Jon Nudi and Bernadette Piacek-Llanes, vice president of Innovation, Technology and Quality for the company’s Snacks platform.
“When G-WIN launched, open innovation became a priority for our Snacks platform,” Piacek-Llanes says. “We set that expectation among our teams from the start, and we rewarded them for being collaborative. We even made it people’s day jobs by creating new roles, such as the Innovation Entrepreneur, who is charged with making connections between the needs of our business and the capabilities of our external partners.”
At that time, the snacks category was rapidly growing, filled with many opportunities and pursued by a growing array of competitors. To be more nimble and agile, Nudi and Piacek-Llanes embraced the spirit of connected innovation and sponsored some of G-WIN’s early pilot projects, including one of the first wins for open innovation at General Mills, Nature Valley Fruit Bars, which were developed in partnership with a company based in Canada. Even though the product is no longer on the market, the project was a testament to the viability of open innovation.
“Looking externally brings us ideas we wouldn’t have thought of on our own, or allows us to see things in a new way,” Piacek-Llanes says. “Innovation is mission critical in Snacks as this allows us to meet the evolving needs of consumers.”
In 2012, Nudi explained the increase in snacking among U.S. consumers: “Consumers have changed what they grab for a quick refuel. Instead of mindless munching, consumers are increasingly looking for options that provide real nutritional benefits.”
Piacek-Llanes says open innovation is the key to keeping up with trends like better-for-you snacking. “We don’t have the internal expertise to do everything, which is why we need external partners to help us deliver products that meet consumer needs. We absolutely would not be as successful without open innovation.”
Today, nearly all new product launches in Snacks are externally-enabled, according to Piacek-Llanes. Below are just a few examples of the external partnerships that made some of General Mills recent new snack products possible:
In 2012, the company introduced Nature Valley Protein Bars, which contain 10 grams of protein and are made from ingredients you can see and recognize, such as roasted peanuts, almonds and decadent dark chocolate. Nature Valley Protein Bars were the No. 8 item on Symphony I.R.I’s 2012 New Product Pacesetters list, which recognizes the top 100 CPG product launches each year. Additionally, the product was named “Most Innovative Product of 2013” by Consumer Goods Technology magazine.
Building on this success, General Mills launched a wide range of new grain snacks in 2013 and 2014, including Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares, Fiber One 90-Calorie Lemon Bars, and most recently, Fiber One Soft-Baked Cookies, to name a few. In 2013, Nielsen reported General Mills’ dollar share of the grain snacks category had increased 9 points since 2008, gaining share each year.
So, what do these breakthrough products all have in common?
Besides being tremendously well-received by consumers, these popular products were all launched by the General Mills Snacks division and all incorporated a significant portion of open innovation, meaning the products were developed in collaboration with strategic external partner companies.
Since launching its open innovation strategy, the General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network (G-WIN) in 2007, General Mills has challenged its teams to be more connected throughout the innovation process, both externally with outside partners and suppliers as well as internally among divisions and cross-functional teams.
One of the first divisions to embrace this new approach was the Snacks division, largely fueled by the enthusiasm of the group’s senior leadership team, including past division president Jon Nudi and Bernadette Piacek-Llanes, vice president of Innovation, Technology and Quality for the company’s Snacks platform.
“When G-WIN launched, open innovation became a priority for our Snacks platform,” Piacek-Llanes says. “We set that expectation among our teams from the start, and we rewarded them for being collaborative. We even made it people’s day jobs by creating new roles, such as the Innovation Entrepreneur, who is charged with making connections between the needs of our business and the capabilities of our external partners.”
At that time, the snacks category was rapidly growing, filled with many opportunities and pursued by a growing array of competitors. To be more nimble and agile, Nudi and Piacek-Llanes embraced the spirit of connected innovation and sponsored some of G-WIN’s early pilot projects, including one of the first wins for open innovation at General Mills, Nature Valley Fruit Bars, which were developed in partnership with a company based in Canada. Even though the product is no longer on the market, the project was a testament to the viability of open innovation.
“Looking externally brings us ideas we wouldn’t have thought of on our own, or allows us to see things in a new way,” Piacek-Llanes says. “Innovation is mission critical in Snacks as this allows us to meet the evolving needs of consumers.”
In 2012, Nudi explained the increase in snacking among U.S. consumers: “Consumers have changed what they grab for a quick refuel. Instead of mindless munching, consumers are increasingly looking for options that provide real nutritional benefits.”
Piacek-Llanes says open innovation is the key to keeping up with trends like better-for-you snacking. “We don’t have the internal expertise to do everything, which is why we need external partners to help us deliver products that meet consumer needs. We absolutely would not be as successful without open innovation.”
Today, nearly all new product launches in Snacks are externally-enabled, according to Piacek-Llanes. Below are just a few examples of the external partnerships that made some of General Mills recent new snack products possible:
- Fiber One 90-Calorie Brownie – While at-home bakers have relied on General Mills’ brands for decades, there’s a big difference between producing world-renowned flour, baking mixes and pre-made refrigerated dough, and producing shelf-stable, ready-to-eat baked goods. This was the challenge faced by the Snacks division when it wanted to add a tasty, wholesome brownie to the Fiber One line in 2011. While the Fiber One team created the idea and concept, and General Mills’ R&D department had the expertise to make the perfect dough for this brownie, they knew that enlisting an open innovation partner would save time and reduce risk in developing the product. Ultimately, an estimated nine to 12 months was saved in terms of taking the product from concept to launch. Fiber One 90-Calorie Brownie went on to be one of the company’s most successful product launches in recent years.
- Nature Valley Protein Bars – In 1975, General Mills created the grain snacks category with the introduction of Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars. Over the years, many new formats and flavors have been added with a focus on better-for-you snacking. This legacy continued with the launch of Nature Valley Protein Bars in 2012. Nature Valley Protein Bars were the first great-tasting, high-protein snack bars created for mainstream consumers. The protein in Nature Valley Protein bars comes from ingredients you can see and recognize, like roasted peanuts or creamy peanut butter with almonds, as well as soy protein. Nature Valley Protein Bars also reflect General Mills’ open innovation strategy, as the product was developed in collaboration with several external partner companies. For instance, one external partner helped incorporate high levels of great tasting protein in the bars. Nature Valley Protein bars were named the number 8 item on Symphony I.R.I.’s 2012 New Products Pacesetters list, which recognizes the top 100 CPG product launches each year, and were named “Most Innovative Product of 2013” by Consumer Goods Technology magazine.
- Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips – While Green Giant has been a grocery-store fixture in canned and frozen vegetables for generations, last year the brand entered the snack aisle for the very first time when General Mills introduced Green Giant Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips in Zesty Cheddar flavor and Green Giant Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips in Sea Salt flavor. Part of what makes the brand’s entry into this new category so remarkable is that the chips were taken from concept to national launch in a matter of 12 months – a feat that would have been impossible were it not for General Mills’ open approach to innovation. The company’s technical team worked side-by-side with an award-winning snacks manufacturer specializing in chips to bring to life the vegetable-based chips, which were introduced to retail stores in January 2013.
- Fiber One Soft-Baked Cookie – Following the tremendous success of Fiber One 90-Calorie Brownie, General Mills has continued to expand its snack offerings under the Fiber One brand. When the innovation team set its sights on introducing a shelf-stable, soft-baked cookie, they enlisted an outside partner with an impressive expertise in producing soft-textured, packaged baked goods. Combined with the vast baking knowledge of General Mills’ own internal scientists, the teams worked together to create a remarkable product that was an immediate hit among consumers during its initial, regional launch in January 2014. Fiber One Soft-Baked Cookie will hit grocery store shelves nationally in June of this year.