Food R&D: Are Consumer Insights the Missing Ingredient?
When it comes to food, innovation is crucial for standing out on the shelf and on the menu. But too often, R&D teams rely solely on industry trends or product capabilities, overlooking what their consumers actually want.
Consumer insights—real, actionable feedback from the people who use your products every day—are the key to bridging this gap. Companies that systematically integrate consumer insights into R&D report faster development cycles, lower costs, and higher market success, according to McKinsey & Company. In food service and CPG, where consumer expectations are dynamic and highly specific, staying relevant means prioritizing consumer research at every step of the process.
At Inquisitive, we’ve had the pleasure of designing multiple food studies aimed at driving edible innovation and we’ve seen R&D teams leverage insights in a few important ways:
1. Challenge Assumptions
Consumer insights are essential for ensuring that you’re creating products that reflect actual consumer preferences rather than generalized assumptions. By dimensionalizing your consumer and understanding what drives their choices—whether it’s convenience, health, indulgence, or sustainability—consumer research helps create products that meet real needs.
For instance, a recent surge in plant-based eating has driven demand for innovative meat alternatives and dairy-free products. But not all consumers are looking for the same thing. Some seek a flavor that mimics traditional products, while others want clean-label ingredients or unique flavors. Consumer insights can guide R&D teams to understand the nuances of these preferences, allowing them to create plant-based products that resonate deeply with their target audience.
2. Reduce Risk
A failed launch to a mass audience is an expensive mistake – that’s why we always recommend testing product ideas with consumers early. Just because you see it in a trend report, doesn’t guarantee that it will resonate with your customers.
McKinsey confirms that incorporating consumer feedback throughout the R&D process leads to faster development cycles and reduced costs. By using consumer insights to validate ideas early on, brands can narrow their focus to concepts that resonate with consumers, ultimately saving both time and money. Iterative testing—where consumers taste, sample, and react to products at multiple stages—ensures that every flavor, texture, and ingredient aligns with consumer expectations.
3. Refine Positioning
We all know that when it comes to food, presentation and messaging can be just as important as the products themselves. R&D teams can use insights to inform the way that food gets talked about, ensuring that new offerings connect with consumers on a meaningful level.
For example, if your customer is looking for that perfect cross-section between quick and healthy, R&D can collaborate with marketing to position new menu items accordingly. Additionally, consumer insights can help identify which product attributes and claims—such as ”high-protein,” “organic” or “locally sourced”—are most important to your audience. (Or, as we recently found in one of our consumer studies, whether your audience actually needs to see the number of grams of protein in a product in order to believe that something is good for them.)
4. Anticipate Future Trends
In addition to the immediate benefits of infusing consumer insights into R&D, teams can also realize longer-term benefits when research is conducted on an ongoing basis. The ability to compare consumer behaviors and preferences over time allows teams to track the way that trends are playing out among their unique consumer base. This can be especially helpful when trying to evolve to meet the needs of the next generation of consumers.
Sustainability is a timely example here. For years, consumers have been saying they are looking for brands who share their commitment to making more environmentally-friendly decisions. However, that has not translated into a willingness (or ability) for every consumer to pay more for sustainable products in every category or context. Some brands have been better off making incremental moves toward more sustainable processes and/or ingredients based on understanding the priorities of their specific audience. This strategy can preserve bandwidth (and budget) to stay on top of other emerging trends.
Ready to embrace consumer feedback as part of your R&D process? Let’s talk.
