Developing savory rosti crisps at dreddo dan's

136 PART ONE DIRECTING THE OPERATION

‘ Most people see the snack market as dynamic and innova- tive, but actually it is surprisingly conservative. Most of what passes for innovation is in fact tinkering with our marketing approach, things like special offers, promotion tie-ins and so on. We occasionally put new packs round our existing prod- ucts and even more occasionally we introduce new flavors in existing ranges. Rarely though does anyone in this industry introduce something radically different. That is why “Project Orlando” is both exciting and scary. ’

Monica Allen, the Technical Vice-President of PJT’s Snack Division, was commenting on a new product to be mar- keted under PJT’s best-known brand ‘Dreddo Dan’s Surfer Snacks’. The Dreddo Dan’s brand made use of surfing and outdoor ‘action-oriented youth’ imagery, but in fact was aimed at a slightly older generation who, although aspir- ing to such a lifestyle, had more discretionary spend for the premium snacks in which the brand specialized. Current products marketed under the brand included both fried and baked snacks in a range of exotic flavours. The project, internally known as Project Orlando, was a baked product that had been ‘in development’ for almost three years but had hitherto been seen very much as a long-term devel- opment, with no guarantee of it ever making it through to market launch. PJT had several of these long-term projects running at any time. They were allocated a development budget, but usually no dedicated resources were associated with the project. Less than half of these long-term projects ever even reached the stage of being test marketed. Around 20 per cent never got past the concept stage, and less than 20 per cent ever went into production. However, the com- pany viewed the development effort put into these ‘failed’ products as being worthwhile because it often led to ‘spin- off ’ developments and ideas that could be used elsewhere. Up to this point ‘Orlando’ had been seen as unlikely ever to reach the test marketing stage, but that had now changed dramatically.

‘Orlando’ was a concept for a range of snack foods, described within the company as ‘savory potato cookies’. Essentially they were 1½ inch discs of crisp, fried potato with a soft dairy-cheese-like filling. The idea of incorpo- rating dairy fillings in snacks had been discussed within the industry for some time, but the problems of manufactur- ing such a product were formidable. Keeping the product crisp on the outside yet soft in the middle, while at the same time ensuring microbiological safety, would not be easy. Moreover, such a product would have to be capable of being stored at ambient temperatures, maintain its physical robustness and have a shelf life of at least three months.

Bringing Orlando products to market involved over- coming three types of technical problem. First, the formu-

lation and ingredient mix for the product had to maintain the required texture yet be capable of being baked on the company’s existing baking lines. The risk of developing an entirely new production technology for the offering was considered too great. Second, extruding the mixture into baking moulds while maintaining microbiological integrity (dairy products are difficult to handle) would require new extrusion technology. Third, the product would need to be packaged in a material that both reflected its brand image and kept the product fresh through its shelf life. Existing packaging materials were unlikely to provide sufficient shelf life. The first of these problems had, more or less, been solved in PJT’s development laboratories. The second two problems now seemed less formidable because of a num- ber of recent technological breakthroughs made by equip- ment suppliers and packaging manufacturers. This had convinced the company that Orlando was worth significant investment and it had been given priority development sta- tus by the company’s board. Even so, it was not expected to come to the market for another two years and was seen by some as potentially the most important new product devel- opment in the company’s history.

The project team Immediately after the board’s decision, Monica had accepted responsibility to move the development forward. She decided to put together a dedicated project team to oversee the development. ‘ It is important to have represent- atives from all relevant parts of the company. Although the team will carry out much of the work themselves, they will still need the cooperation and the resources of their own depart- ments. So, as well as being part of the team, they are also gateways to expertise around the company. ’ The team con- sisted of representatives from marketing, the development

CASE STUDY Developing ‘Savory Rosti-crisps’ at Dreddo Dan's

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CHAPTER 4 PRODUCT AND SERVICE INNOVATION 137

kitchens (laboratories), PGT’s technology centre (a develop- ment facility that served the whole group, not just the snack division), packaging engineers, and representative from the division’s two manufacturing plants. All but the manufactur- ing representatives were allocated to the project team on a full-time basis. Unfortunately, manufacturing had no one who had sufficient process knowledge and who could be spared from their day-to-day activities.

Development objectives Monica had tried to set the objectives for the project in her opening remarks to the project team members when they had first come together. ‘We have a real chance here to develop an offering that not only will have major mar- ket impact, but will also give us a sustainable competitive advantage. We need to make this project work in such a way that competitors will find it difficult to copy what we do. The formulation is a real success for our development people, and as long as we figure out how to use the new extrusion method and packaging material, we should be difficult to beat. The success of Orlando in the marketplace will depend on our ability to operationalize and integrate the various technical solutions that we now have access to. The main problem with this type of offering is that it will be expensive to develop and yet, once our competitors realize what we are doing, they will come in fast to try and out-innovate us. Whatever else we do we must ensure that there is sufficient flexibility in the project to allow us to respond quickly when competitors follow us into the mar- ket with their own ‘me-too’ products. We are not racing against the clock to get this to market, but once we do make a decision to launch we will have to move fast and hit the launch date reliably. Perhaps most important, we must ensure that the crisps are 200 per cent safe. We have no experience in dealing with the microbiological testing which dairy-based food manufacture requires. Other divi- sions of PJT do have this experience and I guess we will be relying heavily on them.’