Tetra Pak: ‘Our job doesn’t end until a product is a proven success in the market’
The programme includes a network of Customer Innovation Centres (CICs) now being constructed by Tetra Pak worldwide CICs in Denton, Texas, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Sweden and UAE.
Differentiation in the market place
Libby Costin, vice president, marketing, Tetra Pak, told DairyReporter it will work with customers to understand their ambition, explore potential opportunities, define its brand positioning, prototype product formulations, design the package, support the launch, evaluate consumer feedback and refine the product until it achieves market success.
“Our job doesn’t end until a product is a proven success in the market. This is a difficult task, but Tetra Pak is committed to working in close partnership with the customer,” she said.
“The biggest challenge is to develop a product that can differentiate them in the market place. We need to have a deep understanding of the strengths and challenges of each case, and see through their eyes the opportunities for growth.”
She added the launch came about following its conversations with customers.
“We know customers want us to get closer to them, advance in the strategic areas and seek business opportunities with them. They want us to support and experiment new products with them, and speed up innovation together,” she said.
“Although we have been conducting marketing activities with our customers for decades, the Marketing Services programme is a step up in terms of providing an end to end approach.”
Five stages to complete
The Marketing Services programme will work with one customer at a time and the number of participants is dictated by the nature of the work in each case, from two to 50 members of an organization.
It comprises five stages; “diagnose, discover, refine, deliver and evolve”.
Within these five stages there are several modules including immersion in customer and cultural insights, brainstorming and ideation, product positioning, formulation development and testing.
At the end of the journey it should be able to come up with a customized consumer product.
At the same time, Marketing Services activities have been designed as modules. Customers can choose to go through all modules with Tetra Pak, or select only what’s most relevant to them.
The ‘one-stop shop’ gives a customer immediate access to all competences and expertise for a successful product launch, helping to increase the speed to market and reduce costs.
Positive feedback
“We have already conducted the Marketing Services programme and modules with a number of customers and have received extremely positive feedback,” said Costin.
“Customers tell us these activities helped them to combine a foundation of data with creative intelligence to find new ways to crack their challenges.
“The cost of these activities depends on which services are used and to what scale, so it is established on a case-by-case basis.”
Each CIC is fitted with tools and technologies to support brainstorming, research, product design and development, and formulation testing but the program can be delivered at businesses’ offices or anywhere with the space to accommodate the workshops.
