Meeting the market – how COVID has changed consumers

FaBA Innovation Pathways Program Lead Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy explains why understanding consumer preferences is vital for ingredient and product development.

What is the Innovation Pathways Program?

Innovation Pathways takes a holistic approach to assist organisations to accelerate their growth to market. The program has three components – the Insights Engine, Impact Foundry and Design Accelerator – which allow us to work with organisations of all sizes in different stages of their maturity.

The Insights Engine enables us to consider current trends, the marketplace and what consumers are most interested in. By identifying consumer trends, such as sustainability and a desire for more nutritious foods, we can then drill down into the possibilities for individual market segments for an organisation, and then help design what’s missing in the market.

You mention a focus on sustainability and nutritious foods. Are consumers more focused on these things?

COVID has changed a lot of things in our world. What we saw in COVID was people going back to basics – many people looked at the source of their food and started their own fruit and vegetable gardens. Restrictions meant people were doing more home cooking and home entertaining. They had the time to focus on what they ate and the traceability of food.

Will these trends continue?

Researchers are already finding evidence that these are global trends across not just Australia but in the US, Europe and Asia. There are now very discerning segments in each of those markets.

How does the Innovation Pathways program use this information to help businesses?

The interface between academe and industry is crucial for addressing important, real-world problems. Manufacturers can develop all sorts of new products, but they are of no benefit if there is no market for that product. The work we do can make a real difference and help businesses to target their energies because we provide evidence-based data insights.

I’m really excited that this program brings marketing, businesses, the customer and researchers to the same table. Working with our colleagues in food science, bio-engineering and chemical engineering, we can then help businesses to develop new products and ingredients that we know should appeal to the market and assist in identifying the best business model.

What would you say to a small business considering working with FaBA?

FaBA is well placed to pull together a team that is ideally suited to help businesses of all sizes with their pain points. For small businesses, we can provide a depth and breadth of experience to undertake a range of work that otherwise might not be possible without the considerable investment of the Federal Government through the Trailblazer Program.