Did you know the frozen food space is $5.2 billion dollar industry, and according to our friends over at Mintel, 70% of consumers are adding more frozen foods to their daily diets and consumption habits. What does this mean for your food ideas? We are thrilled to announce a new three part virtual series in collaboration with our partners, Conagra Brands! Interested in learning more about how big brands think about innovation? Join Demand Science, R&D and Marketing experts from Conagra Brands in August for a webinar series on Behind the Glass Door: Succeeding in the Freezer Aisle. This series will cover how Conagra thinks about identifying and solving for latent demand, product design implications, and distribution and marketing activities to drive mental and physical availability. Each session will include content highlights plus time for Q&A.
This session will focus on the following topics:
Designing the Product and Packaging
- Define: we start by defining the design parameters
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- Landscape, category trends, competitive analysis & cuttings
- Restaurant & culinary inspiration
- Rapid, iterative prototyping
- Product design brief; defining job-to-be-done & key attributes…clarity on 4P’s to define the product solution/COGS
- Feasibility & capability assessment
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- Design: we develop the food and packaging solution
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- Food Design Process Overview
- Design process; benchtop prototyping, cuttings & feedback, tech feasibility & testing…feedback loop to get the feedback needed
- Key design considerations; consumer experience, functional benefits, nutritionals, allergens, cost, shelf life, technical feasibility, sustainability, customer requirements, food safety & quality, regulatory, heating instructions
- Food Design Process Overview
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- Packaging Design Process Overview
About the presenters:
Sowmia Sridhar is a Demand Science Director for the Complete Meals team at Conagra Brands, spanning the Frozen and Grocery sectors. Her group is responsible for synthesizing behavioral, retail and food service data to create demand-driven innovation strategy for brands such as Healthy Choice, Marie Callender’s, Banquet and Gardein. Prior to joining Conagra Brands in 2017, Sowmia led Insights for Pediatric Nutrition at Abbott Nutrition International, and built shopper insights capabilities at Cavendish Farms, a Canadian frozen foods company. She also has an extensive Insights background across multiple categories and geographies from Procter & Gamble. Sowmia holds an MBA from Xavier University and a BBA/BA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Erica Bell is a R&D Director who leads the Snacks & Baking Food Design Group for Conagra Brands. Her team is responsible for creating and scaling up Snacks products through full-scale production and commercialization for brands like Orville Redenbacher, Slim Jim, and Duncan Hines. Prior to joining Conagra Brands in 2016, Erica worked for both Fuji Food Products and Dotta Foods International in Los Angeles, CA where she was able to experience working in a fast-paced, startup environment. Erica has extensive hands-on experience developing Frozen products based on her previous role at Conagra Brands, where she initially started her career. Erica graduated from Creighton University with her MBA and from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with her B.S. in Food Science.
Christie Crouch is a Vice President & General Manger for Conagra Brands. She has oversight for many of Conagra’s Refrigerated & Frozen brands including Birds Eye Vegetables and Meals, Marie Callender’s and Healthy Choice Desserts, and Reddi Wip Whipped Toppings. Christie joined Conagra Brands in January 2019 bringing more than 15 years of experience in the branded food business. Most recently, she served as the Senior Director for Kellogg’s flagship Special K brand following a variety of business leadership roles in Kellogg’s with increasing responsibility. She started her packaged foods career at Kraft Foods building brands within the Cheese & Dairy portfolio including the Kraft Natural Cheese mega-brand. Christie holds an M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
