Fix & Fogg - Who stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?

Background

Fix and Fogg and Cookie Time wanted to team up to produce a co-branded nut butter. The end result - an irresistible collaboration of crushed Cookie Time Cookies and creamy Fix & Fogg Peanut Butter.

Challenges

As well as the typical challenges of developing a colab such as consumer expectations of taste and appearance, other significant issues were a tight Timeline, Material Costs, achieving the target Net Weight, and ensuring the end product didn't separate.

Solutions

On a joint project like this it was imperative to have very clear lines of communication and a well defined project brief and timeline! Identifying all the activities and expectations that needed to take place betweeen the two companies, from finalising the recipe through to the launch, was time well spent.

Establishing a critical path to commercialisation allowed the team to prioritise the key drivers and focus their resources to meet the strict deadline.

With no time available to undertake consumer taste testing during development, the team were heavily reliant on Marketing from both companies knowing their consumers' tastes and preferences. At every itteration of development, both Marketing teams were presented with samples for tasting and feedback until the final recipe was settled on.

Material Costs, or more specifically a Bill of Materials cost, was set at that start of the development work. This forced the development work to be more focused, so quick decisions could be made on what ingredients were in and what were out based on their cost.

The net weight in this range of product is typically 275g. It was established early on in the development work that the density would not allow for 275g to fit in the jar. Formulating to compensate for this was an option but the end product would not have been a creamy consistency as expected by consumers. After careful consideration, it was found the solution here was to not sacrifice the quality of the product, but drop the net weight by 4% to 265g.

The process of oils and solids separating, known as syneresis, is completely safe but it's still irritating! By initiating shelf life testing early in development, the team were able to recognise any potential issues. By engaging with ingredient suppliers and their expertise, any separation was then addressed and eliminated.

Results

When the launch date was unexpectedly brought forward 6 weeks, understanding the impact and reevaluating the timeline was a straight forward process. Having identified key drivers and their impact on the timeline, the team were able to react in a controlled way, rather than scramble to find solutions.

By way of regular communication via weekly project meetings and updates, the project was kept well on track and the launch was successful.

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