Culinology - December 2019 - 44

PETITS fours

How 'design thinking' influences
Mars Wrigley R&D
"Design thinking" is described as a way to
unleash people's full creative energies, win
their commitment and improve processes. It
is a non-linear process with a cross-functional
team that explores consumer insights and
tests and retests prototypes. It's a process
that the innovation team at Mars Wrigley's
headquarters in Chicago has been using for
about the past seven years to drive value in
its brands.
Lisa Saxon Reed,
global director sensory at Mars
Wrigley, a division
of Mars, Inc., said
design thinking is an
innovation journey that
puts the needs and
wants of consumers
at the center of
all creative and
organizational efforts. It
solves a problem, one
that may not be defined
or even unknown.
"Design thinking is both a mindset and a
human-centered method for the practical,
creative resolution of complex problems,"
said John-Paul Doyle, senior creative
director - innovation with Bluedog Design,
LLC, Chicago, a consultancy focused on
developing strategic insights.
Products developed using the design
thinking approach should garner shoppers'
attention, attract interest and deliver value
to the user. Design thinking is a powerful
problem-solving process, Mr. Doyle said.
It involves understanding unmet customer
needs through empathy and immersion,
reframing problems, ideation, prototyping,
and iterative testing and learning. It is much
more than like or dislike.
"Make the idea real," Ms. Saxon Reed
said. "Make the product. Give it to people to
try. Get it into people's hands. Then adjust;
make it again. Repeat."
Mr. Doyle agreed, "Sensory interaction is

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Culinology | DECEMBER 2019

crucial for creating an experience consumers
are delighted by."
Sensory science once meant dialing in
taste and texture. In the hands of design
thinkers, it has been transformed into
a consumer-centric tool that unlocks
unexpected solutions and new emotional
connections.
Ms. Saxon Reed provided the example
of the 2017 introduction of the Extra megapack of sugar-free gum. The mainstay Extra
package has 15 sticks and is a top seller for
Mars Wrigley. But what the company was
hearing from its customers is they wanted to
be able to have more gum with them so they
did not run out, explained Ms. Saxon Reed.
"We previously launched packs with more
gum that did not succeed in market," she
said. "Using design thinking, we learned that
a package 'with a lot of gum' needed to be
durable and keep the product fresh. That is
the need we were looking to meet with Extra
mega-pack.
"We developed a package that closed and
provided a tactile and auditory click. Then we
delivered a value proposition: the package
now held 35 sticks." She explained it is critical
to build the product to meet target consumer
needs, pointing to how one-of-a-kind
packaging for the company's Alert Energy
Caffeine Gum communicates it is not ordinary
chewing gum.
Culinology - December 2019

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