“The brief was to take a rice snack - most consumers think rice snacks suck - then add a lower fat positioning - most consumers think lower fat snacks suck - and convince everyone we finally had a great tasting, low fat snack! Tough assignment. We’d been through a few unsuccessful concept routes before inviting Geoff and Fahrenheit 212 in to help us out. Suddenly there was revolution in the air and we moved very quickly from “zero” to proven, qualified ideas. They really helped us unlock the commercial potential of the technology and we were headed full tilt toward launch”.
David Cotter, Pringles Project Leader
THE BRIEF
P&G had developed a new, rice-based technology that could deliver a Better For You (BFY) proposition with a nutritional and flavor profile superior to its existing potato-based Pringles formulations. Mainstream consumers, however, weren’t buying into BFY as a value proposition. Despite their increasing awareness of obesity and its attendant health issues, consumers were not changing their buying behavior.
Previous attempts to launch BFY products had created only incremental volume. Consumers perceived BFY as a niche snack option, and one burdened by unacceptable taste trade-offs. P&G’s new technology was promising, but faced an uphill battle against remembrances of pasty rice cakes past.
THE COMMERCIAL OBJECTIVE
A globally applicable, differentiated brand extension that was capital neutral and margin positive for both Pringles and the trade.
THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Fahrenheit 212 sought to overcome consumer indifference and turn this new technology into the foundation for a mainstream entry into the on-trend, higher-margin Better For You segment.
THE INNOVATION STRATEGY
Fahrenheit 212 realized that positioning Rice Pringles as a BFY product that actually tastes great was being undermined by all the bad experiences consumers had had with products that promised no taste trade-offs yet totally under-delivered. Consumers were once burned, twice shy when it came to their beloved salty snacks and no amount of protesting otherwise was going to succeed.
Fahrenheit 212’s answer flipped the perception equation: It’s all about great flavor that just so happens to be better for you. Fahrenheit 212’s solution re-imagined the Pringles process to create a breakthrough ingredient and taste story. Rather than the age-old method of frying a chip (or crisps depending on where you are reading this…) and sprinkling on flavor, Fahrenheit 212 flipped around the process so that Rice based Pringles were made by grounding the great ingredients right into the crisp.
This more flavorful approach changed how people thought about Pringles versus conventional competitors. The rice-factor became a critical support to the Fahrenheit 212’s “Flip” idea— rice as a neutral base for an enhanced flavor promise - rather than a barrier. A crisp that was naturally lower in fat was suddenly believable and interesting rather than a health food to be skeptically spurned.
THE OUTCOME
The Flip concept was a clear winner in research. It moved P&G’s Rice technology from a failing consumer proposition to the company’s best-scoring BFY idea and one that could compete directly with conventional non-BFY products.
P&G’s ultimate product, Pringles Rice Infusions, hit the UK shelves in June 2007 with pack copy and concept remarkably similar to what Fahrenheit 212 had presented less than a year before. Pringles Rice Infusions has performed extremely well in market as the first truly tasty rice snack. P&G drove the taste and the newness to create big cut-through at retail (30,000 displays) with 74 percent consumer awareness and trial by one-in-five UK households.
The commercial implications were huge. The initiative’s net-present-value expectations were met in a year, with the total payback point reached in 18 months. Pringles Rice Infusions beat category expectations and P&G continues to innovate from the platform.
Pringles Rice Infusions have now been enjoyed throughout Western Europe, Russia, South Africa, UAE, Australia and New Zealand.