I bash marketing a lot here. Most scientists who communicate with them bash them too.
Mainly because most don’t understand the physics of food and they will make some pretty high demands and they think they’re the experts. After all, they eat too.
A stubborn marketer can be a huge crutch of a company. It’s much easier to be a stubborn food marketer than a stubborn rocket marketer. Why?
The biggest issue is something I will pawn off a lecture I learned from Mary Christ-Erwin, who visited us at the Cactus Supplier’s Night. She did an amazing lecture on how to communicate with Marketing as R+D. Of course, being the leader of Cactus, this is something that benefitted me.
The issue with food is that everyone eats it and therefore, everyone is an expert in food. It’s a complex thing. A lawyer, president, celebrity, or even a mom, has the same amount of perceived authority about food as a food scientist. Though I would like this to change, this is the world we live in.
I would like this to be an empowering article about how you as a product developer can have a say in marketing. This takes a ton of research and effort on your end, but this is the first step to save the world from bad science. Yet this communication on what’s good or bad for you can lead to some nasty pitfalls so it’s a delicate tightrope, over Niagara Falls, and it’s hailing.
The Paradox of Innovation
Ironically, marketing will forecast that XYZ companies are doing ABC trend. RXBar, Amplify, Whole Foods got bought out because their products are “clean label” and good and stuff.
At least in our marketing department, the marketer’s job is to look at trends that are going in the market. Because they are gathering data, they will present “70% of kids like granola bars”. This is weak data and tells you nothing on how to innovate. In fact, all it does is gives the R+D department the incentive to do a “me-too” product.
As we all know, it is R+D that does most of the innovating because they make it happen. Yet you can have a team of R+D people who just follow rules.
There are tons of amazing ways to innovate without product development. Packaging design like Ugly Drinks, or Wendy’s social media sass is one of many ways Marketers can innovate. The issue with food is that it’s so complex.
I do truly believe innovation does not matter what department you’re in. All it takes is a creative mind who is not afraid to do things differently. You can be in R+D, Marketing, Quality, heck, maybe even Purchasing. The thing you have to realize is that you have to have the ability to convince others your idea is good, and present an actual product.
To convince someone your idea is good, you either need data or passion. Luckily, a common person can tell if you have both. Once you convince the right people, then you can make an innovative product.
Though I can’t admit I’m an innovative person, innovation is not really that hard. All it involves is being around smart people, who talk about ideas and make it happen. And do it often.
Closer to Consumers
During my interview with Jessica Gavin, we had a great discussion on how our platforms helped us as food scientists. Jessica and I both agreed that because we’re now constantly communicating to what people want, it’s made us better food scientists.
Consumer perception, on what they think is in their food, or whether they’re right or wrong, is the most important thing to them.
In terms of the brand you work for, you cannot let your ideals of food get in the way of the consumer perception and in most cases, the consumer will win.
Every day, my colleagues and I lament about how one of our consumers don’t know what maltitol is and it can get frustrating but you have to cast this aside.
The brand you work for has a certain consumer and to be a better food scientist, you have to treat this as a challenge. The more you know your target consumer, the more you can make successful products.
So whenever you are creating a new product, really think hard about the practicalities and purpose on what you’re putting in for them. If you’re catering to sports fanatics, do they care about carbohydrates? What kind of moms care about what kind of baby food? Will their baby like organic beet and goat cheese puree?
Maybe.
Fight Back
On one project, I didn’t fight back on the macros and it was a terrible project. It was a bar that has “more protein than Quest” and “less sugar” but of course, you burn more calories chewing it than it’s actually worth. I was new at the time and it really was terrible. Yet, of course, it was all my fault.
Though someday, I will talk about this project in depth, now it’s not the time.
It did teach me some pretty valuable lessons that you have as much say in creating an idea as the marketer but boy, can it be tough.
It really depends on the company culture when it comes to innovation and decision making. Unfortunately, all companies are different.
Here are some strategies to convince marketing that they’re wrong:
First Principles logic: A logical explanation popularized by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, this is the ability to break down the physics of food to see if it’s actually possible to shove 25 grams of protein in a 30 gram bar with no sugar. In general, arguing the physics and being really smart and communicative with marketing about why this won’t work is your best bet. You cannot bend the laws of physics. If they still disagree with them, blast them with so much science, they can’t argue back. This takes a lot of practice and a lot of research, but if you understand the physics of food, you can win.
Compare their version with your version: Make a version they want and the version you think can happen. Then compare them. You can do a sensory test for leveraging data, or just prove to the marketing their idea sucks. Don’t forget to show the nutrition facts and their differences!
What this does is to show the fallacies of just an idea when putting into a physical product. The marketer who assigned you the task will also better understand why your version of their product is better.
I’ve used this trick when comparing if our decision makers want a soy allergen versus one more gram of sugar. This decision sadly took a month, but it got a lot of headaches out of the way.
Reputation: Though not my favorite method to convince people you’re right, this is a very good way to get people on your side fast. As I built a reputation for bars in Isagenix, it’s become easier to get my projects through very fast.
Though not much of an actionable tip, keep going, keep innovating any way you can. If people see that you are creative, and you keep on aggressively pushing for it, the right people will give you a chance. If they don’t then it might be wise to pursue other options.
