From Imperial Sugar News| Nov 16, 2009
by Springfield Lewis/Newsroom Ink
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” His oft-quoted remark speaks to a uniquely human spirit of innovation that’s brought us must-have products like Apple’s iPod, a mobile phone and yes, better (and more humane) mousetraps.
Emerson’s remark also sparks that uniquely human sense of envy when we encounter a new product and say to ourselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” To wit: Bottled water and salad-in-a-bag seem obvious now, but 20 years ago, they were just a gleam in someone’s eye.
Distilling that gleam and turning it into reality is at the heart of what Imperial Sugar’s Darrell Gerdes and his team do every day. As New Product Development Manager, Darrell’s job is to sweat out what customers want … before they know they want it.
“In terms of sugar, most consumers don’t think much beyond the four and five pound bags of sugar they see on grocer’s shelves,” he says. “But there’s a world of opportunity to help them with new products that are convenient, easy to use and fill a need that they didn’t know they had.”
He points to Imperial’s most recent product introductions, Baker’s Supreme Premium Frosting Mixes and Redi-Measure brown sugar pouches, as perfect examples. ““The frosting mix uses a more finely ground sugar than consumers can obtain, which in turn delivers a smoother frosting than they can make on their own,” he explains.
“And Redi-Measure provides perfectly packed brown sugar in quarter-cup increments, which our research showed as a consumer preference. Both products bring high quality ingredients to consumers in convenient, easy to use packaging that helps them achieve their home-baking goals without a lot of fuss.”
This spirit of innovation applies to Imperial’s large-scale retail and food service customers, too. Restaurants, for example, are enamored with Imperial’s new, pure cane sugar 35-and 59-ounce liquid sweetener for making large quantities of sweet tea. “Think of a bag of pre-dissolved sugar,” says Gerdes. “There are no broken or torn bags or spilling sugar on the floor or counter, and it’s easy to ship and handle. Product innovation like this serves a need, solves a problem and benefits the customer.”
Gerdes admits that coming up with new product ideas is part science, part divine intervention. “Ideas come from everywhere,” he says. “Consumers write suggestions to us, our sales teams bring in ideas from retail customers, and sometimes we just get a wild idea. That’s why I keep a pad of paper by my bed, so if something comes to me in the middle of the night, I can capture it.”
From that point, cross-functional Imperial teams use the Stage-Gate® Product Innovation process to help move product ideas into reality. According to Stage Gate International, the method is “a carefully designed business process developed from comprehensive research into understanding what discriminates product success and failure,” and “is an operational roadmap for moving a new-product project from idea to launch, and divides the effort into distinct stages separated by management decision ‘gates.’” The entire process can take up to eight months or more from conception to reality.
“It’s one thing to dream up a better mousetrap,” says Gerdes, “and another to make it reality. It’s a lot of work, but when you finally see the brainstorm land on store shelves or head out to retail food service clients, it’s a really powerful feeling. And then you have to get onto the next great idea,” he adds with a laugh.
Leave a Reply