Consumer Goods and Services

How Breakfast Has Changed

General Mills understood that the conventional model of a sit-down family breakfast had changed, but didn't know where it was going or how to respond. To help them, we designed an immersive ethnographic program to understand eating habits in the morning and the meanings of food across the day. We arrived at consumers' homes at 6 a.m., armed with video cameras and notebooks. Through close observation, it soon became clear that breakfast had become an individualized and intermittent series of snacks eaten up to 11:00 a.m. MORE

Understanding the Restaurant experience

For Chick-fil-A, it all starts with service. When a customer thanks a Chick-fil-A team member, the response is always, “my pleasure,” epitomizing a corporate-wide philosophy of service that is elevated, proud, and heartfelt. We worked with the Atlanta-based company to create a customer experience strategy that builds on this philosophy. MORE 

THE SHAPE OF REAL ESTATE INSIDE THE FRIDGE

Point Forward’s study of family beverage habits led to a big innovation for the beverage industry. Before 2003, 12-packs of soft drink cans were configured in 3x4 cartons. The suitcase-like shape with a handle on top made it easy to grab off the store shelf and place into the shopping cart. But we found that its bulky shape made it difficult for people to keep their fridge stocked with cold, ready-to-drink sodas. MORE

MAPPING EATING BEHAVIORS

Clif introduced its first breakout product in an era when energy bars were still a specialty product for athletes. They sought our help in understanding how to fit their products to a growing customer base looking for food options on-the-go. We investigated a diverse set of consumers to find out how food fits into their busy lifestyles. MORE