Bite-size insights into
Finnish food and beverage ventures
INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION
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Bite-size insights into Finnish food and beverage ventures
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Our impactful and design-driven case companies
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DesignBites researchers
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2. CO-CREATING AND EXPERIMENTING
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WITH THE FOOD AND DRINKS OF THE FUTURE
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Diverse collaborators
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Testing with users
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Casting a wider net for feedback and co-creation
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Case: Co-creating with bartenders
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Forward thinking retailers aiding in experimentation of new products
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Case: Development of Sirkkapurkki
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Bite-size tips: collaboration with stakeholders
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A deeper dive to food product development
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Three types of product development processes
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Vocabulary for different types of experiments
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Experimentation in practice: Vegan ice cream
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Experimentation in practice: Spelt cereals
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3. SOCIAL MEDIA AND MISSIONS
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Social media: A diverse toolkit for product development
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Bite-size tips: Product development through social media
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Intertwined agendas when you get to the bottom of the bottom line
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Case: Saving the ‘little ones’ and our oceans
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4. FROM PACKAGE DESIGN TO DESIGNING CULTURAL CHANGE
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The diversity of design activities in food and beverage ventures
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Wrapping up a story
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Case: Prototyping the iconic orange ice cream tubs
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Designing change
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Case: A Finnish Tea Ceremony
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Moving design across borders
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Case: Mettä – A brand designed for export
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5. WRAPPING UP
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DesignBites events 2018
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Jump on board - call for interested companies
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Contact information
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iND EX | 3
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1. BITE-SIZE INSIGHTS INTO
FINNISH FOOD AND BEVERAGE VENTURES DesignBites is a multidisciplinary Aalto Design Factory research project investigating the needs and practices of experimentation and design work in food and beverage startups and SMEs amidst their internationalisation efforts. The launch of the project has been funded by Antti and Jenny Wihuri Foundation and Aalto University. During the first year of the research project, we’ve focused on Finnish startups food and beverage ventures, tracking the development activities of 17 companies ranging from premium food and drinks with local ingredients to creating new markets and consumption patterns. This report captures some of the insights we’ve learned along the way. In 2019, we’re broadening our view to different ecosystems across the world. Follow our journey on Twitter @DesignBites Instagram @DesignBts 1. INTR OD UCTION | 5
OUR CREATIVE AND DESIGN-DRIVEN
CASE COMPANIES 3 KAVERIA
Ice cream from all-natural ingredients from three friends in Helsinki
ARCTIC POWER BERRIES
The goodness of nordic berries, in powder form BRINKHALL’S SPARKLING
Apple-based wine from Röölä, Finland ENTOCUBE
Introducing crickets to the plates of consumers and farms of Finland GOLD & GREEN
Pulled oats phenomenon expanding plant-based protein palets GOODIO
Craft vegan chocolate with a design edge
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HELSIENI
Mushrooms and their growkits from Helsinki HELSINKI WILDFOODS
Bringing Finnish herbs and their understanding to our kitchens JÄRKI SÄRKI
Hand-made roach preservatives from Jyväskylä KYRÖ DISTILLERY
Rye spirits with a lot of spirit from Iso Kyrö MÖ FOODS
Oat-based “dairy” products from Lohtaja NORD-T
Tea with a sprinkling of Finnish forests SUGAR DADDIES CO.
Artisan raw honey and beeswax from farmers and foresters in Isokyrö SUNSPELT
Bringing spelt to supermarket aisles THE GOOD GUYS
Finnish Kombucha from tea lovers in Nekala W&K PREMIUM
Arctic-inspired spirits from Helsinki WARRIOR COFFEE
Butter coffee and beyond with a high-performance orientation
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SAVING THE WORLD THROUGH MULTIDISCIPLINARY
RESEARCH RESISTING LABELS
Maria Mikkonen comes from a international design business management background, with first-hand experience of entrepreneurship from running her own company. She’s also a passionate photographer, comfortable decoding narratives in not only in our interview data but also the Instagram feeds of the ventures we track. Maria is a strong believer that food always tastes better outdoors and has weak spot for anything breakfast related.
Tua Björklund is a professor of practice in human-centered engineering, with more than a decade of research in organizational psychology, design, product development, innovation management and beyond. Digging and distilling insights from the experiences of the varied ventures we study to advance theory, practice and education, is her favorite part of the job. Much of Tua’s work has been powered by chocolate, and fine dining is her idea of an ideal cultural art experience.
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Teo Keipi is a social psychologist interested in mixing disciplines toward better understanding strategic decision making, with experience from consulting startups as well. He draws from his research background in social psychology, economic sociology and behavioural economics to understand how entrepreneurs make decisions. Teo is particularly fond of sharing hearty meals with groups of friends, especially if it is in the forest or at the seaside.
Ville Kukko-Liedes is a mechanical engineer with a soft spot for design thinking. From building the 3D printers of the Design Factory to peering into the product development practices of our case companies, he keeps the users and big picture in mind rather than optimizing for narrow technical parameters. Ville lets no food go waste as kitchen is his playground for experimentation and he thinks every meal can be saved with enough spices.
Anna Kuukka has multidisciplinary know-how in design including user insight, trend forecasting, concept design, brand building and product development. She utilises her background in commercial design as a way to create understanding and to translate information so that it not only engages people, but whets their appetite to learn more. Anna’s preference for quality time is wining and dining, particularly when enjoyed in the company of her nearest and dearest ones.
1. INTR OD UCTION | 9
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2. CO-CREATING
AND EXPERIMENTING WITH THE FOOD AND DRINKS OF THE FUTURE
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Aalto Design Factory operates under the umbrella of passion-based co-creation. What we mean by this is that the future needs to be made rather than discovered, and that we are unlikely to succeed in this alone - we need to create together 1. Entrepreneurs embody the creation part by definition, developing new products and businesses to shape markets and our consumption. In the food and beverage companies we also saw abundant examples of collaboration, with consumers, restaurants, bars, influencer, and other ventures, both big and small, food and beverages, design and beyond. 1 See for more on this in Bjรถrklund, T.A., Laakso M., Kirjavainen, S. & Ekman, K. (eds.) (2017). Passion-based co-creation. Aalto University, Helsinki. ISBN 978-952-60-3740-0. You can download the book at our website at designfactory.aalto.fi
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DIVERSE COLLABORATORS TESTING WITH USERS
After high-intensity experimentation in the very initial steps of the ventures, the most frequent types of testing sessions with customers at companies were aimed towards product validation and fine tuning. More specifically this was done often through offering multiple variations of the same product for customers to taste and gathering feedback. From our cases, both Helsinki Wild Foods and 3 Friends were active in hosting public test sessions with their customers to co-create and develop their products. Social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook were used in some cases as a medium to seek potential test users.
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Many of the premium beverage companies had established showrooms that were often attached to the actual production facilities. In addition to promoting products directly to consumers and corporate clients, these spaces were also used for product development as special ‘test laboratories’ for product tastings and gathering feedback. Moreover, in some cases the historical ties of the properties and spaces were built into brand narratives and stories, thus deepening the customer experience and brand building. Some examples of these spaces and venues include: •
Brinkhall’s manor & summer café alongside a showroom at their winery, Röölä
• Goodio’s chocolate factory & laboratory, Helsinki •
Kyrö Distillery’s visitor activities, Isokyrö
• Warrior Coffee’s roastery with a coffee shop & “coffee laboratory” , Helsinki
“...Or maybe cafe is a wrong word for it, chocolate laboratory is much better, where folks can experiment, and when the chocolate is also done next to it, that’s when our pieces start to fall in place.” - Goodio
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CASTING A WIDER NET FOR FEEDBACK AND CO-CREATION
Customers were not the only ones companies were actively co-creating and testing their products with. In early phases experts and product enthusiasts, such as bartenders were brought into the process to share their knowledge and opinions. Our cases were also gathering ideas, co-creating and validating product ideas with manufacturers, food retailers and restaurants along the development process. Sometimes this collaboration could be more incidental, with for example Sunspelt reporting close ties to their manufacturer who also sometimes shares their ideas for new products. Feedback was also gathered from restaurants with small batches before moving new products to production and retail outlets. For example, Nord-T collaborated with local restaurants to test their newest tea blends with their customers, sometimes even before having settled on the products final name and packaging.
“We have these collaborating restaurant partners who we tell that ‘Hey, there’s a new tea blend coming out, want to try it?’ They start selling it and try it out with their customers and see what kind of feedback it gets.” - Nord-T We also found several examples where different stakeholders were brought in early to create ideas together. For example, Kyrö Distillery systematically engages with bartenders and the rye-based drinks company has even created a moisturizer together with Tummeli brand to cater to the hard-working hands of bartenders. In the case of the Artic surf wax, created by Sugar Daddies Co., it was important to test the product with the surfing community in the Lofoten Islands before fine tuning and bringing the product to the market.
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CASE
Kyrรถ Distillery
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Co-creating with bartenders
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CASE
Kyrö Distillery - Co-creating with bartenders Already familiar with utilizing the expertise of bartenders in their earlier products, Kyrö Distillery Company decided to utilize the expertise of international bartenders in developing their bitters. After choosing seven bartenders as co-developers, the company sent out development kits of herb distillments for them to mix and experiment with. An open-ended development period started where the bartenders could create their own bitters, and with them also cocktails using the company’s other products.
“This was really open-ended, we just decided that we want to do a bitter, but we hadn’t limited it beyond that. Another scope decision, which of course was made consciously, was that we chose bartenders, so that we could in a way get a bitter that would be possible to mix or use in cocktails.” -Kyrö Distillery
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Video conferences were used to share recipes and ideas periodically. Finally, the co-creators were invited to the distillery in IsokyrÜ for a three day workshop on finalizing the product on-site. The co-created bitters were then moved to internal development and prepared for production. Two bitters were launched just in time for a bitter Valentine’s Day event in 2018, banding together with the bitter chocolates of Goodio to offer an alternative mood for the traditionally sugary sweet celebrations.
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FORWARD-THINKING RETAILERS AIDING IN EXPERIMENTATION OF NEW PRODUCTS
Companies producing novel-to-market products had often used a progressive organic retail chain Ruohonjuuri as a place to introduce and test new types of ingredients or products in the market, as well as to gather feedback from ‘early adopter’ customers. In addition to taking novel products out to sale in their shelves, Ruohonjuuri has been creating collaborative events and brought companies in to do product tastings in the stores; thus, playing an important part in pushing forward new food innovations. In the case of Entocube, the request for Sirkkapurkki (Cricket Jar) to be part of the store selection came directly from Ruohonjuuri. At the time, insects were not yet legal to be sold as food in the Finnish market, and the first products had to be playfully labelled as “kitchen decorations”.
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CASE
Decorative cricket Entocube released its first insect food products in the retailers at the end of 2017. However, they had started developing insect foods much earlier, at the time when insect food was still illegal to sell in Finland. Advocating the legalization of insect food and raising customer awareness, were the main drivers for using creative product positioning as a tactic for their earliest products.
“For the first two years, when food sales weren’t possible, and we didn’t have products either, what we did with all the crickets we grew here, we sold at festivals and other at various events as tasting portions.” - Entocube Ruohonjuuri played a key role in this as well by requesting a cricket product and offering shelf space for Sirkkapurkki (cricket jar). The clear jar containing whole crickets and other delicious ingredients was sold as a kitchen decoration piece, and indeed, was an effective conversation starter when displayed at home, as well as in social media. The contents of the jar of course were also edible, and consumers’ social media
posts evidenced that some did “accidentally” use this for food. When the insect food laws finally changed, the contents of the jar remained unchanged. Sirkkapurkki was repackaged and rebranded under the name of Samu, a more retail oriented brand. Today, Entocube’s products can be found both in convenience stores targeted for mass markets as well as in Ruohonjuuri where eco-conscious early adopters were able to get them in their early days. They range from chili cricket nuts to granolas. 2 . E X PE RIMENTATION AND C O-CREATION | 21
SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: BITE-SIZE TIPS FOR COLLABORATION • Prototype to find a common language and level the playing field with your co-creators. In this case, you are allowed to play with your food! • Formulate clear learning goals - how will you know if the experiment worked or not. When in doubt, lean on the side of lots of smaller tests than fewer, larger ones. • Means can matter more that the end result. Are there companies or communities that share your ethos you might partner with even if they work with different products or services? • Remember to showcase progress and end results to everyone who was involved, so that they can see the fruits of their labor, too.
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DEEPER DIVE INTO
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT THREE TYPES OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
In the dynamic and challenging food and beverage market, companies are in a constant need to create new successful products. We found three basic types of development approaches, for launching new product. These ranged from expanding the company’s core offering to refreshing a product line with new seasonal flavors, to completely reframing an old product to appeal to a new market. Each goal was coupled with a distinctive product development process; the set of activities that takes a new idea or an opportunity into a marketed product. For new ventures, this is rarely a formal process, but rather enacted habits and patterns in development efforts. This means companies had their distinct ways of working that repeated from product to product, particularly in terms of their tendencies to experiment and to pursue information from outside the company.
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1 NEW-TO-COMPANY The first process type, new-to-company development, was typical for companies that were keen to search for new opportunities beyond their previous core knowledge. This led to active experimentation with ideas, which would often result in new and exciting products but also required more development time and effort. Releasing such new products can be risky, and to avoid sinking too much resources to development, companies would focus on early concept and value creation to assess whether the development was worthwhile to continue. Another approach was to team up with another company with the needed knowledge and experience, developing a joint product with them.
2 FLAVOR VARIANT The second process type, flavor variant development, was particularly agile as these companies focused their creative efforts on experimenting with new flavours that could be easily applied to their existing products, resulting in a new extension to a product line. However, when exploring opportunities beyond flavor variants, these companies would also focus more on assessing the value proposition of the potential new product and take their time in testing before moving a product to production.
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3 PRODUCT REVISION In the third process type, product revision development, the companies incrementally advanced their products through re-launching or revising them. The changes implemented in these long iterations could range from re-branding and packaging to launching completely re-imagined products built on the learnings from a earlier product. Therefore, experimentation along the development path of a product would also vary in accordance to the implemented product changes. Moreover, on a larger scale, the products themselves were considered experiments. The companies showcasing revision development worked to push new kinds of food to the market, where customer reception is uncertain and assessing the market reception was found to be easiest by introducing a product and correcting it based on the response.
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VOCABULARY FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS Experimentation and testing were found to vary in two distinct dimensions: how explorative the experimenting was and in how much outside stakeholders were used in the process.
EXPLORATIVE AND VALIDATIVE EXPERIMENTATION In the first dimension, companies could pursue either explorative experimentation where activities were used to learn more about the problem at hand, the context of the product and openly explore possibilities, or then focused on more validative experimenting which was used to narrow down options and to refine the product aspects such as the detailed recipe.
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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EXPERIMENTATION In the second dimension, companies did experimentation both internally and externally, meaning at some points they would not include any outside input to process and at some point, they would take users or experts in to give feedback or even outsource development altogether. These two dimensions in experiments were then mixed and matched by the companies in varying degrees. While internal testing would often be focused around final fine-tuning and validation for production, completely internal experimentation could also be explorative to learn openly and explore new possibilities within the team of entrepreneurs. For example, cricket-food company Entocube organized open-ended internal product development days where the founders would ideate and test new recipe ideas that would lead to new products later. Similarly, in the very early phases of the venture, testing a product with external stakeholders was often explorative, but it could also be used to validate development choices already initially agreed upon by the team. This latter option was often the starting point of user testing in the studied companies, but the tests could also yield unexpected insights about the product. For example, in the case of one product developed by KyrÜ Distillery, users involved in blind tasting pointed out an unpleasant smell in the product that the developers at company hadn’t noticed themselves. Thus, seeking external input, even the simplest tests, can produce vital new information.
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CASE
3 Kaveria
Experimentation in practice
3 Friends was releasing new ice cream flavors at a steady pace of twice a year, with a similar development process from product to product. The founders collected ideas for new flavors with a wide net, performed small scale iterative tests to identify the promising ones, and after some more testing, selected and committed to developing a few flavors or combinations of them. Typical for flavor variant development processes, the company was looking to roll out new flavors of their product that could either replace older fading variations, be targeted for a specific season, or turn out to be new hits that will stay in their top products for years to come. Either way, the creative effort put into the products was focused on the flavor aspect. The company already knew
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that the product is going to be the same size as the previous ones (ice cream), the market positioning is the same, and development-wise the basis for a product is already there as in the case of ice cream the company had already mastered the fundamentals of making great craft ice cream. This situation changed when 3 Friends started looking into vegan ice creams, suddenly plunging them into uncharted waters. Some competitors had already released vegan ice creams and the customers of 3 Friends started asking them to make their own. Not wanting to make hasty decisions, the company studied the market and the trend of vegan products in Finland for six months before being convinced it was something that would be here to stay and worth pursuing. Now they faced a new challenge of creating their ice cream on part with their quality standards with vegan ingredients new to them.
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CASE:
Experimentation in practice: Vegan ice cream The company started their vegan recipe development by switching cow’s milk and eggs for coconut milk. However, wanting to understand the context better, the founders also contacted the Vegan Association of Finland for an expert opinion. From them, they learned about such things as certified cruelty-free coconuts that are not picked by monkeys. With this newfound information, they contacted their supplier about the issue and received a certificate proving the cruelty-free origin. This paid off as soon after releasing their first vegan ice cream, the first customer came along asking about the origin of their coconut milk and the company had a ready answer. Learning from the experts in advance was time well spent. The company treated their vegan ice creams as any other product, releasing similar over-the-top delicious flavors that the company is known for. They don’t produce the same flavor in both vegan and non-vegan, as the difference would be neglectable. As they say, they produce great flavors that also happen to be vegan. The customers agree, as two out of five top selling flavors are already vegan, and in some stores in Helsinki, 3 Friends vegan ice cream became the
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top seller among all brands and flavors. They’ve also received numerous vegan awards for their products since launching.
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CASE:
Sunspelt
Experimentation in practice Sunspelt has pioneered the use of spelt in food products in Finland, but introducing new ingredients to the public isn’t always a walk in the park. Some years back, the company launched a line of salty spelt-based snacks sold in a variety of flavors, winning an award or two along the way. However, consumers didn’t grab the product off the shelves frequently enough. The market position was difficult and wider audiences had trouble understanding the product and health benefits of spelt as an ingredient.
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Typical for revision development processes, Sunspelt did not give up on the product entirely. Improvements were planned on many fronts, the most important one coming from reimagining the larger product concept and market position. Listening to customer feedback, Sunspelt learned that there is a need for healthier cereals that children would like and their parents would feel comfortable serving their children. The discontinued salty
spelt snacks were a great starting point to develop a simple and healthy cereal. Moreover, the producer of the cereal suggested that the recipe could possibly be simplified while still achieving the desired structure. This was quickly tested to be true and the resulting recipe of the puffy and crunchy cereal only included two organic ingredients; spelt and salt.
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CASE
Experimentation in practice: Spelt cereals
The next step in development was to come up with a packaging that followed the visual style of Sunspelt’s brand. The box was illustrated to appeal to families with children, but before committing to ordering the materials, the design and product was pitched to large retailers. Input was also gathered from consumers in various settings whenever possible. The concept and packaging were fine-tuned with the help of the feedback and once the response was satisfactory, the retailers also committed to buying a small batch. In the end, the company was able to turn a product letdown into a successful organic product with a strong market positioning and competitive pricing thanks to careful concept development and testing done in collaboration with the producers as well as customers.
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“[...] this cereal also, when we made a test batch, we verified it can be done and developed it slowly from there, thinking – the package is incredibly important in it and the brand, and standing out once it’s in store. Many cereals you see are controlled by these multinational corporations – here we have many good things, it’s domestic, real, sugar-free, additive-free, and it has that distinctive package, values and such, all of them together – but it never goes that easy, it didn’t go through in first try and I modified it again, and in Finland you also have to find the optimum price to reach a common consumer.” - Sunspelt
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3. SOCIAL MEDIA AND
MISSIONS
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STORYTELLING AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Whether educating users about novel ingredients and never-before-seen products, communicating the ideologies behind the companies’ existence, allowing the public to peek behind the scenes or sharing news, storytelling especially through the medium of social media was highly important to our case companies. In the era of online communication and continuous information flood, deep rooted stories and authenticity were used as tools to create connections and create interest of potential customers. In terms of social media, both Instagram and Facebook were the main channels utilized. The visual nature of Instagram, along with the possibility to share the everyday snapshots into the work of these ventures was highly important and used consistently by all case companies. While the changing user demographic of Facebook users towards the ‘later adopters’ and override of paid content over organic visibility, has lessened the appeal, it still has its time and place as a medium to engage with users. For example, Facebook has been a great channel to create online user communities with vibrant two-way conversations with the users, as w ell as sharing different events the companies are involved with. Other social media channels, such as Twitter were not highlighted through our discussions with the entrepreneurs. 38
SOCIAL MEDIA: ENTREPRENEURS’ DIVERSE TOOLKIT FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MORE Social media is often seen solely as a tool for marketing, sales and communication related activities – a must for company’s online presence today. Strategies are made over post publishing and influencers are used to spread their views on recent product launches. However, these creative entrepreneurs also use their channels to initiate co-creative practices in their product development processes with their user communities and various industry experts. Below we share three examples of how to initiate co-creative processes in product development through social media. INVITING USERS FOR PHYSICAL TEST SESSIONS THROUGH INSTAGRAM
Actively engaging for user feedback, opinions and ideas through colorful and friendly Instagram posts 3 Friends ice cream company invites their followers to be part of their product development process – both virtually and physically. The three friends describe their development efforts as relaxed and easygoing, and regularly host co-creative tasting sessions and invite participants to join through their social media channels. According to Ilkka Wikholm, it has not been a hard task to invite eager ice cream lovers to share their picks and opinions about upcoming flavors.
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EXPERIMENTING WITH EXPERTS AND BRAND AMBASSADORS
Calling their passionate tea lover user group ‘Pioneers’, NORD-T, a Finnish tea company works with a tight global group of tea enthusiasts to develop their new blends. Nina Rantala explains that the prerequisite for being a pioneer is not the number of followers or activeness in own social media channels, but the love for tea and tea drinking culture; thus, social media has been more of an internal two-way communication channel than a traditional form of influencer marketing. Especially when expanding their business to Japan, learning from local users has been important way to learn about the Japanese culture and traditions, as well as spread the Nordic lifestyle in turn. In the future NORD-T wishes to expand this group to a wider diversity of cultures and countrie
“The pioneers are a group of tea lovers with whom we share a common passion for tea, who get to test our products in first hand and whom we organize private tea events for. We have now had the chance to meet up in Helsinki and London, at the end of the month we’ll meet in Copenhagen. :)” - Instagram / @nordtcompany IMPROVING PROCESSES TOGETHER WITH AN ACTIVE USER COMMUNITY
Providing tools for end users to create their own products and experiment at home and establishing a communication channel in Facebook, has been a great way to co-develop the production process and share best practices amongst the user community. Chris Holtslag, the founder of Helsieni, a circular solution to grow mushrooms from used coffee scrubs, explains that “it’s really nice to have this group of people who are learning with us, even if they’re not part of the company. They are just doing it at home and sharing pictures and telling what works, telling what doesn’t”. Similarly The Good Guys, a Finnish kombucha brewery decided to establish a Facebook group for users who had purchased their DIY kombucha kits and people interested in homebrewing. The active community shares their learnings to others, and also serves as an inspiration to new Kombucha innovations. 40
SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: BITE-SIZE TIPS FOR CO-DEVELOPING ONLINE • Ask followers about product feedback • Crowdsource ideas for new products • Encourage users to share their experiences with products • Design a tasting event and invite your followers to join • Create a community of enthusiasts to involve in development activities • Get initial feedback about new product ideas
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INTERTWINED AGENDAS WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTOM LINE The more we talked with different founders, the more evident it became that modern ventures do not need to make a stark distinction between business and a wider impact. For these new food and beverage entrepreneurs having high standards for keeping things both environmentally and socially sustainable was more of a must and ‘specific missions’ were added according to different interests and beliefs. We couldn’t talk about single defining causes either as in most cases multiple missions entered the discussion, as well as differences between the personal goals and aspirations of the different founders within the same company.
“Of course, if our sales increase, we have more resources at hand to create an impact. Therefore, the more we sell, the wider impact we’re able to create.” - Jukka / Goodio
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Overall, we noticed that the variety of missions ranged from very targeted causes, for example reducing food waste, to more general ones such as having an impact on the wellbeing of the planet. Making a cultural change, whether improving tea drinking habits or increasing the appreciation of buying products directly from farmers and small producers, alongside of raising awareness for environmental concerns and responsible sourcing of ingredients, were at the core of many case companies’ activities and decision making. We are expanding on this topic as our research progresses, but check out the variety of different missions found in our cases so far: MISSIONS
# OF COMPANIES
Focusing on nature & environmental issues
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Making a cultural change / changing user habits
6
Raising awareness of new product or ingredient innovation
5
Battling the giants or industry as a smal producer
5
Healthier food or beverage options
5
Improving liveability of a place or region
4
Pushing for circular solutions
4
Increasing the availability of high quality ingredients
4
Inspiring other companies to do better
3
Making an impact in the developing countries
2
Spreading the Nordic / Finnish lifestyle abroad
2
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CASE
Sugar Daddies Surf Beeswax
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Saving the ‘little ones’ and our oceans
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CASE
Saving the ‘little ones’ and our oceans Cabbage farmers with passion to innovate and work with various projects involving farming, nature, bees and handcraft, Sugar Daddies Co. based in Iso-Kyrö is a good case where linked missions influence business actions, strategy and decision making. Conveyed through for example in their company story, establishment of a foundation for saving the bees (Sugar Daddies Foundation) and shining light on the actions of the ‘little ones’ at work in their Instagram and Facebook posts, the core mission is raising awareness over their mass extinction and the important work bees are engaged with.
“One evening while paddling through the waves we started thinking from where to get surf wax that would stick like no other and be as ecological as possible. After surf enjoying a hot tea with honey it hit like a lightning. Bees are going to solve our small problem by helping us crafting Arctic Surf Wax and making all of our lives sweeter than ever at the same time – literally.”
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These surf enthusiasts also aim to provide ecological alternative products to the surfing community and thus, contribute to the livability of our oceans and seas across the globe; as such tackling important another mission. Juho Wiberg explains that the starting point for their surf wax was purely from an ecological standing point. They wanted to create something that could even be eaten or wouldn’t cause any harm if accidentally dropped into the ocean. Through tests with the arctic surf community in the Lofoten to the tropics in Bali, Indonesia, a wax consisting three basic elements of spruce resin, beeswax and hemp oil (and some secret herbs) was created – basically created with something that could be picked up from your own backyard.
Over all, the Sugar Daddies also hope that their activities combined with other innovative new companies in Iso-Kyrö, such as Kyrö Distillery, will bring sustainable change and wellbeing in the Kyrö region. Interestingly, there seems to be active drivers in this community who are bringing together like-minded actors within the Iso Kyrö region and sharing knowledge amongst each other.
“Daddies from Finland on a mission of saving the little ones and while at it our bees are making one of the finest Naked Honeys.”
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4. DESIGN ACTIVITIES
FROM PACKAGE DESIGN TO DESIGNING CULTURAL CHANGE
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THE DIVERSITY OF DESIGN ACTIVITIES IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE VENTURES Design plays an integral role in creating products that are good for the company, consumers and community alike. Understood in its wider sense of improving existing solutions, rather than as a final beautifying touch, design approaches are reflected in the process of how the offering is created as well as the final output. The role of design was highlighted in particularly premium food and beverages, where the products could even be sold in design shops. “We think design is naturally a must-have in the whole concept. To be thinking about the beauty” another literal layer, with the 48g packages of Goodio chocolates being named as Love Letters. Taking the story further, one of their recent ranges of chocolates have been named after Finnish nature stables such as ‘Meri’ (ocean) and ‘Metsä’ (the woods), and include love letters to nature from one of the founders in the packaging. Stories were reflected in many design decisions across the products. For example, Kyrö Distillery’s unique font was derived from an historical war memorial and the ‘Seal of approval’ found in the bottle caps was a quirky way of adding something special to the mandatory seal needed for export. Bringing to mind the hidden Easter egg surprises we’ve seen game designers and product designers incorporate in their work, such as the Apple team’s signatures inside the rear panel case mold of early Macintosh computers. The founder of Brinkhall’s explained the importance of details:
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”In the [foil of the Celebration there’s a] B on top of here, as a kind of reference to this, but when you open it, it has this revealing character of a contrasting color to it, preparing for the story of what you will see inside. So these are the things that, when I start appreciating design, when I really realize this is not just an kind of inspirational idea, it is something that has been worked on. Because then you need to convince the guy who does this that you want also to have a inside color. And they will look at you like coming from Mars and say, why would you want an inside color? They don’t see it. Yes, you don’t see it [when buying the product], but you have this revealing quality and you have the quality of taking people by surprise. So it is a quality implication to my mind. And even if people wouldn’t realize it, I wouldn’t mind too much, I mean, I wouldn’t, it just makes me so much more proud and confident.” - Jean Marc / Brinkhall’s
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In general, many food and beverage companies spent considerable time in getting their designs realized just right to convey quality. For example, NORD-T adjusted their production methods to ensure that all the berries were visible in the tea blends and worked hard to get their signature cylinder packages, and Goodio re-designed the chocolate bars and their production to come up with just the right sensory experience.
WRAPPING UP A STORY Perhaps the most visible role of design in food and beverage companies comes from the product packaging. Yet as many of the entrepreneurs we interviewed reflected, this has not been a traditional strength of Finnish consumables despite the reputation of the country in the field of design, but as with the new interesting food and beverage companies forming by the numbers, there seems to a be a positive change with better designed packages as well.
“The package communicates our brand, especially when we’re dealing with premium products. The design has to be so fine tuned that the customers realize that they aren’t just buying nettle pesto, but a lovely experience, a story. You do it with design.” - Pauliina / HelsinkiWildfoods
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“...“[Finnish companies] often forget that you have to sell your product to the user twice. First with the package, second with the taste.” - Jussi / Goodio In addition to conveying the quality and story of the product, the entrepreneurs highlighted the importance of packages standing out in the vast arrays of food products in stores and online. For example, the founders of 3 Friends emphasized role of the orange color of their packages in their growth. Early prototyping had led them to adopt a distinctive look, with the color visible from a distance from the predominately white rows of packages, immediately showing to consumers whether a store stocked their products or not in the freezer aisle. On the other hand, expanding to international markets, some fine-tuning could be needed in, for example, the labeling and wording on packages. Arctic Power Berries found that expressions such as “hand-picked” and “wild” could evoke very different connotations depending on the country in question. Also, the level of education of consumers varies - their packaging now has icons for being raw, vegan, and gluten-free to make sure consumers understand what category their berries fall into. Social media can be helpful for uncovering some of these misconceptions and opportunities for improvement, even across the world. Warrior Coffee noticed that some consumers were cutting rather than twisting their packages open, prompting clearer instructions, and Helsinki WildFoods introduced comic-strip style visualizations of the contents and use of their products for the Asian market.
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CASE
3 Kaveria
Prototyping the iconic orange ice cream tubs
When the three founders of 3 Kaveria were designing their first products, they created quick prototypes of the packaging and took these to the freezer aisle of a store to test them in context. This testing led to a crucial turn:
“When we started to develop these, we had a white tub and a white lid. We thought about taking a bunch of magazines and then cut all kinds of phrases and pictures, pictures of cows and everything, and then we glued them on and tested what they look like.
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We took a drawing of three friends, someone had drawn three friends, and put that there. Then we took the prototypes to the store, this supermarket with a shopkeeper we knew, we took them there and asked if we could test what the empty tubs look like
in the freezer. We put them amongst the ice creams in the freezer, and the shopkeeper wife came by and asked who on earth had put yogurt tubs in the freezer. It didn’t quite pass the test.� - Heikki / 3 Kaveria
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CASE
Prototyping the iconic orange ice cream tubs
Standing there at the store, the founders realized that virtually all ice cream brands on the market at the time were white, had an image of a cow or were cramped with text. The idea of using a number 3, as a cornerstone in the brand and name, was born. One of the founders recalled seeing something orange that
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had really stood out, and suggested that for the new packages. A second round of prototyping ensued by heading to the hardware store to buy all of the different tones of orange in stock and painting empty tubs to see what they looked like. Then placing them all in a row to cut down the options to a viable few.
Armed with these new prototypes, the three founders headed back to the freezer aisle. The results were immediately clear:
“This was the only package in the freezer row that was orange. You could see them from miles away. No other package stood out.”
The orange stuck with the brand. One of the founders told a story about a friend who had picked up a raspberry ice cream tub from the store while traveling in Sweden. He had only realized in the hotel room that the name had been changed to the Swedish 3 Vänner from the Finnish version. The orange package with the pink seal itself was distinctive enough to ignore the need to read the labelling and choose a favorite.
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DESIGNING CHANGE Many entrepreneurs we talked to, saw that design played an increasing role in their companies. Scarce resources could limit or delay the realization of some grandiose visions that many had around creating holistic experiences, but small steps were taken towards designing change. The need to think beyond the food or beverage product itself was particularly clear in the case of introducing new types of products to the market. Raising awareness and demand on a general level was an important for example to Entocube with their cricket-based products, Helsieni for mushrooms grown out of coffee scrubs and wild ingredient-based Helsinki WildFoods.
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Good design could help consumers to connect the dots, such as Gold & Green designing their first pulled oats products to provide a low-threshold option for the ubiquitous minced meat package, a staple of weekday cooking in many Finnish homes, dominating supermarket aisles. Their pulledoat package intentionally mimicked the form and feel of such a package (although with recyclable materials); thus, lowering the threshold for customers to try it as a meat alternative. Thinking beyond products, marketing or other forms of visual storytelling, some of the case companies were designing experiences to tell a more holistic story around the product, their company or missions. For example, Helsinki WildFoods engages with their customers through wild herb courses throughout the summer. Within these courses they teach the participants different edible ingredients from the nature and give tips on how to use them in everyday cooking or as natural cosmetics. While this is an example that is a standalone service and part of their business offering portfolio, it compliments nicely the need to educate users also about the ingredients used in their product range as well. On the other hand, many of the customer-centered, experiment-prone ventures enacted principles of design thinking in all of their development activities across the board, whether in terms of their products, packages, processes or ventures themselves - even if the entrepreneurs would not describe it as design thinking themselves. At the end of the day, it’s what you do that matters, not what label you put on it. There are certainly lessons to be learned from these experiment-prone ventures on a mission to produce local, responsible, social, environmentally-friendly, healthy and meaningful options for fueling our thoughts with the combination of design, business, engineering and beyond. 
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CASE
Nord-T A Finnish tea ceremony
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CASE
Nord-T - a Finnish tea ceremony
Initiating cultural change appeared to be one of the most frequent ‘missions’ for our case ventures. These missions haven’t only brought to our attention on an ideological level, but we’ve seen various actions to bring about the shift in peoples’ attitudes and beliefs. Although tea has been around for thousands of years, there can still be room to innovate. Taking a stance on changing the way we drink tea in the Nordics and raising awareness over the remarkable natural resources in our backyards, NORD-T has created the first of a kind Finnish Tea Ceremony. Involving woolen socks, spruce tree branches, logs and handmade ceramic tea cups, this ceremony immerses the participants in a multisensory experience of being in a forest while enjoying the craft teas made of wild ingredients. Not only drawing from the Finnish forest-cabin-lifestyle, the tea enthusiast founders have studied carefully the more traditional tea ceremonies, especially in Japan, and created a unique experience around the Nordic and Asian culture of consuming tea.
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“When we talk about providing experiences, telling stories about forests, in addition to through our teas - the [Finnish] tea ceremony, which is very forest oriented, talks about this bond and connection to nature.� - Nina / NORD-T
After planning and visioning internally, as well as learning from their group of Pioneers (A group of tea enthusiasts around the globe), the first public ceremony came to live in the summer 2018 in the Superwood Festival. More sessions followed in Japan, where improvisation of the props was needed as it would have been difficult to import entire spruce trees in the airplane.
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MOVING DESIGN ACROSS BORDERS We’ve learned that while there are plenty of work to do around design in the home market, expanding across boarder definitely does not make the job any easier. According to the entrepreneurs, the small size of the Finnish market, especially when dealing with niche products pushed for thinking about international markets early on. In fact, most of our cases had been already involved with exporting their products to other Nordic countries and across the globe. In terms of specific regions of interest, while similar countries culture-wise, such as Sweden were relatively easy to look into, there seemed to be great interest towards Asia as a potential export region; Japan in particular. Some of the main challenges in terms of design were related to educating international users about the Nordic ingredients and using the products and adding the right product descriptions and terminology. Many of the internationalizing case companies were using the trendy ‘Nordic’ or ‘Arctic’ regional brands to leverage their own products and company brands internationally.
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CASE
Mettä
A brand designed for export To meet the international demands’ the founders of Helsinki Wildfoods and the new company METTÄ Nordic, decided to create a brand that would be specifically tailored for export. These wild herb and foraging experts decided to start with the Japanese market and started building a new brand with this is mind. The appreciation for beautifully designed products, the unique Finland-Japan connection and high-quality natural ingredients are a great starting point to look at Japan as a potential market for Finnish food and beverage ventures. Overall, this market has been appealing to quite a few companies in our study. Learning from their initial experiences with the Helsinki Wildfoods company, when designing for the Japanese market three key actions were taken to tailor their product and activities for export purposes.
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“Japan and Finland have had a spe-
iar with Finland out of the Nordic
cial relationship for a long time;
countries, they find Moomins and
the Japanese are the most famil-
the Finnish forest appealing. A huge Metsä Village has been opened in Japan and the Moominvalley Park will open there in March!” - Annika Hannus / Co-founder METTÄ Nordic
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CASE
Mettä – a brand designed for export FINDING A NAME THAT SPARKS CURIOSITY AND TELLS A STORY Playing around with the name, the founders looked for words that would have special letters in the Finnish alphabet, in this case ‘Ä’. According to Co-founder Roosa Heinilä, in Japan these types of letters in names are much liked and thus spark curiosity within potential customers. The word ‘mettä’ means forest in the Western dialect of Finnish, communicating the connection of the brand and its ingredients to Finnish nature and forests. While ‘mettä’ doesn’t specifically mean anything in Japanese, the shortness and simplicity is something similar to the Japanese language. In addition, for creating a name that is quirky and descriptive, it was important for the founders to settle on something that could be protected internationally.
“It’s surprising how little the Finnish food culture has been productized or exported. We should face our consumers boldly and proudly tell them about the tastes of our pristine and pure nature” - Annika Hannus / Co-founder METTÄ Nordic
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CREATING PACKAGING FOR THE ‘NEW-PREMIUM’ FOOD CATEGORY In terms of packaging, the aim was to find something that would communicate premium quality, be cost efficient, easy to transport internationally, as well as be sustainable. According to Roosa, the products are targeted to a so called ‘new-premium’ food category, where the main customers are looking for both culinary experiences and environmentally conscious premium products. They decided to design the products as light as possible, to reduce costs and emissions from flight transportation, and used packaging materials that are fully compostable – still keeping in mind the story and feel of the visual identity of the new brand.
FOOD FROM FINLAND AIDING IN INTERNATIONALIZATION In our discussions with the internationalizing Finnish ventures, most of the companies had been in contact with Food From Finland (Business Finland) and used their aid in their export efforts on various occasions. In addition to country-specific consultation, Food From Finland has organized visits to various trade shows and hosted face to face meetings with foreign buyers – leading to sales with variable success rates. They have
also played part in the story of METTĂ„ Nordic. The two founders explain that they have been able to open doors to the Japanese market and help to validate the fit of the Japanese market through building connections and initiating discussions with potential customers. Next steps are taken around the time of FOODEX JAPAN 2019 trade show, to connect with new people and find out what kind of feedback their new products receive.
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5. WRAPPING UP
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DESIGNBITES EVENTS 2018 MAY 2018 / SPRING RESEARCH INSIGHTS EVENT / DESIGN FACTORY During the Spring Insights event we shared our initial research insights to our company cases and discussed the different challenges and possibilities that we had noticed during the first round of interviews. The participating companies talked about the lack of a food entrepreneurial ecosystem and ways in which could enhance collaboration between different stakeholders, planting the seed for further events in our mind. SEPTEMBER 2018 / ADF 10 YEARS: DESIGNING FOOD AND DRINK ENTREPRENEURSHIP / DESIGN FACTORY As a part of the Aalto Design Factory 10 years celebrations, we organized an event around food called Designing Food and Drink Entrepreneurship. After sharing few insights about our project, keynote speakers Maija Itkonen (Gold & Green Foods), Mirka Olin (NORD-T) and Mikko Koskinen (Kyrรถ Distillery) shared their views on the future of food, different ways to use design and how to build an unlikely brand. Together with over 80 participants, we continued to a workshop to discuss and create around the themes of storytelling, collaboration and experimentation. OCTOBER 2018 / CO-CREATION AND COLLABORATION: STORIES AND EXAMPLES FROM THE FINNISH FOOD AND BEVERAGE STARTUPS / MISSOULA, MONTANA, USA During travels to the US, DesignBites researcher Maria shared some of our insights around co-creation and collaboration to the food and beverage ecosystem stakeholders of Missoula, Montana. The diverse crowd of university representatives, entrepreneurs and marketers were curious about the way we do collaborative design and started pondering whether there could be some synergies in their own local ecosystem. NOVEMBER 2018 / RAT RELAY HACKATHON FOR GLOBAL GOOD WITH NORD-T / DESIGN FACTORY For the fall 2018 edition of the global development hackathon Rat Relay with the Design Factory Global Network, we presented a challenge from our DesignBites case company NORD-T. The challenge travelled through five countries focused on creating ideas around the question: how might we increase responsible harvesting of wild ingredients.
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The next steps of the DesignBites research project include digging deeper into the Nordic food and beverage scene, as well as broadens the scope globally to other unique ecosystems, we are curious about the afore mentioned themes of experimentation and co-creation, the role of design, storytelling and social media, but aim to keep our eyes open for current challenges and forward-thinking actions the creative entrepreneurs are involved with. Stay tuned to the latest developments in our study through our social media and don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions, or if you would like to get involved! We’ll be hosting various open events around the themes and the realm of food / beverage entrepreneurship, which we invite all interested parties to join.
Contact us and follow the project through: Maria Mikkonen / Researcher maria.mikkonen@aalto.fi +358 50 452 0729 Tua Björklund / Professor of Practice tua.bjorklund@aalto.fi +358 50 511 3182 DesignBites www.designfactory.aalto.fi/designbites Instagram: @DesignBts Twitter: @DesignBites
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Illustrations: Paul Mikkonen @paulmikkonen
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