Many business owners in the food industry dream of developing the next great food product that will line the shelves of grocery stores and supermarkets across the country. However, developing a high-quality food product that sets itself apart from the competition is often much easier said than done. In this article, we’ll take a look at the various steps that make up the process of food product development in order to help you get started creating a food product that will take the world by storm.
The Food Product Development Process
Stage One: Business Strategy
Before you can get started creating your food product, you’ll first need to develop a thorough strategy for how you plan to sell and market it. Competition in the food industry is fierce, and creating a product that tastes great unfortunately isn’t enough to ensure sustainable profits. In order to carve out your share of the market, creating an effective business plan that covers every aspect of your sales and marketing strategy is a necessity.
Stage Two: Product Development
Once you have created a plan for how you intend to sell your food product, it’s time to get started creating it. In addition to perfecting the product itself, though, you will also need to perfect your process for producing it on a large scale since bulk production of your product will hopefully be required once your sales start to take off.
Stage Three: Product Testing
Safety standards in the food industry are incredibly high, and your food product will likely be required to undergo a wide range of safety testing before you are able to bring it to market. You may also wish to hire a focus group once all safety testing is complete in order to test the quality and taste of your food product as well.
Stage Four: Market Testing
After you have fine-tuned your food product, it’s time to start testing how it will be received. Once again, hiring focus groups is the best way to go about this phase of the food development process. In addition to testing the reception of the product itself, you may also want to test how people feel about your food product’s appearance and packaging.
Stage Five: Preparing for Product Launch
It’s never a good idea to rush the launch of your new product. Once you are finished testing it out, be sure to spend plenty of time preparing for a successful product launch before you start producing your product in bulk. Your initial product launch can often make or break your product’s success, so it’s certainly important to be well-prepared.
Stage Six: Product Launch
Having completed all of the prerequisite stages of food product development, it’s now time to reap your rewards. Ramp up production of your product, put your business plan into action, and (hopefully) enjoy the profits that your new product brings.
Stage Seven: Post-Launch Evaluation
After your product launch is complete, you’ll want to take a step back and evaluate its performance. Are there areas where your approach to marketing could improve? Is there something about your product or its packaging that needs to be changed? Is your production process as efficient as possible? Asking and answering questions such as this during your post-launch evaluation will help you improve your strategy moving forward.
How the Greater Good Can Help Bring Your Food Product to Market
At The Greater Goods, we are dedicated to helping businesses and entrepreneurs bring exciting new food products to market. From ingredient brokerage to food business consulting, we are able to help with every phase of the food product development process. To learn more about our industry-leading services, feel free to contact us today.