A leading supplier of bakery products came to us with a problem...

...the government, the media and even our next door neighbours are telling us to eat more healthily

...but what does this actually mean?...

...how does the man on the street decide what is and isn't healthy?

...and in an area like the in-store bakery, can healthy products be introduced and be welcomed?

....or is 'healthy treat' an oxymoron?...

The Challenge

To design research open ended enough to capture people's real feelings on an extremely subjective area...

...we also had to incorporate analysis of a potentially new 'healthy treat'...

With a brief as open as this we had to ensure maximum coverage was gained from a relatively small set of six groups

Our Findings

We found that there are no easy definitions or paths to healthiness, more a case of each to their own!

Work, money, life-stage and time all influence how healthy we are able to be

And the concept of what is healthy is changing all the time

With new definitions of healthy emerging, no-one knows who to trust, who not to trust, what to believe and what not to believe

Cynicism and scepticism can be the main outcomes

For the majority, the key was 'everything in moderation'

The In-Store Bakery

The in-store bakery was seen as more of an 'unhealthy treat' area than a healthy one....

...with many claiming to avoid the whole area rather than being tempted by the likes of muffins and doughnuts

The section was there to tempt the weak and some felt that this should always remain so...

Others, however, felt it was time for change...

"Tell me I might find something even vaguely healthy and I'd definitely be more likely to visit your aisle"...

New 'healthy treat'

The proof was in the pudding...

...but reaction towards our new products was fine in principle but less fine in reality

We'd managed to make 'healthy treats' look far too healthy

Our concepts were closer to 'health foods' than 'healthy treats'

However we were able to show that there was genuine interest in healthy alternatives in the in-store bakery if our client could get the product concepts right

We provided clear indications on what we felt would work to tempt the customer into buying a healthier treat from the in-store bakery

Feedback

The client is looking to develop the 'healthy treat' concept still further

New work will look to refine the positioning as well as some more potential product lines