Squished: FDReviews Case Study

FDReviews Team
Jul 4, 2022
3 min read

What happens when the FDReviews team get to review a fruit snack?

We asked Paul McCulloch, Managing Director of Squished, to share their experience!

Background

Squished is a range of products that rescues surplus berries and transforms them into the most delicious and satisfying snacks.

They have now rescued thousands of kilos of berries that otherwise would have been wasted by developing a novel process that rescues, preserves and transforms them. The range includes energy balls, flapjacks and jams.

Reason for review - To ensure the branding, messaging and proposition were aligned with the market needs.

Paul says, 'We were looking to print a new film, along with a new product offering, and wanted to ensure that we had conveyed all the right messaging and that the product was ready to hit the shelves."

"We also wanted to ensure that all messaging, and ingredients are aligned to hit the target customer. Like many brands when you are focused on the brand it can be harder to see the full clarity of the proposition."

What benefits did the review give you?

The review has been a wonderful opportunity to sense check from industry experts that the brand was going in the right direction.

The experts had really read the brief and understood what we were trying to achieve from the review.

The review has brought up some key questions that we needed to discuss and we shared the review with the shareholders to enable us to have a clear discussion around these points.

The discussion around the sweetness of the product was very useful and gave us greater insight into the position of the industry. We also found feedback about product positioning and routes to market.

What financial impact has the review had on the business?

We have looked at the manufacturing process to increase our shelf life to 12 months, as this will make us a more robust product in the marketplace.

The review enabled us to reinforce our messaging about how many pieces of fruit have been rescued. This is now front and centre on the pack. We have sharpened up our message around rescue fruit.

The review offered great value for money and gave us great insights into family buying habits, confirmed some of our views and made us think about others.

What have implemented since the review?

We have defined our premium offering in the flapjack market with rescue fruit, this was defined by the specific feedback we received from the review.

Are you playing more on the rescued fruit?

Yes, we are shouting about this more as the feedback from the workshop indicated that this was a key message that consumers wanted to know.

Have you addressed the hierarchy of the key messages?

Yes. We have and we have made this much clearer for the consumer after the insights from the review.

The review raised a question about Vegan, gluten free etc. We are gathering more direct to consumers feedback at events over the summer. The consumers preference seems to be around gluten free as an on-pack message. It was great to hear the feedback from the panel too.

What was the catalyst for you getting in touch with FDReviews?

We got in touch with FDReviews via an introduction through an industry expert. They were so helpful and insightful and the process to arrange the review was very quick and easy. We were at a crossroads with our product development and before pressing buttons on production and printing of packaging we were keen to get independent input from the industry to avoid costly mistakes and to ensure our product has the best proposition and routes to market.

Testimonial

“The FDReviews offered us great and hugely valuable insight from leading industry experts. That enabled us to really sense check our industry position and define our routes to market and who the primary and secondary target audience is. The review offered excellent return on investment, and we will be using the services again in the future.”

- Paul McCulloch, Co-founder Squished