The Grocer's frozen challenge team has shortlisted three concepts. Now we want your votes, says Siân Harrington
Winterfold Farm Pick Your Own brings interactivity and choice to frozen food. Everyone is used to bagging and weighing fresh veg and many have visited pick-your-own farms. But when it comes to frozen veg, the selection is limited. With the Winterfold Farm concept, a wide range of prepared frozen vegetables will be displayed loose and shoppers will be able to serve themselves with special scoops.
To help guide 5-a-day consumption, scoops will be about one portion size for each line. As with fresh fruit and veg, each type will be priced separately - this is not a 'one price per 100g' pick'n'mix concept. Scales will automatically print the right labels.
A modular series of freezer-compatible boxes will be available in large, medium and small sizes. These can be carried home in a special cool bag for £1.99 or free with purchases of £5 or more.
The brand is traditional and reassuring, redolent of farming and market gardening. It's aimed at those looking for high-quality produce in a convenient, flexible format.
There are 18 so-called superfoods, each of which is rich in a range of natural plant nutrients shown to be good for our health. For those wishing to lead a healthy life, it's logical to include a high proportion of superfoods in their diets.
But awareness of the superfoods is low. Some may have heard of the term but most will be unable to name many of them.
Despite this, many people unknowingly include superfoods in their weekly shop. Nature's 18 will help to educate the consumer; if a foodstuff is offered under the Nature's 18 label, then it's a superfood.
The range will offer superfoods separately and also in Balance Boxes including a selection of different superfoods, each of which contains nutrients benefiting a different part of the body (blood, heart, eyes, nervous system etc). Symbols appear on pack to alert the consumer.
The range is aimed at consumers with a healthy lifestyle who are looking for convenient ways to optimise their intake of nature's beneficial plant nutrients. It's all about the body being a temple that deserves only the best.
The 18 superfoods include some items that are not suitable for freezing (avocados) or best kept in dry, non-frozen conditions (seeds and nuts), presenting a perfect opportunity for the brand to spread from the freezer cabinet to other parts of the supermarket.
Isobar enables the consumer to bring the sophistication of the trendiest bars into their own home.
The range comprises innovative and original products for serving drinks and entertaining at home.
It includes frozen lemon and lime slices, frozen cranberries, frozen cubes of Sauvignon blanc (so your wine doesn't get watered down), cubes of cassis and even ice cubes containing edible flowers for an elegant sophisticated touch.
The range has a modern, contemporary feel that is perfectly in tune with elegant urban living and is aimed at the 25-40 age group. And it is as cool as the coolest bars.
For children, particularly the four-10 age group, there's the Ice Guys range.
The Ice Guys themselves are three polar characters - a polar bear, a penguin and a seal - which will front the campaign.
The range includes flavoured ice cubes that are shaped like the characters, and also a new product - the Strolly - a rigid straw that has a shaped lolly on the end.
Children love lollies and playing with the ice in their drinks; with the Strolly, they get both.
If they finish their drink quickly, they've got a lolly; if the strolly melts, it helps flavour their drink.
Different flavours make the Strollies compatible with the most popular children's drinks, such as orange, lemonade and cola.
The Isobar/Ice Guys range is fun and engaging, and the packaging concept is designed to be able to include games and competitions.
Winterfold Farm
Nature's 18 Superfoods
Isobar and Ice Guys
Tell us which idea you think has the most commercial potential.
And then there were three. Following last month's introduction to The Grocer's frozen challenge, we can reveal the three concepts that our expert panel selected from a shortlist of seven new ideas designed to reinvigorate the frozen category. Judging by the response to the first of our series of four features last month, there are many in the industry that feel it is high time the category lost its downmarket and discounted price image. There are no shortages of exciting ideas out there. Indeed, frozen food plays to today's trends of convenience and health. The problem appears to lie with buyers scared of taking a risk to push the whole category forward. In light of this, our panellists (below) have chosen the concepts they believe will bring incremental volume to the category and not steal from existing higher-margin chilled products; boost shopper traffic in frozen aisles; play to the inherent strengths of the frozen food format; and boost margin and add value These ideas - Nature's 18 Superfoods, Winterfold Farm and Isobar/Ice Guys - have been brought to life on the opposite page by branding and communications agency DNX. So now it is time for you, our readers, to vote on the concept you like best. The winning idea will appear in the May 20 issue of The Grocer, complete with a marketing campaign concept, also created by DNX. In June this idea will be presented to frozen food buyers to see if they would stock this hypothetical product. So please send your favourite to the e-mail address below.
E-mail your choice to sian.harrington@william-reed.co.uk, putting The Grocer Frozen Challenge as the subject heading. We are keen to get as many votes as possible, so you don't have to do anything more than state the name of your choice to win. But if you feel like commenting on the viability of the proposals, please do so, and your views will be taken in confidence. The deadline for votes is Tuesday, April 25.
Winterfold Farm Pick Your Own brings interactivity and choice to frozen food. Everyone is used to bagging and weighing fresh veg and many have visited pick-your-own farms. But when it comes to frozen veg, the selection is limited. With the Winterfold Farm concept, a wide range of prepared frozen vegetables will be displayed loose and shoppers will be able to serve themselves with special scoops.
To help guide 5-a-day consumption, scoops will be about one portion size for each line. As with fresh fruit and veg, each type will be priced separately - this is not a 'one price per 100g' pick'n'mix concept. Scales will automatically print the right labels.
A modular series of freezer-compatible boxes will be available in large, medium and small sizes. These can be carried home in a special cool bag for £1.99 or free with purchases of £5 or more.
The brand is traditional and reassuring, redolent of farming and market gardening. It's aimed at those looking for high-quality produce in a convenient, flexible format.
There are 18 so-called superfoods, each of which is rich in a range of natural plant nutrients shown to be good for our health. For those wishing to lead a healthy life, it's logical to include a high proportion of superfoods in their diets.
But awareness of the superfoods is low. Some may have heard of the term but most will be unable to name many of them.
Despite this, many people unknowingly include superfoods in their weekly shop. Nature's 18 will help to educate the consumer; if a foodstuff is offered under the Nature's 18 label, then it's a superfood.
The range will offer superfoods separately and also in Balance Boxes including a selection of different superfoods, each of which contains nutrients benefiting a different part of the body (blood, heart, eyes, nervous system etc). Symbols appear on pack to alert the consumer.
The range is aimed at consumers with a healthy lifestyle who are looking for convenient ways to optimise their intake of nature's beneficial plant nutrients. It's all about the body being a temple that deserves only the best.
The 18 superfoods include some items that are not suitable for freezing (avocados) or best kept in dry, non-frozen conditions (seeds and nuts), presenting a perfect opportunity for the brand to spread from the freezer cabinet to other parts of the supermarket.
Isobar enables the consumer to bring the sophistication of the trendiest bars into their own home.
The range comprises innovative and original products for serving drinks and entertaining at home.
It includes frozen lemon and lime slices, frozen cranberries, frozen cubes of Sauvignon blanc (so your wine doesn't get watered down), cubes of cassis and even ice cubes containing edible flowers for an elegant sophisticated touch.
The range has a modern, contemporary feel that is perfectly in tune with elegant urban living and is aimed at the 25-40 age group. And it is as cool as the coolest bars.
For children, particularly the four-10 age group, there's the Ice Guys range.
The Ice Guys themselves are three polar characters - a polar bear, a penguin and a seal - which will front the campaign.
The range includes flavoured ice cubes that are shaped like the characters, and also a new product - the Strolly - a rigid straw that has a shaped lolly on the end.
Children love lollies and playing with the ice in their drinks; with the Strolly, they get both.
If they finish their drink quickly, they've got a lolly; if the strolly melts, it helps flavour their drink.
Different flavours make the Strollies compatible with the most popular children's drinks, such as orange, lemonade and cola.
The Isobar/Ice Guys range is fun and engaging, and the packaging concept is designed to be able to include games and competitions.
Winterfold Farm
Nature's 18 Superfoods
Isobar and Ice Guys
Tell us which idea you think has the most commercial potential.
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