Cookies for free!

Last week me and my colleagues were out on the street and gave out samples. We wanted consumers to try our good news, Singoalla Cheesecake Jordgubb and Ballerina Marängsviss (launched week 13) so we decided to give them away ourselves.

Of course, we have a great mediaplan for our big news for the rest of the year with TV commercials, boards, magazines and so on but we wanted to see our consumers’ reactions with our own eyes.

So after lunch we went into Stockholm city. We placed us at the best spots where most people are around and gave out samples for some hours. We met many reactions from consumers and luckily only happy ones ;).

This was a fun day/evening where we combined great sampling of our god tasting news, catching up reactions from consumers and at the same time having fun with each others. This is usually nothing we do and therefore, it was even more fun. I really recommends it to other companies ;)

New launch - be patient!

By the time the new innovation is launched in-store you and your colleagues have been aware of the product for (usually) over a year. So when it finally reaches the consumers it is not new for you, not at all. You know the product so well, why we picked that kind of packaging-material, why it contains exact that kind of ingredients, why the design has that color and so on, you know every part if!

That is the reason why it feels as years before you will find out how the new launch works in the market. The consumers must find it in-store, buy it, bring it home, eat it, maybe buy it again, and again. This takes time! Before you know for real how a new launch is doing, time must pass. I want to be patient, but in these cases I am not ;)

How to create new products - you are there from the very start!

The best thing with Orkla is that you as a brand manager are a part of the innovation process from the very start. You have to search the market, find out what kinds of products are already there, what the competitors have done and what do you expect them to do next. Moreover, you have to know the drivers of the category and of course the local preferences. When you have done the research you can start the next step. Create workshops with both internal and externals partners to find the most preferred taste, smell, figure and look. Of course, we cannot today know for sure what the “next big innovation” is but with research and workshops behind you the chance of success is bigger.

When you have sorted out the very many ideas that were there from start and you only have a few concepts left, it is time to try to create it in the real world, not in the factory but in the lab. If you find some of the cookies great you continue by letting consumers eat them. If the results are good you move on together with the project group to decide production type, packaging, design and communication.

It sounds easy but the entire process from start (research) to end (final product in-store) takes usually over one year. Along the way you will for sure have fun, realize that you have to be patient and learn a lot. I strongly recommend it!

To print a new design - how hard can it be?

When a new design is to be printed at the first time we must be sure that the design is correct and that all the colors are perfect. You might think, how hard can it be? But yes, it can actually be pretty tricky. Today I have been at a printing house for the whole day to look after one new design we are about to launch. When you have been standing at the printing-table and looking at different shades of magenta (red) for one hour or more, you cannot see the difference any longer. Or if the biscuit at the design has the perfect color so it looks genuine. It is trickier than you think… but fun!

Orkla Growth Award

Last week I attended the ceremony of Orkla Growth Award in Oslo. This event is arranged once every year and it is a really fun evening. You meet colleagues from all over the world while Orkla is nominating companies (within Orkla Brands) that have done well throughout the past year. The categories can be everything from best advertising, to best growth innovation, to best packaging, to best new launch, to best promotion campaign to the biggest price “Grand Price” (grand slam). Grand Price is the most prestige to win and this year Procordia won it. That means that they have done well all over, that they have had a high standard in general in every part they have done. Last year OLW won the desirable price especially for its success with “fredagsmys”. Next year I hope it will be another company…

Shoot pictures!

Last Thursday I spent the day with a photographer taking new pictures to one of our products. That was fun and really interesting. It is so much precision in taking good pictures and that takes time, oh lord! To be sure that you get a great picture from the exact right angel, with the best possible light and the perfect proposition, you must take so many optional pictures until you finally you get the right one. You have to be patient! Before this session I understood that being a photographer included precision, but to see it this close gave the work of photographer another dimensions. I am even more fascinated of it now.

To be a Project Manager

When working as a brand manager your job includes being a project manager. In Orkla you have to manage different projects, everything from developing brand new products to creating campaigns within your portfolio of brands.

To run a project is very fun but in the same time rather tricky. You work with different divisions of the organisation and must be able to understand opposite interests and interconnect them. As a leader of a project you cannot understand every part. For example, I am not educated in how a machine creating cartons is built up, how to estimate time needed for washing a huge dough mixer, or which aroma from which supplier that is the most suitable for a specific cookie-recipes. That is why a group of people with different specialities is set up together.

As a project manager you cannot have control over every part of the project. That is quite frustrating in the beginning, not being able to understand and control each element of a project that you are responsible for, but you learn over time. You also get to know the team members better and better (of course) and different ways to work together, which is the funniest part!