Emmi is the largest milk-processing company in Switzerland with around 6,000 employees. Emmi is known for products such as Caffè Latte, Energy Milk and AktiFit. Patricia's team has already done several projects with us. Patricia, what do you do at Emmi?
We are a team of four people. We are responsible for innovation management within the Emmi Group. On the one hand, we shape Emmi's innovation strategy. On the other hand, we manage projects in the innovation process. We support projects from the initial idea to the market launch.
Super interesting! What are the biggest challenges for you in your job?
Emmi is under increasing pressure from new competitors. The markets are increasingly becoming niche markets. Our challenge is: How can we serve these markets? Another challenge is: How can we implement our ideas as quickly as possible?
Why did you choose innohack as your innovation partner?
Customer centricity is very important to us. Like all companies, we want to reduce risks in the area of innovation. We want to learn from our customers. So we asked ourselves how we could gain these insights in a new way. That's why we considered whether we could start a digital business experiment together. This meant creating two virtual brands, testing them on the market and evaluating them with real consumers. This approach has several advantages for us. First and foremost, speed. We can visualize our ideas relatively quickly with two virtual brands and two landing pages. This gives us concrete data on what works and what doesn't. This is a new way of providing evidence. It's a good approach because it's very fast. And because we can involve internal stakeholders at an early stage, which allows us to have different conversations. After two trials, I can say that it worked very well. The feedback from Emmi employees was very positive. We can definitely imagine continuing to work in this way.
Innovation projects in particular often raise the question: What happens now? How would you say market tests help you and how can you build on them?
Of course, this depends on how well the virtual products are received by the market. We had the luxury that both virtual products were well received by consumers. Now we have to decide which idea we want to pursue further. The material is of course very good and concrete. Our internal discussions mainly revolve around which product we want to bring to market. And what finishing touches are still needed. This process usually takes us several months.
And how long did it take this time?
Let me do the math... We had one week of sprint, two weeks of advertising campaigns and one week of evaluation. Within 1 month, we turned an idea into a concrete positioning with visualization. We have come a long way.
Cool! How was this process for you personally, as you accompanied us on the journey from start to finish?
It was very interesting and very pleasant. Our conversations, even before the sprint, were very exciting. I had a good feeling and we got on well. You also took our thoughts on board very well. Emmi is a large company and not a start-up. Nevertheless, you understood our situation and our requirements very well. It was also very valuable that various Emmi stakeholders took part in the sprint. On the one hand, this allowed new perspectives and knowledge to be brought in. On the other hand, the people who will continue to work with these ideas are already represented. It is very important that we have a common understanding and a common vision.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Keep up the good work! It's great fun working with you. You are very experienced in this field. I can imagine that this will be very interesting for many of your customers.
"We want to minimize risks with innovations. That's why we carry out market tests together with innohack. This allows us to visualize an idea very quickly and obtain concrete data on what works and what doesn't."
Patricia Urfer, Manager New Business & Innovation EMMI
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