Is it Just Butter?
As I slathered butter on my toast on Sunday morning, I started questioning, WHY AM I DOING THIS? What is butter really adding to my toast? Isn’t the real flavor and texture in the jelly, jam, preserves or fruit spread…(a nod to my years at The JM Smucker Co)? What marginal benefit is butter really adding, besides some saturated fat and calories.
If your childhood was like mine, you probably grew up eating something that loosely resembled butter on your bread and toast: margarine…or maybe oleo. But as we’ve grown up, started cooking on our own, planning meals, making grocery lists and doing grocery hauls, you probably use butter much more than the frankensteined cousins. I even prefer ghee for cooking, but that’s another topic for another day.
But the tradition of popping dry bread out of the toaster and smearing a pat of chilled butter on it? Why do I continue to do this? Why does this feel like a necessary base for jelly? Would I even miss it if I stopped using it?
Disclaimer: Butter can certainly be delicious, especially if I’m grilling bread in a pan with butter. It’s the chilled lump of butter that I routinely mash onto my toast that I’m questioning.
This feels like an analogy for several consumer research practices I’ve seen in both insights and innovation teams. You may have very good reasons for why certain practices (types of studies, for example) started being used in your business. Over time, you’ve developed a comfort level with these practices, and it may seem risky to deviate. So, without question, you return to these practices.
But do you ever pause to evaluate these practices?
Do you ever ask if these are still serving a purpose?
Do you sometimes question if they’re still a good investment?
Are you still routinely adding butter? Or could you just skip to the jelly (or any other flavor-maker) without losing much?
I’m in the business of designing custom insights & innovation programs to target the unique goals of small and mid-sized companies.
Do you need to identify & GROW your pipeline?
Do you need to understand WHO you’re designing for?
Do you need validation that this is THE PRODUCT that you intend it to be?
Do you need to understand where consumers find VALUE so you can take cost out where they don’t?
Do you need to benchmark your product or brand against the COMPETITION?
Do you have SPECIFIC NEEDS that you’d like to talk through?
If your answer is YES to any of these, I’d love to have a conversation with you!
Maybe you don't need the butter at all - let's start with the jelly!
FACT DROP: During WW2, demand for butter was high as it was a key ingredient in military rations and civilian diets. Enter rationing. Butter became a luxury item with a black market to boot. Enter cheaper alts like margarine & oleo.
If you want to read more about the history of butter, find it here: How WWII Shaped the Butter Industry - Eat More Butter
