In the overcrowded and ever-changing world of consumer packaged goods, new product success is hard to come by. That’s why Mary Haderlein, Principal of Hyde Park Group Food Innovation, developed SMASH, a proprietary New Product Idea Development Process that is blowing the roof off of ideation. “Our process is a cross pollination of three separate disciplines – strategy, culinary, and packaging design – working in lockstep, not linearly.” Haderlein is particularly proud of her partnership with CB’a Brand Engine, one of the world’s leading package design companies. “The combination of our strategic and culinary resources with their extraordinary package design team is exponential. And the results are truly breakthrough.”
Haderlein is a firm believer that the right people make all the difference. “I’m not interested in being the biggest food innovation firm, just working with the best people," says Haderlein. Hyde Park Group’s Chief Food Innovator, Michael Foley, is a perfect example of her philosophy. Foley, former owner and executive chef of the famed Printer’s Row restaurant group, has served as Hyde Park Group’s Chief Food Innovator for almost four years. Foley is a not only a five star, James Beard award-winning chef, he also has a long history of working directly with corporate America as a culinary consultant. At Hyde Park Group, Haderlein and Foley have successfully worked with a plethora of global companies including Starbucks, Kraft, and Kellogg.
Yet, when it came to developing new product ideas for companies, Haderlein felt that strategic and culinary exploration could only go so far. “We were missing the third leg of the stool – packaging. You can’t think about new food ideas without packaging or packaging without food. They are completely interconnected.” Haderlein looked long and hard for kindred spirits in the package design world and accidentally stumbled upon Brand Engine. “Actually, I followed Elainne Roberton. Elainne is undoubtedly the very best packaging professional with whom I’ve ever worked. When she joined Brand Engine, I thought, if she’s going there, they must really be something.” Elainne is now Hyde Park Group’s gateway to both the U.S. Brand Engine team as well as their global CB’a network with 13 offices worldwide.
As a 25 year veteran of the advertising industry with expertise in strategic planning and ideation, Haderlein knew that the existing idea development process was flawed at many companies. “Many companies can’t truly commit the culinary or packaging resources to an idea until the idea has proven potential. It’s a chicken or egg dilemma.” SMASH solves this dilemma by uniting strategists, chefs and packaging designers together in what some call the "fuzzy front end." By working together from the inception, the range and depth of ideas is well beyond what is achieved in typical development. Still, Haderlein contends that while they’ve perfected the SMASH process into a lean, mean, idea generating machine, it’s the people that make the difference.
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