 
Client Challenge -
Campbell Soup was Creative Realities’ (CRI’s) first client back in 1988. Over the years we have collaboratively tackled an array of both strategic and tactical innovation challenges, some of which were:
- Vlasic - Invent competitively pre-emptive new pickle ideas for Vlasic.
- Prego - Recapture market share for Prego that has been lost to Ragu´.
- Pace Foods - Identify competitive spaces in the supermarket where Campbell’s core competencies could best be applied.
Collaborative Breakthrough -
- Vlasic - Laterally sliced pickles was a marketing no-brainer. The challenge was a technical one: how to handle irregularly shaped cucumbers at high production speeds without hurting them. The breakthrough came from invited experts from two, seemingly irrelevant divisions of the company: a Pepperidge Farm expert who specialized in slicing bread, and a Soup Division R&D person, who understood how to slice tomatoes without damaging them.
- Prego - A CRI WarGames exercise was conducted, to break the Campbell’s team out of its perceived constraints. This exercise helped the Campbell’s team realize that Prego had more marketplace power than they thought.
- Pace Foods - The company is vertically integrated in tomatoes all the way back to the field. With this in mind the president of Campbell’s tasked one of his new venture teams to take a strategic look at the supermarket distribution channel, to identify the holes in the Campbell’s portfolio that involved the tomato. Facilitated Field Excursions (one of CRI’s Ethnography services) identified a totally untapped tomato arena for Campbell’s: sauces and condiments, particularly in the rapidly emerging segment of ethnic foods.
Reality –
- Vlasic - Stackers brand; laterally sliced pickles that provided a competitive advantage for almost two years.
- Prego - A frontal attack on Ragu´ that regained significant market share.
- Pace Foods - Recognizing this hole in their product portfolio Campbell’s purchased the Pace line of ethnic foods.
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