CONSUMER PROBLEM

Mental stimulation is often an overlooked aspect for maintaining the health & wellness of a dog and though toys are aplenty, dog parents struggle to find easy-to-use, interactive toys that can keep a dog’s attention.

BUSINESS CONTEXT

The leader in the biscuits category, Milk-Bone® sought to expand beyond its core segments and launch into treat dispensing toys for the mainstream channel. It would become the first major treat brand to enter the toy category, giving it the opportunity to drive traffic to the Toys shelf at mass retailers and add incremental sales to their existing biscuit business.

APPROACH

This was uncharted territory for the company, so it was imperative to design a learning plan that invested significant time in immersing our clients into the category from both a consumer and product perspective. Our empathy work began with dog park intercepts and in-home-use trials with a goal of understanding from dog parents how they play with their dogs and what was most important when it came to selecting toys. To complement our field research, we spoke with experts in canine behavior to understand the nuances of play time and key product guardrails to consider.

Distilling our learnings into insight-driven platforms around key benefits and usage, we designed an interactive ideation session for a cross-functional team of marketers, creatives, technical leads, and our external experts based on pain points and delights, workarounds, and play patterns.

OUTCOMES

Our ideation session generated over 120 ideas and inspired 18 new treat dispensing toy concepts that moved onto the prototyping stage. New Milk-Bone Active® Treat Tumbler® and Milk-Bone Active® Biscuit Dispensing Ball were launched in early 2018 bringing purposeful play to dogs nationwide.

RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY ACTIVITIES

Category Audit
In-Home-Use Trials
Stakeholder Interviews
Expert Interviews
Ideation Design & Facilitation
Concept Development
Product Roadmap Strategy