Kodiak Cakes Leads Category Innovation With End-To-End Platform Insights

This case study explores the impact quantilope's automated insights platform has in helping a growing brand dominate their category through continuous innovation.

As a brand built around the idea of living ‘epic days’ and ‘wilder lives’, Kodiak Cakes is constantly innovating to provide consumers with wholesome nutrition that fuels the body for everyday adventures. To facilitate their fast pace of innovation, the Insights team at Kodiak Cakes relies on quantilope’s end-to-end Consumer Intelligence Platform for automated advanced method and tracking research.

Their findings allow them to foster intelligence across nearly every facet of the business – from Product, to Design, Marketing, and Branding – to always stay one step ahead of the competition.

Key Takeaways:

Table of Contents

• A modernized approach to insights
• Leveraging quantilope’s centralized research hub
• Driving decisions with deeper insights
• quantilope x Kodiak Cakes: partners in modernized innovation

A modernized approach to insights

Kodiak Cakes, a brand well known for their whole-grain pancake and waffle mixes, operates in highly-competitive categories centered around rapid growth, innovation, and expansion. The brand is constantly expanding into new product categories and working on doing business differently to stand out as a leader in its space.

To safeguard these innovation efforts and to keep up with a rise in internal research requests, Kodiak Cakes began using quantilope’s Consumer Intelligence Platform as a modernized solution for their scaling insights needs.

With quantilope, the Kodiak Cakes team found immediate value in the platform’s end-to-end automation, hands-on interface, and most importantly, speed to high-quality insights. With always-on access to both advanced method and tracking insights, they can provide Kodiak Cakes’ business leaders and stakeholders with real-time insights without worrying about manual data manipulation or time-consuming analysis; as a team that moves fast, in an already-fast-paced industry, this is key.

"I like the democratization of insights with quantilope; it enables us to move really fast while knowing we’re providing really excellent research to our other business teams.”

- Candace Child, Consumer Insights Manager at Kodiak Cakes

Alongside quantilope’s real-time insights, Kodiak Cakes benefits from the platform’s automation of traditionally complex research methodologies. Kodiak Cakes frequently leverages quantilope’s suite of automated, advanced research methods (sometimes even combining several methods into one study) to get rich, detailed insights about their consumers and their needs.

The team can easily set up each advanced method, leaning on automated analysis and charting as soon as their project starts collecting data. When paired with tracking, Kodiak Cakes not only gains real-time advanced method insights but also accumulates valuable context over time, allowing them to compare current product release metrics against historical performance data.

Capturing and tracking these kinds of advanced insights over time is what allows Kodiak Cakes to anticipate and act on changing trends, rather than race to keep up. For example, they use an automated TURF analysis to understand optimal portfolio offerings (e.g. formats of granola), an automated A/B Test to validate final concept ideas, an automated conjoint analysis to solidify their concept’s pricing structure, and an automated brand health tracker to monitor their ongoing performance in the market against competitors.

“[With quantilope] we’re able to decrease the amount of time and energy previously required to meet project deadlines, making our jobs easier. This lets us focus on innovation, staying ahead of the market and what’s next. The faster we can move at those speeds and identify what consumers want and how we can best suit their needs, the better we’ll perform in the market.”

– Elizabeth Hilgemann, Associate Consumer Insights Manager at Kodiak Cakes

Leveraging quantilope’s centralized research hub

Kodiak Cakes opted to make the switch from a major experience management software to quantilope’s automated platform in order to match the speed, user-experience, and research capabilities they were looking for, all within one centralized hub for easy cross-team collaboration. Whether they’re running multiple advanced method studies (like 5 conjoints in a matter of weeks) or monitoring insights over time in tracking projects, the team is always in control of their research process, at every project stage.

Kodiak Cakes operates in a number of categories (pancakes, waffles, french toast, hot cereal, baking, bars, granola) with even more product categories on the horizon. To easily monitor their ongoing performance against competitors and deep dive into specific category insights, they can jump into quantilope’s platform at any time for real-time insights.  

As Kodiak Cakes’, Elizabeth Hilgemann, frames it:

 “Prior to quantilope, we didn’t own our data, so we couldn't easily cut or manipulate it when and how we wanted to; now, with quantilope, we have full access to our data to quickly respond to our brand or leadership teams without having to go through other channels and wait for those updates.” 

Driving decisions with deeper insights

Since making the switch to quantilope, Kodiak Cakes continues to leverage the platform for a wide range of projects, from a monthly brand tracker to extensive concept testing and positioning work. The Kodiak Cakes Insights team supports nearly all areas of the business, especially the new product development process. With access to real-time and trended data all in one place on quantilope’s platform, the Insights team is considered Kodiak Cakes’ expert consumer advocates. As a result, the Kodiak Cakes business as a whole is better armed with real consumer feedback and opinions to fuel future growth.

Between their ongoing brand tracker and ad-hoc advanced method studies with quantilope, Kodiak Cakes can:

• Directly access tracking data: With their previous brand tracking approach, Kodiak Cakes didn’t own their data and had no way to easily “dig” into it. Access to quantilope’s platform now gives their team the ability to visualize and analyze data any way they like, whenever they need. “With quantilope, everything is in the platform and we have usable charts in minutes.” - Elizabeth Hilgemann
• Capture advanced methods at scale: With access to the largest suite of automated advanced methods on quantilope’s platform, the Kodiak Cakes team now routinely leverages complex methods like TURF and conjoint analysis, with ease; for instance, they were able to run 5 separate conjoint studies in a matter of weeks! 
  
• Save time and cost efficiencies: With quantilope, the Kodiak Cakes team has enjoyed significant time savings during both reporting and analysis stages: “We see the most time efficiencies in reporting and analysis, along with value in quantilope’s advanced method consultation and expertise.” - Elizabeth Hilgemann

quantilope x Kodiak Cakes: partners in modernized innovation

For a company like Kodiak Cakes that’s rooted in constant innovation, having access to a flexible, efficient, and fast research solution is non-negotiable. The Insights team at Kodiak Cakes uses quantilope’s Consumer Intelligence Platform as their centralized research hub, housing all their tracking and advanced method data in one spot to easily collaborate with other relevant business teams.

Using quantilope’s platform, the team doesn’t have to worry about tedious, manual processes or lengthy project turnaround times. They’re instead empowered to be the drivers of innovation as the ones with hands-on access to consumers wants, needs, preferences, and opinions.

With these valuable insights, Kodiak Cakes confidently positions themselves as leaders in great-tasting, whole-grain products that fuel consumers for whatever life throws their way.