Innovation is also about failure, it always comes with a cost and is not always  new, nor sensational. What does innovation mean for a company that successfully manages innovation on regularly basis, Puratos, especially in B2B? We’ve interviewed Irina Stici, Marketing Manager at Puratos Modova to find more about they ways innovation creates value for both customers and organizations alike. Puratos is  is a manufacturer and supplier of bakery ingredients for professional bakers, pâtissiers and chocolatiers around the world with a history of over 100 years and a company that takes innovation so seriously that included its commitment to it within its brand tagline: “ Reliable  partners in innovation. “. It has a network of  88 “Innovation Centers “ aiming to provide clients with the very latest equipment and inspiration to improve  their products.

Irina is currently studying Marketing Innovation within the advanced certified marketing training, Diploma in Professional Marketing.

Meta: How marketing innovation brings value for companies and their customers? Find more from Irina Stici.

What Innovation means to Puratos?

The “lifestyle” at Puratos is a process of continuous innovation dedicated to help our customers to better respond to the market changes and consumers’ needs. For a century Puratos produces and supplies innovative ingredients to bakers, pâtissiers and chocolatiers in over 100 countries.

At Puratos innovation lies at the heart of everything we do, weather it is about “inspired by nature” solutions to improve the taste, texture and shelf -life of end products or unique bakery ingredients that help our partners to create their signature breads. It is also about unique tools to research into customers’ needs, test the prototypes, analyze and translate market data into actionable insights.

The Sensobus is a fully equipped, sensory lab on wheels, that can travel across the globe and welcome 300 people per day. In fact, it is a huge, beautiful truck. In 2017 with the Sensobus we have explored Moldavian bread market and discovered local consumers expectations. We have gathered important data which were carefully analyzed and shared with our customers during a big local event.

Taste Tomorrow by Puratos is a large bakery, patisserie and chocolate consumer survey conducted in 40 countries with data gathered from over 17000 consumers about their food choices, behaviors and attitudes. The latest trends and inspiring concepts identified by Taste Tomorrow are being shared with our customers to help them further innovate and successfully grow their business.

As a local subsidiary, we, Puratos Moldova, embrace and share same passion for innovation.  As the bread and patisserie market in Republic of Moldova is quite conservative and the adoption of innovations in many cases takes place very slow, a creative and customer-centric marketing is utmost.

“Thinking globally, acting locally” lies at the base of our local marketing innovation process. To build a positive “dialogue” between local customers and Puratos’ solutions some concepts and communication are being localized.

What are Puratos’ future plans?

Puratos has a strong commitment to the people and the planet. Health and well-being solutions and responsible sourcing will continue to be the priority in Puratos’ innovation process.

To better cope with the new reality, but also to better serve our customers, in some local marketing and sales areas the digitalization will be taken at a next level.

Which are the innovative companies you admire most?

I admire our local customers who despite limited growth opportunities on the local market, continue to innovate, but also companies like Amazon, Mondelez.

It seems Amazon has a lot of crazy, bold ideas in their innovation pipeline. It is disruptive and innovate in areas where nobody expected them to.

Kindle is one of Amazon’s game changing innovation which has no serious competition. As a marketer, I appreciate that with Kindle, Amazon took readers’ experience to the next level, continuing to serve its vision. In 1995 when Amazon was launched, Jeff Bezos was promoting it as “world’s largest bookstore” and later in 2007, with the launch of e-book reader, he affirmed to the world that his dream is still alive.

As a consumer, I appreciate Kindle that it is device independent. I have several Kindle books an no Kindle device. Mondelez International is another company I consider very innovative.

 “Snackification” was on the rise before Covid-19, but the pandemic has redefined and accelerated this trend. “The Snacking Made Right” approach by Mondelēz is impressive. It is changing the snacking habits, educating people to snack right, control the portion, savor each bite, nourishing not only their body but also their soul. What I admire most is that Mondelez goes beyond the trends and explores new opportunities through their innovation hub “Snack Futures”. Its goal is to build an ecosystem of talents and to unleash innovative ideas in three areas: premium, well-being snacks and digital platforms. If one has an innovative idea relating to one of the three areas Mondelez is focusing on, then it can be easily submitted online, following few steps. I have submitted my idea. Hope Mondelez will find it interesting.

The recently launched fashion collection Krakatau x Kaspersky is very creative. The collection is a result of the pairing of two Russian companies, Kaspersky, the software security company, and Krakatau the techwear company. It is launched as a “march” for protection of private data from cybercrime. Using Artificial Intelligence, the collection can be customized by customers with a unique print, expressing their unique personality. For that, Krakatau invites the customer in a very creative and futuristic journey. From the catalogue page the customer is directed on “Express yourself” online page where the journey begins. The chatbot integrated in the page invites you to a friendly dialogue. Answering to different questions the chatbot always gives arguments how easily the private data can be stollen and how important is to protect them. Based on answers, the chatbot is measuring some indicators like software empathy, social immunity, digital extroversion rate and as a result, the customer obtains a “Digitals Self” print.

Innovation is also about failure.

But innovation is also about failure. It is a matter of doing something different, something new, the change is inevitable. In some cases, consumers may choose to resist to an innovation. Maybe it wasn’t the right moment for the change, maybe the product didn’t fulfil entirely its end users’ aspirations, or maybe the target consumers don’t want to make any change at all.

I remember, when few years ago, I was trying to launch a strange, totally different concept of sweet bread which failed from operational reasons, but also the market was not ready to adopt this innovation and it is not ready so far.

However, failure is an important part of the innovation process. It produces precious learning outcomes.

Find more on how to get certified in Marketing Innovation.