What is innovation and what role does the brief play in innovating? Roxanne Rolando explores ideas on true innovation and the constraints of sticking to a brief.
Before starting out on developing a new flavour or fragrance, a brief outlining the basics is expected to be followed detailing which direction you should be heading in and what barriers might arise (such as cost and overall expectations).
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the brief. One, which boils down to economics, is that a brief is essential, while the other takes on a rather rebellious approach and believes that a brief can stifle, and is in direct conflict with the concept of innovation. How do we overcome these constraints to provide innovative products?
Michael Gristwood, executive director of the South African Association of the Flavour and Fragrance Industry (SAAFFI) believes that a brief: ‘focuses the mind and motivates planning. Good and thorough planning is a pre-condition of a good brief and I believe that the use of a formalised brief is essential.’
In the flavours and fragrance industry, creativity is vital to performance as well as the delivery of products that meet client’s expectations. Aiming to produce unique top notes which differentiate your flavour or fragrance house from the rest is standard procedure.
Carolina Guozden, business development manager for International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) says for her a brief is important because of economic constraints. She says that one may want to head off into any direction, and as creative people there is a tendency to do so but, ‘we must stick to the brief because there are financial limitations.’
When a client briefs a flavour or fragrance house, cost constraints are often considered above any other constraint. Another constraint to bear in mind is the availability of raw materials. The price of a finished product is always related to the cost of the raw materials. Today not all flavours are derived from the natural product and, in most cases, the natural direction to take would be to use manmade flavours and fragrances, but man is also a costly resource.
Trends in the market are another constraint to consider as they form a benchmark to work towards or away from. Comparing what’s been developed to existing products is often the route that most flavour or fragrance houses take.
The client’s needs are important, but think even further, and realise that a client is aiming to satisfy the needs of the consumer – and hand-in-hand with this constraint comes that of legislation. The new labelling legislation and the Consumer Protection Act are currently placing greater constraints on all spheres of the food industry and the only way to handle this is by compliance.
So, having considered these constraints it’s no wonder that a brief is an essential part of the creative process. Roger von Oech, an American consultant who specialises in stimulating creativity and innovation in businesses says, ‘It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.’
Most large food corporations have what is called an ‘innovation centre’ built to develop and test new products. The 7th Floor, in Observatory, Cape Town is Foodcorp’s answer to just this.
‘When I set about, the task of innovation and implementation was a daunting one,’ says Simone Falconer, general manager of 7th Floor. In her job, Falconer works closely with marketing and manufacturers to develop innovation strategies and the project outlines for new products. ‘The environment within which you work is essential to creation,’ she believes. This cannot be more obvious than in the aesthetics of 7th Floor housing a Loerie and Cannes Advertising Award-winning art piece in the foyer.
Falconer draws attention to fears that may smother innovation – ‘We protect ideas and are so worried they will get out!’ she says, ‘what if in our businesses we worked much more collaboratively? We cannot work in isolation.’
SusaGroup, a Dutch market research company with a difference think that, ‘In this time and age, consumers do not just choose your product they rather feel it’s the right product for them.’ Lars Rengersen, strategic director, and Marco van Hout, creative director, emphasised the importance of integrating emotion into the innovation process.
They believe it makes sense to understand; measure and integrate emotions in the innovation and design process of a product. Moreover, by building on emotions, you will be able to enrich you design brief.
This may sound quite forward-thinking, but consider for a moment the primal instincts that drive flavours and fragrances. Intrinsically anything to do with smell is emotive. The part of the brain that registers smell and taste is exactly the same area concerned with memories which are emotional recollections.
Fabienne Bourh a perfumer, deems that her passion began with a realisation that smells are intimately related to memories. She says that the tropical surroundings of the Caribbean where she grew up and her parent’s bakery and restaurant have been a cradle of scent memories with a lifelong impact. Since 2008 she has been a part of the creative centre for Mane South Africa.
Flavours and fragrance truly stands out as one of the most creative spheres of the food industry, and its recent collaboration with The Fusion Cookery School just goes to show that occasionally letting your hair down really gets those creative juices flowing. Shaun Smith, head chef and headmaster of the school, believes that we must push people’s boundaries and make people try new things. As Margaret Wheatley, president of the Berkana Institute says, ‘The things we fear most in organisations are fluctuations, disturbances and imbalances – really the primary sources of creativity.’
On that note, the question as to whether the brief promotes or inhibits creativity is a hard question to answer. Business logic would argue that a brief is essential and it’s with business logic we must go because profit is the bottom line. Hopefully this has inspired you to think a little differently about your approach to creating.
