Innovation spotlight: Jeni's Ice Creams Fall Collection

Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.

This month we researched Jeni’s Ice Creams Fall Collection. Read on to get our analysis of the product's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.

Just in time for the changing of the leaves, Jeni’s Ice Cream has introduced their limited-edition Fall collection, which has us all questioning why fall-inspired ice cream hasn’t been much of a common seasonal treat in the past.

These flavors include: Pumpkin Seed & Rye Cookie, Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline, Miso Butterscotch Brownie and Bay Leaf Cheesecake. 

Here’s a brief description of each: 

• Pumpkin Seed & Rye Cookie: Nutty and decadent roasted pumpkin seed cream with a soft rye cookie crumble. 

• Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline: Spiced sweet potatoes, marshmallow sweet cream and candied pecans. 

• Miso Butterscotch Brownie: Dark chocolate fudge brownies in buttery, toasted sugar and miso cream. Sweet, barely savory, intensely satisfying. 

• Bay Leaf Cheesecake: A refreshing and subtly herbaceous cream cheese ice cream with a crisp graham cracker swirl.

Beth Stallings, Jeni’s Head of Innovation, shares the collection was, “inspired by the way we all literally want to consume fall, maybe more than any other season. It’s about late harvest, that fine balance between sweet and savory and our craving for fresh and comforting foods.”

Ice cream isn’t the typical sweet treat that comes to mind once the Fall season approaches, but Jeni’s Ice Creams are changing the game with their sweater-weather inspired flavors! 

Jeni’s Ice Creams are becoming increasingly more well-known due to their unexpected but undeniably appetizing flavors (such as Powdered Jelly Donut, Brambleberry Crisp and even a line created specifically for the eclipse earlier this year), so it makes sense for the brand to keep the trend going with seasonal skus.

But since ice cream isn’t usually at the top of the list once the temperatures start to drop, we were curious to see how these might land with consumers.  

1. Innovation can be a great way to address seasonality. New and relevant varieties for a brand in the off season can be a great way to boost sales during a time when sales typically “cool” off. The enticing and seasonal fall flavors from Jeni’s creates high salience for the brand, keeping the brand visible outside of the traditional ice cream season, and has the added benefit of creating incremental sales. Jeni’s is tapping into this trend by also introducing other seasonal lines, such as the Splendid Holiday Collection for winter.

2. Seasonal cues work effectively. Jeni’s Fall Collection uses great cues that reflect the season, including flavors (Pumpkin Seed & Rye Cookie, Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline, Miso Butterscotch Brownie and Bay Leaf Cheesecake) and well-liked autumn colors for their packaging, such as brown, yellow, orange and white. People get excited about well-targeted seasonal products and this can help boost sales. 

3. Tap into the sensory experiences trend. Sensory taste experiences with new and experimental flavors are very popular and can generate renewed excitement for a brand. It’s important to balance how experimental the flavors are with accessibility to a broad enough audience since these can attract a more niche group. It’s also good to have a range of unique flavors to attract customers with different tastes and broaden the appeal. Marketing efforts will often work best when they are targeted to groups who are most receptive to the more unique varieties. This can also work effectively for limited-editions that are trying to boost interest and sales for a shorter period of time. 

What’s the potential?

Jeni’s Ice Creams’ Fall Collection scores in the top 1% of all food innovations tested in the US market in terms of breakthrough potential and the top 40% on trial potential. These results are very positive given these are limited-edition seasonal flavors for Fall. 

The innovation sits in the ‘seed and grow’ section of our concept potential assessment framework. The Fall collection is highly distinctive and perceived to have an advantage vs other food innovations — this is likely due to bringing new varieties to the ice cream category, particularly during the off-season when people aren’t actively thinking about ice cream. 

The great news for Jeni’s is that the new Fall line will stand out strongly in the market and has good trial potential, which will benefit the relatively small, yet quickly growing, brand. 

Nearly 60% (Top 2 box: 59%) claim they would buy Jeni’s Ice Creams if available at a reasonable price, which is in line with expectations for other US food innovations. 

Purchase likelihood is even higher among the younger audience of 18-35 year olds (T2B: 69%) and men (T2B: 68%) and encouragingly high among more frequent chilled desserts purchasers with nearly three-fourths claiming they would buy Jeni’s new Fall Collection.

Trial potential is also good and in line with what we would expect among “early adopters” (93%) and above the category benchmark. This is important because “early adopters” contribute disproportionately to new sales, especially during the earliest months.

People find the new ice cream flavors for the Fall Collection to be highly relevant, credible and to meet their needs, which all contribute to them claiming they are likely to try Jeni’s Fall Collection of flavors. This is even more pronounced among men and the younger audience, which corroborates their stronger purchase likelihood. 

While Jeni’s Ice Creams Fall Collection has good potential, it’s worth noting that there may be a perceived price barrier that could limit this somewhat — purchase likelihood drops to 42% (significantly below the norm of 55%) among the broad audience when they know the price is $12 a pint. Positively, those more predisposed to the new, Fall ice cream flavors have a more favorable purchase intent once they know the price, which is in line with other US food innovations (T2B: 18-35 year old’s 55%, men 49%, heavier category users 55% vs 55% norm). 

The challenge is that premium ice cream is a competitive environment — 60% of respondents find Jeni’s Fall Collection as substitutable with other premium brand alternatives, particularly Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs.  

A note on breakthrough potential

When it comes to breakthrough potential, we look at two key measures to determine this:

1. How different (distinctiveness) a product is

2. How superior (advantage) a product is vs what’s already available in market

Incredibly high breakthrough potential of Jeni's Fall Collection is driven by both very high distinctiveness (T2B: 81% vs 69% norm) and good superiority (Advantage (T2B: 60% vs 53% norm) among the broader audience.  This is even more pronounced among those with higher likelihood to purchase the brand:  younger adults, men and more frequent chilled desserts purchasers (at least once every 2-3 weeks).

Early adopters also find the new flavor varieties to be highly disctinctive (T2B Distinctiveness: 91%, significantly higher than 84% norm and to have a strong advantage to other chilled desserts (T2B Advantage: 95%, significantly higher than 85% norm).  This is important because they not only contribute disproportionately to new sales, they are more likely to evangelize the new product, so they can help drive stronger salience and breakthrough.

A deeper look into what’s working and who it appeals to

The new, unique and variety of autumn flavors that combine sweet and savory ingredients is what is most liked about Jeni’s Fall Collection (over 50% mention these elements when asked what they spontaneously like). 

The elements most liked about the new limited-edition ice cream collection are the flavors (unique, novel, variety, balance of sweet and savory) but some also talk about the packaging. Here’s what people had to say:

• "I like the fact that there are different flavors and that they do look good. I like that they put what the ice cream is going to look like on the outside of the container. So we know this is what you should be getting when you eat this."

• "I like the packaging. It is very appealing. I like the flavors they deliver, flavors that are new and different and unique. It gives you flavors you can’t get anywhere else. And has seasonal based flavors."

• "It has unique and bold flavors. Really interesting flavors unique to the season."

• "I like the flavors of ice cream that I've never seen or tasted before."

• "I like how they got all the types of flavors that match for fall. It's perfect."

• "I like that they have some sweeter flavors and they’re trying to create a sweet/savory balance."

• "I love the packaging and the very unique flavorings that are being offered."

• "I like the variety, the packaging, and the suggestion that it's different."

The innovation also generates a good emotional connection with people, particularly evoking love and surprise, though some dislikes appear as well. 

People are surprised by the unique flavor combinations and many love it, especially men and the younger audience who also find the idea relevant, believable and meeting their needs. 

While it’s on trend to create new sensory experiences with more experimental flavors, it can also have a more targeted appeal. Some dislike the flavor combinations or specific flavors — people particularly mentioned sweet potato, squash, pumpkin seed, bay leaf and butterscotch. 

Additionally, the flavor varieties evoke some polarization, particularly among women. Almost 50% of women mention they like the flavors and/or ingredients, yet over one-third mention they dislike it, likely why the idea doesn’t resonate as strongly among this group. The likelihood of purchase flavors also demonstrates that some flavors are better liked (Miso Butterscotch Brownies and to a lesser extent, Bay Leaf Cheesecake) than others which are more polarizing (Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline and Pumpkin Seed Rye Cookie).

When looking at elements that people like and dislike, people like the autumn look and colors of the packaging but some find it confusing or hard to read, so there may be an opportunity to make it simpler and clearer. 

It’s worth noting that some people question the value for money given the size, so it may be worthwhile to offer initial incentives for purchase to make the pricing more competitive or offer a more economical larger version, especially as substitutability is relatively high.

Jeni’s Ice Creams Fall Collection is a chillingly great idea to generate strong saliency (breakthrough) and trial for the brand during the “off season.” 

They tapped into best practices for seasonal innovations, including unique and clever Fall flavors and colors for their packaging (we see good seasonal cues for their new Holiday Collection as well). 

Jeni’s is also on trend with their experimental flavors, offering new sensory experiences. Of course, there has to be a balance since unique flavor varieties don’t appeal to everyone. Experimental flavors will work most effectively when marketing efforts are targeted to the more favorable and receptive audiences (in this case, 18-35 yr olds, men, more frequent chilled dessert purchasers and “early adopters”) with emphasis on the flavors that are liked best vs. those that are more polarizing. 

Great job Jeni’s for a clever innovation that helps boost saliency and sales at a time when temperatures (and ice cream sales) are typically cooling down!

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