Innovation spotlight: Lay’s All Dressed chips

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 Lay’s All Dressed chips, a fan-favorite flavor that the brand has finally brought stateside. 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.

Lay’s All Dressed chips are a combination of many of some of the most popular chip flavors: barbecue, sour cream & onion and salt & vinegar.

All Dressed has been seen as a uniquely Canadian flavor for decades, and many brands have their own version of it on the market in Canada. But its popularity has risen in the US in recent years — and as a result All Dressed has been widely requested by Lay’s US fans. 

The brand teased American consumers several times with a Ruffles version of the flavor, but now it’s here to stay with Lay’s!

Salty snack brands introduce new flavors regularly to capitalize on new trends, stay relevant and encourage trial with something new. But not all of these new flavors are winners. 

Some of the best ideas for one market can come from another market. Bringing a flavor that has proven popular in Canada to the United States — especially after fans have been clamoring for it — makes complete sense. 

Does the flavor’s Canadian success translate into success in the US? That’s what we set out to uncover!

1. Leverage proven success from other markets: Bringing a successful product from one market to another can be a strategic way to drive innovation revenue with reduced risk and resources. Lay’s capitalized on the strong Canadian performance of All Dressed chips and consumer demand in the US to introduce a familiar yet exciting flavor. Analyzing global successes and assessing their adaptability for new regions is a smart way to innovate.

2. The power of distinctiveness: Distinctiveness is one important driver of innovation success. It helps you stand out from the competition, grab consumer interest on crowded shelves and, in turn, drive trial. While the All Dressed flavor may be somewhat polarizing in the US, it makes the product distinctive vs other available chip options and, importantly, vs the rest of Lay’s and PepsiCo portfolio. 

3. Focus on incrementality to drive growth: A key measure of innovation success is whether a new product introduction drives incremental revenue rather than cannibalizing existing products. Lay’s All Dressed showed strong potential in this area, with most consumers saying they would purchase it in addition to their usual choices, rather than as a replacement. Innovators should ensure that new product launches expand the brand’s penetration and contribute to overall growth rather than merely shifting share within an existing portfolio.

What’s the potential?

Lay’s All Dressed scores in line with the average food innovation on trial potential and in the top 20% of all food innovations tested in the US on breakthrough potential. 

Sitting in the ‘seed and grow’ section of our potential quadrant means the new flavor and is seen as unique and distinctive, but appeals to some groups of people more than others.

Over half of respondents said they would be likely to buy Lay’s All dressed if available at a reasonable price, in line with the norm for US food innovations (purchase likelihood T2B: 62.0% vs 60.6% norm). There was no major impact on the purchase likelihood once respondents discovered how much they are being retailed for, with 56% saying they’d be likely to buy.

But we see that purchase likelihood is higher in different segments. Younger consumers (those under 45) are more likely to purchase (purchase likelihood T2B: 68.7%) and people who regularly buy salty snacks (once a week or more) are even more likely to purchase (purchase likelihood T2B: 72.1%). This certainly makes sense, as regular salty snack shoppers are likely to be most familiar with the three flavors in All Dressed and more likely to be willing to take a chance on an unknown flavor.

Most people said they would buy Lay’s All Dressed in addition to what they typically buy (71%) vs to replace what they typically buy (29%). This shows great potential for driving brand and category incrementality!

Digging further into breakthrough potential, we look at two key measures to determine this:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

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

Lay’s All Dressed is seen as highly distinctive, performing significantly above the average for a food innovation in the US (distinctiveness T2B: 82.7% vs 69.5% norm) — which is driving the great breakthrough potential score. 

The chips were seen as significantly more distinctive than the average food innovation in the US by all types of consumers, even the groups of people with lower purchase likelihood. 

When it comes to advantage, Lay’s All Dressed scores in line with the average US food innovation (advantage T2B: 47.8% vs 52.7% norm). It makes sense that consumers wouldn’t necessarily rate the innovation as significantly superior compared to what already exists in the market, given that the new flavor is a combination of existing flavors.

What do people like about it?

The combination of flavors people already like is what people commented on the most. The mix of sweet and sour was intriguing to people, and there were frequent mentions of barbecue or salt and vinegar being their favorite flavor, so they were willing to try All Dressed for their favorite flavor. 

The bold colors of the packaging were also praised, with many respondents noting they liked the purple bag. 

But of course, while many respondents were excited by the combination of three classic flavors, others were turned off by the idea or didn’t find it as appealing. Given that “all dressed” isn’t a well-known idea in the US, this initial wariness is to be expected.  

Here are some of the great things people had to say about Lay’s All Dressed:

• "I love salt & vinegar chips and enjoy barbecue sometimes, so i feel as if this would be a chip that is unique and that I would feel satisfied after eating,"

• "I like that I can get three flavors in one and don’t have to buy each one individually or take three chips of each flavor in one bite."

• "Cute bag, and it fits what I like about the taste. Sweet and tangy. Like barbecue sauce."

• "It’s Lay’s which has the best brand of chip. It also has a salt and vinegar taste to it."

• "It has a cool color bag and a cool name."

• “I will buy like 10 bags of these.”

It’s a smart idea to combine three popular flavors in one chip — especially a flavor that’s so successful in another market.

But not every innovation that’s successful in one market will be successful in another. Zappi’s connected Innovation System makes identification, assessment and testing of such cases much easier. Get a demo to learn more. 

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