Innovation spotlight: Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake

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 Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake, Lindt’s newest flavor for spring. 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. 

Lindt’s newest spring product is its carrot cake truffles, exclusively available at Target stores in the US during the spring season. The candy pairs carrot cake flavors with Lindt Lindor’s classic white chocolate, resulting in a rich white chocolate outer shell with a velvety carrot cake truffle center. 

Lindt is well-known for limited-edition flavors of its chocolate truffles, often timed with seasons and holidays, including three new flavors released for Valentine’s Day this year (cocoa & creme, cherry vanilla and raspberry cheesecake). 

As we said in our Easter candy analysis last year, there are no clear flavors associated with Easter like there are for other holidays like Halloween and Christmas — aside from chocolate. 

As a result, each year brands attempt to launch new flavors for their Easter candy (in addition to their different Easter shapes, which we wrote about last week) like KitKat’s lemon flavor, M&M’s Easter Sundae flavor and Lindt’s Blueberries & Cream and Neapolitan flavors from last year. But nothing seems to stick out as a true Easter flavor. 

But carrot cake struck us as something that has potential as a true Easter flavor — as carrots are associated with rabbits, like the Easter bunny!

We had to know if consumers agreed that this flavor made sense, both for Easter and for Lindt. 

1. Building brand associations: What is your brand known for? Lindt has a reputation for delivering quality chocolate it has built over the years through its consistent communication and exceptional product quality. So when the brand launches a new product, even a slightly unusual and unexpected flavor like carrot cake, those quality associations are already there.

2. Breakthrough innovation can only get you so far: Lindt has done an incredible job of breaking through with its carrot cake flavor, creating something truly distinctive. Unfortunately, breakthrough alone is not enough. When developing seasonal innovation, it’s better to target trial potential to ensure you get a seasonal sales uplift.  

3. Sampling & trial SKUs: With weirder flavors like carrot cake, it can help to offer smaller package sizes or free trials that allow consumers to try it at a lower cost. Many consumers in this analysis were intrigued by the idea of this new flavor, but were hesitant to buy a whole package without knowing if they would like it. 

What’s the potential?

Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake scores in the top 2% of all food innovations tested in the US market in breakthrough potential. It does however score in the lower third of our database in trial potential, putting it in the “emergent” section of our concept potential assessment framework.

When we see concepts land in the emergent section, we often see that they have potential with Early Adopters (more on this later). We typically recommend brands consider developing at a smaller scale to explore the opportunity — as Lindt is doing by launching only in Target. 

Let’s unpack more about why this innovation scores this way.

What’s driving breakthrough potential? 

We use two key measures to determine breakthrough potential:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

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

Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake is seen as highly distinctive, performing significantly above the average for a food innovation in the US (Distinctiveness T2B: 89.5% vs 69.8% norm) — which is driving the incredibly high breakthrough potential score. 

The chocolate candy is seen as significantly more distinctive than the average food innovation in the US by all types of consumers, with very little differences between groups. 

When it comes to advantage, Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake scores in line with the average US food innovation (Advantage T2B: 48.4% vs 52.8% norm). There are some differences between groups here, with adults aged 25-45 and frequent chocolate buyers seeing it as more advantageous than other groups. 

And notably, early adopters (defined as those who claim to try new chocolate before others) are the only group to significantly exceed the norm in advantage (Early Adopter Advantage T2B: 62.0% vs. 52.5% norm). This is something we might expect for products in the emergent section of our framework. 

What’s driving purchase likelihood?

While just over half of respondents said they would be likely to buy Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake if available at a reasonable price, this is a bit below the norm for US food innovations (purchase likelihood T2B: 55.2% vs 60.6% norm).

However, we do see that adults 25-45, frequent chocolate buyers and early adopters are more likely to purchase — with early adopters having the highest trial potential.

The most likely reason this innovation is seen as incredibly distinctive but with a lower than average trial potential is that carrot cake is not a universally loved flavor. 

There were many respondents who found the product innovative and interesting, but acknowledged that they just didn’t like carrot cake: 

• "I like the fact that it's not really my favorite but it does at least bring all aspects. Nuttiness, chocolate and the creamy center. Now those three flavor combinations I can get behind because it's tasty."

• "Lindt chocolate is delicious. The description is perfect and makes me want to try it, but I don't like carrot cake. I also like that they are coated in white chocolate."

• "I like the brand, I know it makes quality and good tasting chocolate. I like the color of the packaging. I'm just not a carrot cake fan though."

And some indicated they were unwilling to buy a whole package without knowing if it would be good, indicating the need for a smaller package size to encourage trial for something unusual like this product: 

• "I am not sure I would like that flavor. I like it in a cake, but I don't know if I would like it in the chocolate. I would wanna try it. It’s a sample before purchasing."

• "The flavor isn't one of my favorites. Would I try one if one was offered to me? Sure, but I wouldn't buy a whole package without knowing if I liked it."

What do people like about Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake?

So what do people like about Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake? The flavor was the most appealing. The creaminess, nuttiness and quality of chocolate were mentioned, along with the quality associations of the Lindt brand. 

Many considered it quite innovative and different, acknowledging they had never seen anything like it before.

When asked about which occasions they would be likely to choose Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake, 38% said “to experience an interesting taste or texture” (norm 27.5%), 36% said “to share with family and friends at a social gathering” (norm 28.7%) and 34% said “as a dessert after mealtime” (norm 27.1%). 

Here’s what people had to say: 

• "I like the decadent twist and the rich and creamy taste. I also like the smooth and spiced white chocolate shell with the cinnamon and nutmeg."

• "Carrot cake is one of my absolute favorite desserts so of course I would try the new flavor."

• "I love Lindt chocolates. White chocolate is my second favorite behind dark chocolate and I always like to try out new flavor combinations."

• "They sound delicious. I love Lindt, usually, and I love carrot cake. This combination sounds amazing and innovative."

• "I like the idea. This is something that is new and different. I could see people who enjoy carrot cake would enjoy this product."

Is carrot cake an Easter flavor? 

Finally, let’s answer the question we posed in the beginning. Is carrot cake a valid Easter flavor? 

We separately surveyed consumers about which flavors (aside from chocolate) they most associate with Easter. 

We were excited to see that, with the exception of marshmallow (which is likely associated with Easter through Peeps), carrot cake is far and away the most associated flavor. Other flavors we asked about had very low levels of association in comparison. 

This means that Lindt may have landed on a true Easter flavor with its new innovation. 

But do consumers believe that the chocolate category can deliver a carrot cake flavor? It’s not necessarily an expected tie-in. 

Lindt’s brand believability for this product surpasses the norm (Brand Believability: T2B 83.2% vs. 78.4% norm), which tells us that consumers believe Lindt can credibly deliver a carrot cake flavored chocolate. 

When asked, “Which of the following words or phrases do you associate closely with Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake Truffles?” 45% of respondents associated it with “trusted brand,” while 40% associated it with “high-quality ingredients.” That’s a testament to the work Lindt has done to associate its brand with quality over the years. 

Category believability, though in line with the norm, is slightly lower than brand believability (Category Believability T2B 79.9% vs. 76.9%), which indicates that not every brand in the chocolate category can credibly offer a carrot cake flavored product. But Lindt’s experience with quality chocolate and experimentation flavors sets it slightly apart from the category. 

It may come as a bit of a surprise to some that a chocolate candy has a carrot cake flavor (Surprise: 17% vs. 11% norm), but ultimately consumers conclude it makes sense. 

So while trial potential is not incredibly high, we applaud Lindt for releasing a true Easter flavor this year!

Lindt’s experience with seasonal flavors, combined with its brand perceptions of delivery quality and consumers believing carrot cake to be an Easter flavor make Lindt Lindor Carrot Cake a believable and breakthrough new product. 

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