innocent's veg pots: update

Quick update on the post I did last week on innocent's new veg pots. My view was that this brand from fruit smoothies into chilled food would struggle. One of my concerns was that the veg pot I tasted was nothing to write home about.

Few impressive things about innocent's response to the post:
1. They read it, which shows they are one company tracking the blogosphere. They are smart to know that their online reputation is a key driver of brand and business growth

2. They quickly sent me a personal email from Annika, offering to send me a range of veg pots to taste - I had commented that the taste of the one I tried was a bit bland

3. They sent the pots, as promised, the next day

4. They had bothered to read about the one I had tasted, and sent me the other three to try

Is that cool or what? All this within 36 hours of the post.

So, what about the pots?

Made me smile :-)
- The Moroccan squash tagine was quite tasty; the nicest of the bunch
- Seeing the range did reinforce the strong health positioning: 3 full portions of veg, and for the tagine, only 0.9g of saturated fat
- Nice plastic pots for the pack, with plenty of innocent-style storywriting on the card wrapper

Made me frown :-(
- The Thai coconut curry was average. And the Pea and brocolli rice was, well, what you would expect peas, brocolli and rice to taste like.
- The recipes do seem to be a bit fancy-pants, for a brand that I think needs to carefully make itself more accessible to more people. Apparently they did the recipes with wacky, ultra-pricey restaurant The Fat Duck (signature dish: snail porridge).

And I still think the value proposition will limit potential. They are quite nice, but what a price: £3.50 a shot. Net, still worry they will struggle to survive long term.

Comments

[Tom]

I think you have the wrong end of the stick here. I believe Innocent is aiming these products at what I would call the 'premium office lunch' market - consumers who don't baulk at spending £5 per lunchtime in the likes of Pret and EAT. In which case, they are ideal - healthier, more wholesome and better value, especially given that they constantly seem to be sold at 2-4-£5 in my local (London) supermarket. I think the recipes are great, too - the Mexican sweet potato chilli in particular. My only real gripe is the recyclability (or not) of the plastic containers. Given how many of my workmates are now addicted to these veg pots, though, I think Innocent is onto a winner here.

[lucy]

I actually think this product is fabulous - I've tried the tuscan stew and the thai curry, both are tasty and are worth the money. I don't buy easy meals from supermarkets as I know they are filled with rubbish, but if I've had a long day or am feeling depleted after a run of bad foods, then this is the perfect cure. I agree with the other blogger - they are comparable to soups in terms of health benefits, but soups can be terribly boring to eat regularly and with bread and lashing of butter (maybe thats just me!), this will end up being healthier.

[Jon T]

I can't get enough of them. The Moroccan Squash Tagine and Tuscan Stew are both tasty. More importantly, whether psychological or real, I do feel healthier eating them.

I see them as competing with similarly priced ready meals from M&S, Sainsbury's and even Asda. Not sandwiches!

Whilst I can understand people considering them pricey, I think they're a bargain when you consider the potential savings to your health and compare them with how much many people spend on beer on a night out. I really hope they succeed as they are a godsend to single people like me who value their time and don't like to see unused fresh ingredients go to waste

[Donna]

They totally took the wrong direction on this, their website boasts that their exotic smoothies are cheaper than buying the raw ingredients...but this can't possibly be true for rice and vegetables which are some of the lowest cost produce.

It truly is a fantastic idea, to get 3 veg a day the painless way, but at £3.50 the vegetables would have to taste FANTASTIC to justify the cost.

I hate to think how much they paid the fat duck for the recipies but i think it would have been better spent on creating a product that does taste good but is low cost enough for the majority of people.

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

That said Chloe, I do hope that there are lots more innocent fans like you who do try the products and love them and, the hard bit, get them into their regular repertoire and buy them once a month.
David

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

Choe

The problem is that the source of gains is not a burger and fries! You aint gonna get many Big Mac meal buyers going for these products.

The source of gains is chilled soup in the UK. And that's where the value propostion is shot to bits. These babies are twice the price of a carton of nice Covent Garden soup, enough for 2 people. SO that's a 400% price premium!

David

[Chloe]

I tried the Tuscan Bean Stew tonight and thought it was delicious and good value when you consider that some fast food meals (say, a McDonalds meal) cost an average of 3-4 pounds. I haven't tried the others in the range but will... but then again, I would consider myself relatively interested in the brand itself so more likely to give new extensions a chance. Still a great product though, miles better than a burger and fries.

[Fergus]

Within the current economic climate I can't see enough people incorporating this into their daily buying habits to make it a success... Even if it was a great great product it's the wrong time.

Your point in the original post, and which you also made in your post some time ago about This Water, seems to me to be more pressing... the competition is catching up/has caught up... The focus they're going to have to give the veg pots (especially given their bad luck with the timing) would be better directed towards the core.
Fergus