The fabulous Simon Sinek exhorts us to ‘start with Why’. He’s right, but many organisations share a similar Purpose/Mission. Graze shows us that enduring differentiation comes through the HOW.
Graze was launched in 2007 by Lovefilm co-founder Graham Bosher. Graham decided to adapt his film subscription service concept to the healthy snacking market (that’s lateral thinking for you). Graham’s insight: pretty much everyone snacks, but we tend to reach for crisps and chocolate and then hate ourselves afterwards. There was an opportunity for a healthy on-the-go impulse option, especially for office workers.
Graze’s mission is to ‘reinvent healthier snacking with pioneering technology’. It’s the pioneering tech that makes all the difference. Launching with a direct-to-consumer subscription model, Graze sends subscribers a number of different snacks in a recyclable box as often as they choose. ‘Grazers’ use a super-friendly website to choose the kinds of snacks they would like to eat (from a range of over 120), and rate the snacks afterwards.
The Graze team has designed a taste algorithm called “DARWIN” (Decision Algorithm Rating What Ingredients Next) which is run several thousand times a day. They have over 300 million customer ratings to date and get over 15,000 new customer ratings / hour to power the personalisation of their snack boxes. Now that they’ve launched into mass retail, this data also helps Graze to design the ideal range for their supermarket customers according to location, store size etc.
Graze has now successfully expanded to the USA and has a turnover of over £50m. Its success rests on brilliant use of data and insight. The lesson? Once you’ve defined the problem and set your Purpose, decide HOW you’ll execute it in a way that distances you from others in the market.
Read more (& get snacking): Graze UK website
