This week my daughter turns 6 and I’ve spent my evenings frantically trying to find out where I can buy a personalized cake. But on my travels I came across something much more exciting – personalised, 3D printed sweets!
German company Katjes Fassin, known for its gummy candies, is planning to introduce 3D printed sweets in the UK. With intentions to roll out 3D printers in retail stores by early next year, the company aims to address two key consumer demands: the need for more personalized options and a more interactive shopping experience, as highlighted in our recent research on the future of retail.
But actually for me the real implications of 3D printing, particularly in categories such as confectionary and food, go far beyond this and extend into a more exciting realm entirely: the new product development process.
Bringing 3D printing into the new product development process could change the game, allowing companies to quickly create prototypes that can be tested and, for food and drink, tasted by customers. These 3D prototypes can be quickly improved to better suit consumer preferences before the final product is released.
Not only does this would this accelerate the speed of product development but gaining consumer feedback at these very early stages would also result in stronger products which have a greater chance of succeeding within highly competitive marketplaces.
Whilst this may sound like a pipedream, using 3D printing this purpose is already becoming a reality. Since 2013, Cadbury’s innovation team has been using 3D printers as part of their new product development process to help them create fast-turnaround prototypes of potential new products.
3D printing could also be brought to bear even earlier in the innovation process, for example, during co-creation workshops with consumers. Harnessing the technology at this stage could help to bring early ideas to life in a way which has not been possible to date.
With such exciting implications for product development research, we thought it was only right that we started experimenting with the technology ourselves. So far, we’ve used our 3D printer to create 3D models of our brand icon, Rufous the hummingbird but we’re looking forward to harnessing it for client projects in future.