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“The value chain starts in the mind of the consumer at the point of purchase” –> How the understanding of the success factors behind the first generation of functional foods forms the basis for the leading consumer driven framework for innovation in food and health…

The birth of the FourFactors in the late nineties
The success factors for consumer driven innovation of foods with added health value, was identified by the brand consultant Peter Wennström in connection with the launch of the first generation of so-called functional foods in the late nineties. These included, among others products from Swedish pioneers such as BioGaia (probiotic milk), Probi and Skånemejerier (ProViva probiotic fruit juice). Based on analysis of these and a wide range of contemporary European cases of both success and failure the four key factors for consumer success could be isolated. These were. 1. Need of the product, 2. Acceptance of the ingredients, 3. Understanding of the benefit and 4. Trust in the brand.

Enter the Innovation LifeCycle and its Stakeholders
It also became apparent that there were great similarities between the market acceptance of functional foods and consumer electronics such as mobile phones (Ericsson mobile phones were contemporary with the first functional food products), this could be confirmed by studies of The Technology Adoption Lifecycle Model. The commonality was that education was a key factor in how the market’s various stakeholders would be able to assimilate the new technologies.

The Food and Health Marketing Handbook
The FourFactors evolved into an analysis model including both brand positioning tools and market entry strategies and was presented together with the Innovation Lifecycle in The Food and Health Marketing Handbook, subtitled How to Commercialise Innovations in Food and Health, published in 2003 by Wennström & Mellentin.

The full model was later named The FourFactors® Brand Acceleration System.

TetraPak. The first global cooperation
The FourFactors model gained rapid commercial application in cooperation with, among others, Tetra Pak, (start approx. 2004) where the model was further developed into consumer-driven innovation workshops to be used by customers as well as internal training in how to create added value for consumers with health. The model now had an increasingly wide international circulation and proved to work in all continents and in all food categories.

Nestle’. Supporting the strategy change. 2007- 2011
The next milestone was the collaboration with Nestlé (start 2007) who took up the model and its creator to implement its global strategy change, which meant moving from defining itself as a food company into a Nutrition, Health and Wellness company. The work meant that during the three years to develop and implement internal training with the management of all Nestlé business units and do cross-functional workshops with a large number of key global markets (France, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, UK, Canada, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and Latin America).

DSM. Global license and innovation center. From 2010
From about the same time (2010) a global cooperation with the ingredient company DSM started with the purpose to increase the success rate of DSM’s customers by the application of the FourFactors methodology in internal training as well as in co creation workshops with key clients. This cooperation culminated with a global licensing agreement with an exclusivity for DSM to use the methodology in partnership with HMT for its clients. During this period DSMs Nutrition Innovation Center in Singapore was developed and equipped with a dedicated FourFactors Innovation room adjacent to the product application centre.

The birth of HMT in London – Healthy Marketing Team Ltd
At this point, the Four Factors Model was established as a commercially workable strategy and innovation model by the consulting firm Healthy Marketing Team Ltd. (HMT) based in London founded by Peter Wennström already in 2007 in a joint venture with the international design agency DesignBridge. The intention was to offers services spanning from health trends to brand strategy all the way to brand and packaging design. The full service was eg implemented for a milestone client like Raisio with its international functional foods brand Benecol.
To date, HMT have implemented innovation and branding projects with the FourFactors model in over 60 countries on 6 continents. In 2017 Healthy Marketing Team was legally registered in Sweden as HMT Sverige AB.

FourFactors Literature
Two books on the Four Factors have been published so far. The first – The FourFactors of Success – was published to support the foundation of the Healthy Marketing Team in 2007 and the second book – The Four Factors for Growth Market Success – was published in 2012 to support the international application of the methodology in both developed and emerging markets. This book also introduced all the elements of The FourFactors Brand Acceleration System.

University cooperation to develop the FourFactors with consumer research
The Four Factors model is based on market observations and proven experience. The HMT has a commitment to develop the model further and to validate its various parts and has for this reason developed cooperation with leading academic institutions in Sweden (Masters of Applied Cultural Analysis at Lund University) and the Netherlands (Masters of Food & Health Innovation Management at Maastricht University).

See list of completed research projects below.

FourFactors Research Projects with FourFactors Consulting Applications
2012: FourFactors and Health Claims (validation of FourFactors), Maastricht
2013: Innovation Culture/ Innovation Culture Analysis and The FourFactors Innovation Wheel. Lund Maca
2014: Trust Marketing / FourFactors PackTalk. Lund MACA
2015: Millennials and vegan Ice cream. Lund MACA
2015: Consumer Attitudes to innovation, Maastricht
2016: Healthy Agers and health: Lund MACA
2017: Start Up Challenge. Lund MACA. Start Up Challenge Toolkit (based on the Innovation Wheel)
2017: Social media / On-pack clams influence on choice. Maastricht
2018: Pantheon of Healthy Believers/ Lifestyle Consumer Segmentation and Brand Narratives. Lund Maca / GC 2019 & 21 Report
2019: Triggers and Barriers for mass market entry. Lund MACA/ GC 21 Report
2020: Triggers and barriers for Vegetables / Green Innovation and NPD Tool. Lund MACA
2021: Mental Health. Lund Maca / Brand Narratives/ GC 22 Report