Sweetgreen
CPG Strategy / Recipe & Product Development / Plateware & Packaging
What comes after first place? Explore our partnership with the industry darling that everyone is sweet on.
As a leader in the industry, Sweetgreen has built their success from an uncompromising brand vision, a delicious platform of salads and grain bowls and a best-in-class digital-led guest experience. To maintain position as a leader (from both an AUV and a brand perspective), TCE was tapped in 2018 to think through new growth opportunities. To identify and implement incremental strategies that wouldn’t interfere with the core product line, the approach required creativity through an operator and innovator lens. By leaning into existing and emerging guest occasions and needs, TCE was able to identify profitable, on-brand opportunities for sales growth at the unit level.
The Opportunity.
Our Insights.
In Sweetgreen’s category, typical AUV growth strategies revolve around attachment categories - sides, desserts and beverages - and daypart expansion.
TCE understood that the approach to new attachment categories for Sweetgreen would have to be radically different from the standard potato chips & cookies offered at competitive concepts. Our chefs & strategists took on the challenge of applying Sweetgreen’s visionary food ethos to attachment and upsell strategies.
When thinking through daypart opportunities, TCE’s analysis found that although the existing offering was delivering on individual to small group needs in the lunch segment, there was a large opportunity for large group dining and catering. While breakfast and dinner were alluring targets with undoubted potential, the equation of investment versus return confidently pointed to further lunch opportunities in Sweetgreen’s sweetspot.
Our Activities.
By immersing chefs & strategists fully into the business, the project outcome led to recommendations across the offering, merchandising, digital and environmental design. In the initial phase of our project our cross-functional team looked in by studying Sweetgreen’s target guest profiles, current operations and menu performance - we even worked shifts in the restaurant! While the second phase of work was focused on looking out - benchmarking against the marketplace and leading an inspiration tour in LA. The rich content, analysis and insights gained from looking in & out culminated in collaborative working sessions and our creative growth solutions.
In our shared opportunity spaces, TCE provided valuable insights and actional ideas towards creating a true premium offering, activating group, dinner, snack and sweet occasions, as well as implementing bundle and hack features on digital platforms. For each opportunity, TCE provided inspiration to galvanize stakeholders by visualizing each concept with product prototypes and packaging mock-ups, as well as insights into the business value and the operational lift.
During the final phase of our process, TCE developed, documented and showed thirteen recipes for new Sweetgreen categories - spanning shares, snacks and desserts. TCE is thrilled by the performance of the individual products, as well as digital and experiential solutions, like #sghacks, that manifested from our engagement.
Our Results.
By developing a deep understanding of the business, brand, experience and offering, our team was able to pinpoint the opportunities for incremental growth that added to the Sweetgreen story. The successful launch and popularity of beet hummus, roasted squash fries and #sghacks is a reflection of the true operational and guest expertise that our team built over our rapid engagement.
“We really enjoyed working with the whole team at TCE. The listening-first approach led to ideas that felt not only exciting, but actionable to grow our business.”
