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Success Story: Smart Trend Scouting with ITONICS Crowd
Foresight | Customers & Community

Success Story: Smart Trend Scouting in the Food Industry

With around 7,700 employees at more than 20 locations in Germany, the Netherlands and other international hubs, Germany’s largest dairy cooperative DMK Group processes milk into food of the highest quality. With a turnover of 5.8 billion euros, the DMK Group is also one of Europe's leading companies in the dairy industry.

The food industry is characterized by changing consumer requirements and needs, different trend developments in different regions and strong international competition. The early identification of weak signals in the corporate environment and the derivation of new business opportunities is, therefore, an essential component of successful innovation management at the DMK Group.

In order to meet these future challenges, DMK has been using the ITONICS tools since 2018 to scout global trends in the food sector and respond quickly to changing customer needs.

  • Direct connection of external trend scouts to the internal trend management process
  • Digital and transparent trend scouting worldwide for more efficiency and the collection of worldwide trend signals

450
inspirations
30
food trends

4
weeks

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Initial trendscouting at the DMK Group

  • No own worldwide trend scouting network
  • Partially internal trend scouting activities & partially outsourcing of trend scouting activities to third parties
  • Limited resources in trend management 
  • Time-consuming manual aggregation & documentation of trend scouting results in static documents

Faster. Digital. More transparent.

In an exclusive cooperation with the crowdsourcing experts at Streetspotr, ITONICS Crowd offers access to a community of over 500,000 trend scouts worldwide. In order to select the right scouts in the network for the topic of nutrition and food, a screening takes place within the community. Therefore, scouts in the selected trend metropolises answer various questions on the topic and collect relevant trend information as examples. The best trend scouts are awarded a virtual badge and are then available to the DMK Group for future trend scouting studies.

Within four weeks, 450 inspirations for 30 food trends were scouted in several trend metropolises. The first conclusions about trend developments could be drawn immediately after the beginning of the field time. Here you can read more about how DMK is identifying business opportunities based on the collected information and established a high-performing trend management unit.

The partnership offers us direct access to qualified scouts within the framework of ad hoc studies and deep dives with added value. What also distinguishes ITONICS from large consultancies or software houses is the competent and personal way in which projects are planned and implemented together.

- Kristin Mitlewski, Manager Innovation & Trends, Corporate Strategy, DMK

Overview Inspirations in ITONICS Crowd Trend Scouting in ITONICS Crowd
About DMK

With around 7,700 employees at more than 20 locations in Germany, the Netherlands and other international hubs, Germany’s largest dairy cooperative processes milk into food of the highest quality. The product portfolio ranges from cheese, dairy products and ingredients to baby food, ice cream and health products. Brands such as MILRAM, Oldenburger, Uniekaas, Alete and Humana have earned the trust of consumers at home and abroad, making the company an established player in its home markets and selected target markets around the globe. As one of the largest suppliers to the German food retail industry with a total revenue of 5.6 billion euros, DMK Group is one of Europe’s leading dairy companies.

Innovate like DMK Group

To learn more about the tools and capabilities that help DMK and other innovation leaders grow, browse through the features of the ITONICS Innovation OS or book a free demo with our expert team.