Innovation Spotlight: Magnolia Table Frozen Baked Goods

Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.

This month we researched Magnolia Table’s frozen baked goods, a new line of products drawn from recipes from Joanna Gaines’ kitchen and made with real ingredients. Read on to get our analysis of the product line's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.

Joanna Gaines is an American designer, entrepreneur, TV personality and author best known for co-hosting the hit HGTV show Fixer Upper with her husband, Chip Gaines.

Joanna and Chip operate the lifestyle brand Magnolia, which is built around the ideas of home, family, comfort and intentional living. The brand extends across multiple areas, including Magnolia Network (TV and streaming), Magnolia Home (home goods, including a line at Target called Hearth and Hand), Magnolia Table (a restaurant, recipe books and retail food products), Magnolia Journal magazine and tourist destination Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas that houses shops, a bakery, a coffee shop and a Magnolia Home store. 

This year as part of the Magnolia Table brand, Magnolia launched a line of frozen baked goods that the brand says “bring the warmth of Joanna Gaines' beloved recipes into your kitchen right at home.” The new line is made with real ingredients to allow anyone to access high-quality, freshly baked foods without having to make them from scratch. 

Joanna Gaines said of the launch: "This line of frozen baked goods came from a place of wanting to help make it easier to gather together around the table with your people. It's about simple, real, and quality ingredients, and the confidence that comes with serving something everyone will love. It's about settling in for those everyday moments that end up mattering most and savoring the taste of home."

The new line includes six different baked goods: 

• Jo's Buttermilk Biscuits

• Classic Cinnamon Rolls

• After School Banana Bread

• Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Classic Sugar Cookies

• Silo Cookies (based on Joanna’s recipe she created by combining each of her family member’s favorite cookie ingredients) 

Magnolia is a broader home-and-lifestyle brand built on ideas and values like comfort, family and “slowing down.” This frozen line is part of a bigger trend of lifestyle brands moving into the CPG space, selling food along with a set of values and feelings (not to mention capitalizing on the appeal of a celebrity). This potentially broadens the appeal beyond traditional frozen food buyers.

We’re also intrigued by the idea of bringing “homemade” to frozen convenience. Convenience drives the frozen food category, and making these boutique products convenient for anyone to make themselves at home is likely appealing to a variety of busy consumers who like the “baked from scratch” taste but don’t always have time to make it themselves. 

What do consumers think about the new line? Let’s find out! 

1. High quality + convenient: Frozen foods appeal to consumers because they’re convenient. They make it quick and easy to prepare food at home when you’re too busy or too tired to make something from scratch. But convenience doesn’t mean low quality! These Magnolia Table products are positioned as being made with real ingredients and “homemade” — and that idea of premium convenience resonates with consumers.   

2. The value of trial potential, and the barrier of price: It’s not easy to encourage consumers to buy a new product for the first time, but this new line has a trial potential that falls in the top 15% of US food concepts. Magnolia Table’s frozen baked goods benefit from the reputation Joanna Gaines has built as a good baker over the years — and as a result, consumers expect that Magnolia Table can deliver on its claims (Brand Believability: 84.1% vs. 79.4% norm). And the idea appeals to them enough to want to try it! However, while the concept is highly appealing, the current price is a barrier to purchase.

3. Increased competition from lifestyle brands: Lifestyle brands are an interesting competitor to established CPG brands. They sell ideas and values along with the products themselves. Established CPG brands need to understand why these brands appeal to consumers and keep innovating to avoid becoming obsolete, but not attempt to copy them outright. Consumers will be able to spot the inauthenticity! Instead, focus on your own authentic brand story, reminding consumers of your long history and your role in their lives over the years. 

Magnolia Table frozen baked goods score in the top 15% of food innovations in the US on unpriced trial potential and in the top 35% on breakthrough potential. 

These scores put it right at the edge of our “short-term trial” quadrant, which means a broad audience is willing to try the line, but they don’t view it as significantly more differentiated or superior to what’s already available in market — yet. 

Let’s unpack more about why this innovation scores this way.

We use two key measures to determine breakthrough potential:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

2. How superior a product is compared to what’s already available in market (advantage)

Magnolia Table’s line of frozen baked goods is seen as on par with the average US food innovation in distinctiveness (Distinctiveness T2B: 73.2% vs 70.9% norm) by most consumer groups. However, those who buy the category at least once every 2-3 weeks and early adopters see the line as significantly more distinctive than the average US food innovation. 

This means that those who are most familiar with the category and the existing frozen baked good options see it as different vs. the rest of the market.

We see the similar patterns in advantage. Magnolia Table frozen baked goods score in line with food innovations for advantage (Advantage T2B: 56.5% vs. 53.4%), but the same groups (with the addition of males) see it as more advantageous than the other options on the market.

Again we see that those who are most familiar with the category see how this new line is better than the alternatives. 

In fact, early adopters outperform every other group across all performance indicators, including relevance (84% vs. 58% norm), clarity (83% vs. 73% norm) and meets needs (92% vs. 71% norm). Early adopters also react with significantly more love to the new line than the rest of our respondents!

Early adopters are typically trend-sensitive and seek out new, unique or improved products. So it’s an encouraging sign of the product line’s future success to see that early adopters have responded to it so positively.

Over two-thirds of respondents said they would be likely to purchase Magnolia Table frozen baked goods if available at a reasonable price, which is significantly higher than the US food norm (Purchase Likelihood T2B: 69.1% vs. 61.2% norm). It’s certainly not easy to encourage consumers to try new products, especially from a brand that’s new to the category. So this is an incredible result for this new line!

And once again we see those who are most familiar with the category (early adopters and people who regularly buy sweet baked treats) have an even higher purchase likelihood, with 88% of early adopters saying they’d be likely to purchase! Younger consumers (45 and under) and men also have a higher purchase likelihood compared to the average. 

It is worth noting, however, that price seems to be a barrier to purchase for this product line. While 69% say they will be willing to purchase Magnolia Table frozen baked goods if they are available at a reasonable price, that drops to 49% when they know the price (Priced Purchase Likelihood: 48.9% vs. 56.5% norm). This is because the price of products in this line is higher than what people expect it to be (Pricing Perception vs. Expectation: 4.5% vs. 10.6% norm). While the price might be set high to establish the line as premium products, it is a key barrier to purchase. 

We also asked which of the six products people would be most likely to buy the first time they buy one of the Magnolia Table frozen baked goods. Chocolate Chip Cookies were the clear winner of the six products (69%), followed by Classic Cinnamon Rolls (48%) and After School Banana Bread (44%). Silo Cookies — an invention of Joanna Gaines rather than a more recognizable type of baked goods like the rest — was the least-picked option at 18%. 

When asked what they like about Magnolia Table’s line of frozen baked goods, the strongest theme that came through is the variety of flavors and product types, which makes the line feel exciting and full of options for different tastes. 

Many people say the items look delicious, with images and descriptions that feel nostalgic and bakery-fresh. The packaging is another standout — people repeatedly described it as simple, cute, vintage and homey giving the products a “homemade” or heritage feel.

Consumers also love that the products are easy, convenient and frozen, which means they are simple to prepare and can be baked whenever you want something warm and comforting. 

The real ingredients were also called out regularly, with many comments mentioning that Magnolia Table feels more “authentic” or “premium” than typical grocery-store baked goods, with several people saying the items “seem homemade,” or look like high-quality treats.

Here are some things people said of Magnolia Table’s frozen baked goods: 

• “It seems like they would be a convenient easy treat and like they'd taste fresh when baked. I love the variety of pastries too and it feels authentic knowing they are based on Joanna Gaines' best recipes."

• "They are basic baked goods that I would love to have in the freezer and eat whenever I need or want an old fashioned baked good that I grew up with."

• "The frozen baked goods are made with simple ingredients. It makes me think they will taste more like homemade."

• "I love the all natural ingredients and the classic flavors represented here, especially the cinnamon rolls, yum."

• "I like how these products are made with high quality ingredients and frozen to ensure lasting freshness. The different flavors that are available to buy are great as well."

• "I like the packaging. It’s very cute and simple which makes it simple along with the photo of the food. It looks very pleasing and appetizing."

• "I love the packaging on the product. It’s simple and almost feels homey. It would be very easy to make the baked goods without having to make it from scratch yourself."

• “I like the vintage look of the package.”

What a great new line of products, just in time for the holidays! We’re ready to try them out when we’re celebrating with our families this holiday season. 

Are you looking to speed up your innovation time to better compete with lifestyle brands? Zappi’s connected Innovation System makes it easy to identify, evaluate and test new innovation ideas. Chat with us to learn more. 

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