For convenience-store suppliers and category buyers focused on impulse and grab-and-go products, speed matters. Consumer preferences shift rapidly, seasonal trends demand quick pivots, and the ability to identify and capitalize on emerging categories—from energy drinks to better-for-you snacks—can make the difference between winning shelf space and losing ground. Givaudan's Taste & Wellbeing Marketing & Consumer & Sensory Insights (CSI) team supports some of the world's largest food and beverage brands developing products across beverages, dairy, sweet goods, savory, snacks, and healthcare. Yet as research data multiplied across multiple platforms and internal systems, the team faced a critical bottleneck: accessing the consumer and sensory insights needed to respond quickly to customer briefs and market opportunities.
The Speed Problem in C-Store Product Development
Like many global organizations, Givaudan's research was scattered—dispersed across multiple platforms, external providers, internal systems, shared folders, and individual teams. For suppliers trying to develop products that resonate with c-store shoppers and merchandising strategies, delays in accessing consumer insights translate directly into missed opportunities. Responding to a customer brief often required employees to know not only where information was stored but also who might have access to it. Valuable insights frequently existed somewhere within the organization, yet locating them consistently required significant time and effort.
As a result, projects moved more slowly, existing research was sometimes duplicated, and teams occasionally relied on inference when relevant evidence could not be found quickly enough. For c-store suppliers competing on speed and agility, this friction cost time—and market advantage. Rather than generating more research, Givaudan needed a way to better leverage the knowledge it already possessed by creating a single, searchable destination for trusted insights.
Centralizing Insights to Accelerate Innovation
After evaluating several knowledge management platforms, Givaudan selected Stravito to serve as its centralized insights platform. The decision was based on several factors, including the platform's intuitive user experience, rapid implementation, ability to integrate with existing research providers, strong customer support, and overall business value. The goal was to create a solution that employees across marketing, sensory, technical, and commercial teams could begin using with minimal training while making trusted research significantly easier to access.
Internally, the team named its Stravito platform "Genie," reflecting its ability to surface relevant research quickly and simplify access to existing knowledge across the organization. By consolidating internal and external research into a single point of entry, Givaudan reduced the time employees spent searching for information and increased the time available for analysis, collaboration, and innovation—critical capabilities for suppliers serving c-store retailers with time-sensitive product briefs.
Measurable Gains in Development Speed
The impact was measurable almost immediately. According to Givaudan, many projects now move three to ten times faster than before implementation, with research that previously required days—or even weeks—to locate becoming accessible in minutes through Stravito's AI-powered search capabilities. For c-store suppliers, this acceleration directly translates into faster response times to retailer requests, quicker time-to-shelf for new impulse and grab-and-go products, and the ability to pivot product strategies based on emerging consumer trends.
Easier access to existing insights has also reduced duplicated work, allowing the CSI team to support more customer briefs while directing research resources toward genuinely new opportunities rather than recreating work that already exists. The platform has strengthened collaboration throughout the organization as well. Whether supporting proactive innovation initiatives or responding to customer requests, marketing, sensory, and technical teams now work from a shared foundation of consumer and market intelligence. Regional teams are also able to better understand unfamiliar markets by accessing centralized research instead of relying solely on local expertise, leading to more informed internal discussions and greater confidence in customer conversations.
Competitive Advantage in C-Store Categories
Beyond measurable productivity gains, Givaudan views the platform as a way to create more time for higher-value work. By reducing the time employees spend searching for information and synthesizing research, teams can focus more attention on strategic thinking, creativity, and developing new ideas that ultimately benefit customers. For suppliers seeking to win c-store shelf space, this translates into better-informed product concepts, faster merchandising strategies, and more confident pitches to retailers.
Today, Stravito is available to Givaudan's regional and local Marketing and Consumer & Sensory Insights teams across Europe, with plans to extend access to additional commercial and technical stakeholders. As the company continues evaluating broader global expansion, leadership views faster access to trusted insights as an increasingly important competitive advantage in an industry where consumer preferences, product development cycles, and innovation timelines continue to accelerate.
For suppliers and retailers focused on c-store categories, the value of faster, more accessible insights is clear: it enables faster, better-informed decisions on which products will drive impulse sales, which emerging trends warrant shelf investment, and how to merchandise products for maximum grab-and-go appeal. In today's convenience-retail landscape, where speed and confidence are becoming just as important as creativity, that ability may prove to be one of a supplier's most valuable competitive advantages.
