“Pearl Strategy worked with Pulse Canada over a 2 year period to focus its messaging to food industry and consumers. Pearl Strategy conducted pulse industry workshops, consumer focus groups and interviews with R&D and marketing professionals with major food manufacturers. ...The process identified strategic strengths on which to focus future programming as well as shortcomings for the industry to address.Pearl Strategy's food sector acumen, facilitation, interview skills, industry connections as well as their genuine interest in our industry's potential made this project a tremendous success. The pulse industry is now moving forward to meet the opportunities identified with a clear sense of where to focus resources for the best return. Pulse Canada would recommend Pearl Strategy for any work that requires consumer and food industry insight. Read more

I have had the pleasure of working with Pearl Innovation & Strategy Design Inc. on several projects while working at both Tim Hortons and Bacardi. More recently Pearl collaborated with my team at Bacardi to identify and develop a new product platform for our Breezer Ready to Drink products. ...On this particular project Pearl utilized an efficient yet effective quali-quant research solution that was a hybrid approach to get us the learning we needed to drive internal support and ultimately sell into liquor boards nationally for this new line of products for Bacardi. As a client, I appreciate Pearl’s consumer-focused strategic thinking and creativity to solve problems and identify innovation opportunities. Pearl Strategy works hard to understand your business and truly acts as your business partner. Read more

“We recently worked with Pearl Strategy on an innovation and positioning project. We initially came to Pearl with a business problem and purpose, to reignite an existing category. Pearl brought a level of strategic leadership to the project and immediately recommended a workshop and online qualitative approach ...that worked within our tight timelines. Throughout the workshop, Pearl helped us refine our innovation platforms and develop positioning areas with alignment from key stakeholders. The outcome was a clear consumer insight driven recommendation on how to proceed with specific innovations, recipes and positioning territories. Further to the planned outcome, the project identified a new framework for the team to use for future innovation work. I would highly recommend Pearl Strategy for any innovation or strategy work where consumer insights are integral. Read more

“Pearl Strategy was a great choice for the Mina Halal brand given their solid experience with ethnic consumers, combined with their strong marketing and innovation acumen.  Pearl’s strategic and consumer-centric approach enabled us to uncover key insights and identify business building opportunities throughout the consumer journey.  ...As a result, we were able to move quickly from insights to strategy to execution, where we optimized Mina’s communications plan and launch new items to drive growth.  I enjoyed working with the Pearl team and look forward to working with them again in the future. Read more

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Pearl on two occasions with different organizations. First at Loblaws, and second with Club Coffee. At Loblaws, I was VP Innovation when Pearl worked with us on a comprehensive project to re-invent the way Loblaws develops its innovation strategy and pipeline. ...Pearl customized its 3D Innovation process to optimize Loblaws existing innovation process. They brought a consumer centric approach to uncovering trends and insights, a strategic process to developing and prioritizing innovation platforms, and new idea generation techniques to build the innovation pipeline. In addition to helping increase our innovation pipeline visibility and performance, they trained the team to become self sufficient with the 3D innovation process. At Club Coffee, in my role as Chief Innovation Officer, Pearl supported the launch of the award-winning PurPod100, the world’s first compostable coffee pod. Pearl led our product testing and brand positioning research with consumers. More recently, Pearl is bringing their consumer insight and marketing planning expertise to our brand architecture and brand positioning optimization initiatives on the PurPod100 brand. I would highly recommend Pearl Strategy for innovation strategy and pipeline development projects where deep consumer understanding and insights are critical. Read more

“Pearl Strategy has been an excellent partner in helping MOM Brands define the Canadian cereal space from a consumer perspective. Their marketing, consumer insights, frameworks and processes enable sound insight gathering, absorption and application back to the business. ...Among other projects we've conducted an online community to understand our consumer better and create/refine our brand strategy in Canada. Pearl's leadership through the process was outstanding and our insights deliverable established our foundational brand positioning. I would recommend them as a solid strategic partner. Read more

My team recently had the opportunity to work with Pearl Strategy on an innovation project using the Facilitation for Innovation framework. We brought together 20 cross-functional team members for an intense session with the objective of generating brand-new innovative ideas. To say the session was a success would be an understatement! ... Under Susan and Donya's skillful leadership and complete understanding of the business issues, the team developed an array of platforms and positionings that could potentially. make a strong impact on our category. Following the session, the team's feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We are looking forward to working with them again. Read more

John and Susan are consumer experts. They know how to mine critical data and are able to extract and discern actionable insights that leads to communication that resonates with consumers. They led our team in creating the right brand positioning strategy and were integral in helping to create the right communication taglines and packaging design options. ... It is refreshing to know that there are some companies, whose integrity and desire to help others succeed, is interwoven into its company fabric - Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design is one of those companies. Read more

We engaged John and Susan to work with us on a project that we had identified as an opportunity over the last few months. Pearl Strategy has consistently exceeded expectations by always being prepared and organized and providing thought leadership at each intersection of the project. ... I would recommend working with Pearl for any projects that are in consideration. Read more

Working with Pearl was a pleasure as they brought a disciplined approach to uncovering consumer centric trends and insights, a strategic process and an integrated innovation plan that was new to the organization. Their experience in connecting consumer insights to platform opportunities ... was valuable in providing a roadmap to the innovation pipeline for the future. Not only did they lead the team in the process, they coached the team to replicate the process. I highly recommend them. Read more

Pearl Strategy is a trusted innovation research partner for our company as we focus on bringing the right consumer products to market for Canadians. Pearl's strategic, consumer-centric approach enabled us to uncover key insights and opportunities that directly address our specific objectives, ...while their business perspective and experience gives us the assurance that they can work within our timelines and that they have our best interests in mind. That we can leverage Pearl for both concept development and validation allows us to move quickly and confidently in our rapidly changing market. Read more

In the development of new product innovation platforms, Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design helped us align our retail brand strategy with overarching business objectives, ensuring that our innovation and marketing investments would generate the highest returns and reinforce the corporate brand positioning.
... Pearl led the project through opportunity development, concept development, idea validation process and strategic recommendations. This work helped the team navigate a new retail landscape and created a framework for prioritizing volume-driving initiatives. Their work helped establish a path for consumer-led product development to ensure our innovation is differentiated and meets customer and category needs. We were pleased with the client service and engagement in our business Pearl acting as an extension of our team. I look forward to working with them again in the future. Read more

We could not have built our industry leading multicultural business without the great work of Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design. Throughout the research and strategy building process, the Pearl team truly acted as a fully engaged extension of our organization. ... They were keen on delving deep into the consumer mindset to find real actionable insights, while providing us with unparalled client service. Whether it was regarding the formulation of our strategic imperatives or helping us with our internal pitch to leadership, the team were there for us as true partners every step of the way. I look forward to seeing the culmination of more of Pearl's great strategy work in the marketplace. Read more

I highly recommend Pearl Strategy for any consumer-centric company interested in uncovering meaningful insights. The Pearl team not only confirmed high potential areas for our client's new product(s) and brand but also uncovered additional opportunities to incorporate insights in our creative strategy. ... Their experience launching new products and ability to connect human insights to business opportunities provided invaluable counsel and input from initial research brief to debrief. Read more

I worked very closely with Pearl Strategy and Innovation Design and obtained deep human insights that informed the development of a brand positioning and resulting brand architecture. We also undertook product concept testing with their guidance and identified potential innovation platforms where Furlani Foods could source growth.... Pearl brought a level of strategic leadership by providing clear consumer insight driven recommendations that highlighted available positioning territories and consumption behaviors, all of which enabled the Furlani® brand to distinguish itself from the competitive set in both Canada and the USA. I added a brand health tracking study that continues to help quantify improvements in brand health metrics and brand perception,resulting from brand communications on both traditional and digital media platforms. Working with John Chan has been a pleasure. He and his team bring a disciplined approach to uncovering meaningful consumer insights and idea validation, thereby creating a framework to establish a path for expanding the brand franchise and a roadmap to the future innovation pipeline. I look forward to our continued working relationship as Pearl is a trusted partner. Read more