What we do differently
The briefing document
A curated, structured document built around your specific decision context. Sized to be readable by senior decision-makers, not just by analysts. Designed to be re-used across the team and referenced again as new decisions emerge.
The live immersion session
A two-hour working session with your senior team, run live by the FIS Group specialists who built the work. Built around questions, not presentation. Senior people stay engaged because the work is being interpreted for them, not delivered at them.
The follow-on roadmap
A clear set of follow-on questions worth answering next, with the recommended FIS Group tools (or external alternatives) to take them on. Some clients commission immersions as standalone pieces. Others use them as the foundation for a wider programme.
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Curation, not data dumping
We do the work of finding, filtering and synthesising the data that matters. You receive a briefing document built around your specific decisions, not a 200-slide deck of every chart we could pull. The work is built around a clear point of view on what is happening and why, not around comprehensiveness for its own sake.
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A live session built for senior people
The deliverable is not the document. It is the live two-hour session where your team gets aligned around the same picture and we work through what it means for the decisions on the table. Senior people stay engaged because the session is built around questions, not around presentation. Real conversation, not voiceover.
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We tell you what to do next, not just what to know
Every immersion closes with a clear set of follow-on questions worth answering, and a recommended route into the next phase of work (whether that is with us or not). The point of an immersion is to make the next decision better, not to fill a briefing folder.
Annual planning cycle
Start of the financial year. The team is rebuilding the strategic plan and needs everyone working from the same baseline understanding of the category, the consumer and the competition before the planning conversations begin.
New team or leadership takeover
A new commercial director, marketing lead, NPD head or innovation team has stepped in and needs to be brought up to senior level on the category quickly, before the next round of decisions land.
Senior-level category knowledge, fast
When a team needs to be at senior level on its category fast, we pull together what is already known about the category, the consumer and the competition, add a senior interpretive layer, and hand it back as a working understanding. Not a folder of reports.
Before a major innovation or NPD cycle
The pipeline meeting is in three weeks. The team needs to walk in with the same picture of where the category is heading, where the white space is, and where the competition is going next.
Before a strategy day or leadership conversation
The board strategy day is on the calendar. Everyone in the room needs to be working from the same evidence base, not arguing about whether the category is moving the way they think it is.
Cross-functional alignment on a major move
A category exit, a major launch, a positioning shift. The decision involves marketing, NPD, commercial and operations, and the immersion is the foundation that gets them all to the same place before the decision happens.
Food and drink is all we do
We are not a generalist consultancy that takes the occasional food brief. Food and drink is the only sector we work in. Our senior team knows the categories, the consumers, the retailers and the constraints. Briefs land with people who get it on the first read, and recommendations come back framed for the people who actually have to make the decision.
That focus is why we work with 11 of the UK’s top 40 food and drink brands.
Other ways to decode the category
Immersion is one tool in the broader Decode toolkit. Depending on the brief, one of these might be a better fit, or a stronger partner alongside the immersion work.
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Social Scraping & Trends
Real-time scanning of what is being said, shared and signalled across social, search and culture, curated specifically for food and drink.
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Food Safaris & Competitor Review
A bespoke exploration of the markets, restaurants, retail aisles and overseas territories that are shaping your category
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Opportunity Mapping
Strategic mapping of where to play in food and drink.
View our case studies
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Chaiiwala
Chaiiwala needed to professionalise their product development process and rebuild their menu architecture to support a scaling QSR estate. FIS Group delivered a full operational audit, menu architecture rebuild, repositioned core items and a year-long LTO programme, through to launch day training with the senior operations team.
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Mizkan
Mizkan needed a growth strategy to attract younger consumers to the vinegar category and expand usage occasions. FIS Group delivered a hybrid process combining trend mapping, consumer research and innovation workshop facilitation, producing high-potential proposition territories with a full activation toolkit for development.
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Starbucks
Starbucks needed cross-market ideation around iconic bakery platforms for EMEA, with a focus on winning with Gen Z. FIS Group facilitated a structured innovation workshop with trend-led platforms, generating ten big concepts refined into illustrated, testable briefs now entering NPD pipelines across multiple markets.
FAQs
A market report tells you what is happening. A category immersion tells you what it means for your decisions, with a senior interpretive layer built around the questions you actually have. The work is curated, structured and delivered live by people who have worked in the categories you operate in. You can read a market report. You can act on an immersion.
Two to three weeks from brief to live session is the typical turnaround. Faster is possible if the category scope is tight and the team is available for a session inside two weeks. We will give you a realistic timeline on the scoping call.
A senior food and drink specialist with relevant category experience, working alongside the lead from your team. The senior person who runs the scoping call is the same person who builds the immersion and runs the session.
You get both. The briefing document is the curated, structured deliverable. The underlying data set (where shareable under licensing terms) is available alongside it for the team to reference and interrogate.
A U&A or segmentation is structured primary research that takes weeks or months and answers a defined research question with statistical depth. An immersion is a curated synthesis of existing knowledge, designed to bring a team up to working speed fast. The two tools complement each other: an immersion at the start of a programme, structured research deeper in when specific questions need answering.
Yes. We run immersions across UK, mainland Europe, the US and the UAE, with category specialists for each market on the team. International immersions take slightly longer than UK-only work because of the data and source range, but the process is the same.
The work flexes to fit the audience. For an experienced team, the immersion focuses on what is changing and where the leading edge is, rather than on the foundations. We scope the audience level on the call so the work lands at the right depth.
Yes. Competitor-focused immersions are a common variant, particularly for clients responding to a specific competitive move or evaluating an acquisition target. We can run a full competitor deep-dive instead of, or alongside, a broader category immersion.
You receive the briefing document for ongoing reference, and we provide a recommended set of follow-on questions worth answering next, with the relevant FIS Group tools to take them on (if you choose to). Some clients use the immersion as a standalone piece. Others use it as the foundation for a broader programme.
Project-based, scoped to the depth, scope and audience needs. The biggest cost drivers are the geographic scope, the category breadth, the data licensing requirements and the depth of synthesis. We will give you a clear, all-in quote at proposal stage with no hidden extras.
Got a team that needs to be at senior level, fast?
Tell us who needs to be brought up to speed, on what category, by when, and what decisions the understanding has to inform. We will tell you whether an immersion is the right answer, what depth makes sense, what the timeline looks like and what it will cost. Twenty minutes on a call. No qualifying call before the qualifying call.