Highlight Blog

Prototype testing for King's Hawaiian

Written by Highlight | 4/17/25 8:30 PM

Key success metrics

180 units tested nationwide, all 21+ years old

4

days from shipment received to live data in dashboards

94%

completion rate

 

The challenge 

King’s Hawaiian came to Highlight to discuss potential line extensions. As a dominant player in the bakery space, King’s Hawaiian needed to understand consumer reactions to potential new products in the pipeline among current and potential customers. 

The product testing solution

To test King's Hawaiian's latest prototype, Highlight packed and shipped product to a curated segment of our community for agile in-home testing, all in just two days. 

“The Highlight team was incredible to work with every step of the way. We needed a partner that would enable us to make quicker yet well-informed decisions in a more cost efficient manner and Highlight delivered on that and beyond."

- Jennifer Norris, Sr Manager, Consumer Insights at King’s Hawaiian

Highlighters were tasked with both quantitative surveys and open-ended qualitative feedback. 

"The products all arrived in good condition, instructions were very clear and easily accessible. The products were well packaged and showed good quality. The surveys were easily accessible and the questions stayed on point without being repetitive. Overall, a great experience!”


-Highlighter, female, age 37

The business impact

In less than two weeks, the King's Hawaiian team had the consumer insights they needed to make pre-launch tweaks with precision and go to market successfully. 

Key sensory insights

The testing gave clear data to understand key insights to optimize product formulation. 

Product fit among customers

Testing revealed clarity on how the brand and product ft and resonate among loyal and new customers.

Ideal price point identified

The Highlight platform’s speed to insights enabled a fast understanding of prioritization across products in the innovative pipeline.