Featured Case Study — Insight Harbor Strategy

Kahlúa® Dunkin'® Caramel Swirl

Transforming Consumer Insights into Award-Winning Innovation

Successful innovation requires pairing great ideas with consumer understanding, strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and disciplined execution.

The Kahlúa® Dunkin'® Caramel Swirl launch demonstrates how bringing together consumer insights, brand strategy, innovation, and commercialization can transform a strong concept into an award-winning product that resonates with consumers and drives brand growth.

The Opportunity

Kahlúa and Dunkin' shared a natural connection through their strong coffee credentials, creating an authentic partnership that leveraged the strengths of both brands.

The objective was to expand Kahlúa's appeal to new consumers and consumption occasions by developing a product that honored the equity and playful personality of both brands while introducing Kahlúa into the growing cream liqueur category.

Navigating the Challenge

Successfully bringing two iconic brands together required balancing consumer expectations, commercial objectives, and brand standards without compromising the identity of either brand.

The liquid formulation, packaging design, and overall consumer experience required cross-functional alignment between Kahlúa and Dunkin' throughout the development process. The product also needed to achieve targeted commercial margins, establish Kahlúa as a credible competitor within the cream liqueur category, and move from concept to retail shelves within an ambitious one-year timeline.

Project Leadership

Jenn Alvarez

Former Global Innovation Senior Brand Manager, Kahlúa | Pernod Ricard

I led the innovation from concept through commercialization, working across consumer insights, marketing, supply chain, legal, and commercial teams to successfully bring the product to market.

Key Responsibilities included:

Designed and led consumer research to validate the product concept, liquid, and packaging throughout development.
Developed the liquid and packaging design briefs that established the strategic direction for the project.
Partnered closely with R&D to refine the liquid formulation while balancing consumer expectations, commercial objectives, and margin targets.
Directed packaging strategy and collaborated with external design agencies to create a distinctive shelf presence that honored both brands.
Built alignment across internal stakeholders and the Dunkin' partnership to ensure both brands' standards and approvals were achieved throughout development.
Presented strategic recommendations and business cases through executive Stage Gate reviews.
Guided commercialization planning and cross-functional execution to successfully launch the product within an accelerated one-year timeline.

Consumer-Centric Innovation

Consumer insights guided every major decision throughout the innovation process, reducing risk and increasing confidence before launch.

The liquid formulation was refined through iterative development and consumer testing to authentically deliver the iconic Dunkin' Caramel Swirl flavor while remaining true to the Kahlúa brand. Throughout development, consumer feedback helped validate key formulation decisions and ultimately resulted in a liquid that exceeded consumer action standards and performed on par with the leading competitive benchmark.

Packaging concepts were also evaluated with consumers to optimize shelf impact, strengthen purchase intent, and ensure the design clearly communicated both the product's cream liqueur credentials and the equity of the Kahlúa and Dunkin' brands.

By grounding strategic decisions in consumer insights rather than assumptions, the project moved forward with greater confidence, stronger stakeholder alignment, and a consumer-validated proposition before launch.

Results

The collaboration delivered an award-winning innovation that exceeded consumer expectations, strengthened Kahlúa's position within the cream liqueur category, and became one of the brand's most successful line extensions.

Highlights include:

$13.7M Net New Sales (NNS)
87K 9L Cases, more than triple the volume of any previous Kahlúa line extension
Highest incremental growth driver for the Kahlúa brand
Outperformed nearly every Baileys line extension despite the overall Kahlúa brand representing approximately 25% of Baileys' total brand volume
Consumer testing exceeded action standards for both liquid and packaging
Performed on par with the leading competitive benchmark (Baileys) in consumer testing
Awarded Gold by the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC)
Named one of the Best Liqueurs of 2025 by the New York International Spirits Competition, according to Food & Wine.
Featured in national consumer and trade publications, including Forbes, Food & Wine, Chilled Magazine, and Bartender Magazine.