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Tip of the Month
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December - 2009 It's All in How You Say It! Too many times I've witnessed what could have been a great idea die because it wasn't communicated well.
That's because we are all use to communicating to our own peer circle, our own departments, our own world. I've
seen great R&D ideas fail to make it out of the lab because the R&D department tried to explain the "engineering"
of a product or "how" it works to the decision maker...rather than WHAT IT DOES! This is the information the
decision maker needs! Just this week I asked a new
product ideation pro for some references and he gave me testimonials from other ideation experts! Well, that doesn't help.
I needed references for satisfied clients! I've seen market researchers tell their clients of all of the data and
show all of the tables they can get their hands on..but clients really want solutions and
recommendations. The Big Tip: Know who you are talking to...and speak in a language that they understand...not
just a language you understand!
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January - 2010 Be Careful of How You Do Consumer Research! It's
perplexing to me that Marketers know how important a part emotion and impulse play in a consumer's purchase decision.
They know that a display can increase the likelihood of a consumer purchase five-fold. A package design can make or
break a product's success. And even the product's name can be hugely influential. Yet, many marketers
insist that they can just ask consumers to "logically" explain why they do certain things and even what is it that
they want and need. Unfortunately, logic has little to do with many purchases. I remember looking to come up with a new cheese product years ago. The specific innovation that this client
came out with was a new flavor of cheese slices. They asked consumers what they thought of the idea. Consumers
SAID that they loved. it. That they would use it for all of their sandwiches. WRONG! For one thing, in reality, these consumers hardly ate sandwiches (even though they THOUGHT that they ate them often).
For another, they THOUGHT that they would use these flavored cheese slices; but in reality, once their kids got involved,
well, they were vetoed. Seems like their kids just wanted good ol' American Cheese. Too many times, consumers will TELL us that they do not want certain new things...but you know what?...when they
SEE it they want it. The Big Tip: Be careful what and how you ask something. Many times
consumers really don't know what they want or what they don't want. Don't let them steer you in the wrong
direction.
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February 2010 It's A Whole Lot More Than Just Patents & IP's
Just back from visiting several companies in Malaysia as well as with the Malaysian Government.
It amazes me that the primary way in which these and many other companies measure the success of their innovation efforts
is by counting the number ot patents they develop year to year. Unfortunately, when I ask, "What revenues have
these patents brought in?", I'm met with some wide-eyed, shoulder shrugging gestures! In
fact, I was told by one of Malaysia's innovation funding groups how successful it was - they attract a reasonable amount
of applications and they even commercialized a fair number of the ideas and patents. Problem is, NONE have ever been
considered a "big" success...they've just be small revenue generators at best. Please
remember, the purpose of innovation is to increase growth...increase profits! One can develop all of the patents that
they want (which, by the way, costs money!), but unless they are commercialized and are turned into profit makers, why bother???! The
answer is to make certain that proper up front work is done in finding opportunities and insights, which if innovated against,
can turn into big business successes. Do the insight work and do the marketing work not just the R&D and engineering.
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March 2010 So What's The Question So much attention in innovation is placed on "ideating",
"brainstorming", developing patents and IP's. The big problem with this is that I have too often found
that not nearly as much time and attention was placed on actually developing the right, specific, question that one is trying
to solve! The more specific, well thought out the question...the easier it is to solve through
innovation. As one of my associates, Sandy Ping, one of P&G's most successful innovators and President of Targeted
Innovation Services says: "A well-framed, thoroughly thought out question will often answer itself!" So, don't ever just jump into a brainstorming session and above all, don't
ever spend time and money to just create a new patent, or new product without first understanding the question that must be
solved or the opportunity that must be capitalized upon.
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April/May 2010
Successful Innovation Requires 3
Things Too often
many prospective innovation clients limit their innovation efforts to brainstorming ideas. I've said it before,
and I'll say it again..."Ideas are cheap!" Successful
innovation MUST satisfy THREE criteria:
1. There must be a confirmed
opportunity or insight- otherwise one runs the risk that significant efforts and dollars will be spent against an item or
service that no one actually wants or needs.
2. There must be a valid solution
to the opportunity or insight - here is where brainstorming and ideation comes in...but the idea that is chosen must be validated
as a meaningful, believeable and ownable solution to the opportunity. 3. It must be executable. Whatever the idea is must be able to be manufactured and marketed within a
reasonable budget. If the idea is so complicated that it would require too many marketing dollars to explain it and/or
capture consumer trust, l then it is not a good idea! If the idea does not fit in the company distribution and/or manufacturing
capabilities, it may not be a good innovation. Too often when I hear: "Hey, I have a great idea!" I want to cringe ;(.
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