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Accompanying Innovation by Letting
the Product Speak
The Difficulty of Innovating
The need to innovate is increasing with the shortening of
product and market life cycles, alongside pressure from
distributor and hard discount brands and consumer disloyalty
and change.
However, approximately 90% of new consumer products launched
in Europe fail and only 10% of innovations are genuinely
new products.
In certain cases, a new product is the industry’s response
to a clearly identified need or consumer insight. And if
the insight
is relevant, traditional research approaches will make it
possible to accompany the project relatively efficiently.
But in most cases, innovation is a process that is not mastered
and in which the new product is a "pure creation".création
pure.
•
An engineer in the R&D department “stumbles”
on a product formula,his instinct tells him he is onto
something really interesting.
• A perfumer creates a new scent “just for pleasure”,
without a specific brief.
• A technological discovery or a new ingredient makes
it possible to manufacture a new product.
It is when the product is at the heart of the project that
one is more likely to obtain a true innovation but that
is also when the risk of failure is greatest: because it
is necessary to know how to “dress up” the product
for it to find the consumer.
The Principles Behind Product Insight
®
Product Insight ® is based on
the innovation produced and its specifics: it detects in
the product the Insights coming from its concrete reality
and which are enhanced by the perceptive construction of
the consumer.
Once it has been consumed / used, the product becomes much
more than just a sensorial reality, it triggers off a whole
specific imaginary and emotional experience.
Product Insight ® makes it possible to develop an
appealing concept and mix while respecting the spirit of
innovation and creation:
-
Which “stories” does this product tell consumers?
- Among these “stories” which is the richest and
most appealing?
- Which product mix will tell this story?
How
to gain access to product insights?
Product
Insight® starts with a blind usage test and collects
all the perceptions on different registers:
•
Sensorial: sensations
and their associated benefits,
• Emotional: the feelings/emotions aroused,
emotional anchor/links or resonance with certain representations
• Mental: repercussions on mood, frame of mind,
thoughts, yearnings,
• Evocative and symbolic: the field of the imagination,
poetry, history/time and space, the references / associations
/ symbolic images,
• Identificatory and aspirational: the mirror
effect, introjected representations of self / attitudes
/ triggered usages
Via qualitative research (projective
techniques, metaphor techniques, dissociated discourse and
working with images…)
in individual interviews which make it possible to get a
grasp on the emotional and imaginary linkage that underscores
product perception.
Product
Insight® can also confront product perception with: the
ingredients, the product universe, the brand,…
To obtain, as a result, a source of inspiration for marketing
and communication strategies:
In depth knowledge of the product’s identity and dynamics:
• Its personality, identity, values, symbolism,
messages, the story it tells
• Its benefits, its power and scope of action
• Its prospective target and mode of consumption
• Its potential and the key registers/dimensions to
be expressed
Routes for product regeneration, an international adaptation
or the development of a range:
• The potential for product change and versatility,
development potential and opportunities
• The identification of shortcomings and problems to
compensate for in the expression of the mix to ensure its
success
• The levers for integration in the global mix, in
the range, in the strategy of the country
A possible comparison with several products/formulas to identify
the one which:
• Possesses the most promising and/or distinctive
image
• Corresponds best to the launch strategy
• Is most relevant to the image that the brand is seeking
to convey
And recommendations/concrete suggestions in terms of:
• Concept
• Packaging codes
• Communication
To
:
• Figure out the most effective mix for a new product
• Regenerate the mix of an existing product
Contact
reperes@reperes.net
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