Innovation is something necessary for businesses survival in today’s world. It may be on the product, delivery, packaging or service. The important thing is not to stop innovating in search for the best user experience with the product or service of the company.
However, there is still some problems in most business innovative initiatives. Generally the motivations for innovation are reactions to competitors’ projects or a race to follow major trends. It may even be a good starting points to consider innovation. But they do not usually offer good results. The real motivation should be to create something valuable for the customer. They should not miss a very important ingredient in this process.
What is the essential ingredient? Insight! Brands that have a real and deep knowledge of their consumers are way ahead of competitors. They understand consumer values and needs better than anyone else! It is more than keeping an eye on what the competition is doing. It means knowing what your customer is feeling, what is missing for him. Your consumer should look at the product, new packaging or idea and feel that it’s all he needed. That it was made for him. The expected response is: “How come no one ever thought of such a thing before? ”
For this, companies need to conduct their innovations according to insights produced by consumers. And there are numerous ways to do this. So many that companies get a little lost in knowing where and how to start. We separated three special tips for your business achieve a great success.
When we talk about insights, we are talking about a more focused and deeper understanding of consumer desires of your product. Many companies believe that by doing an overview of what general consumers manifest, may bring out the best innovations. But in practice it is not quite how it works. Because the most interesting innovations of your specific product for your specific consumer should be designed based on specific insights. It is important that you are focused on capturing the actual perception of your customers about the product you want to market and focus on what he manifests as well as in what he does not manifest. Thus, you could have a great practice of successful innovation.
Rather than try to know what is the best innovation for the consumer, make them participate in the innovation process. Many companies are creating specific pages and communities where consumers are encouraged to drive innovation by giving suggestions and interacting directly with the company. This way of seeking an active co-creation has been the way of success for many companies looking for more innovation.
Failure is not necessarily a bad thing, as you think. On the contrary, the failures are very welcome because they provide the most effective learning opportunity. However, it is necessary that the failures have the least possible impact on the outcome of innovation and enterprise. For this to happen, we need to follow the organization one of the most fundamental rules for innovation: make prototypes whenever possible. Prototyping means taking the ideas of paper and try to do something that can actually be used and tested by consumers. In the process of innovation, it is important that the company quickly know which ideas deserve to be taken on and which are likely failures. And the sooner this happens the better! Because companies can focus on ideas that have more real chances of success.
Following these three principles will be easier for your company to capture the best consumer insights and can develop the most successful innovations.