Abstract: Product innovation is the lifeblood of many organizations, and the fuel that provides growth for food and beverage brands. Innovative ideas can come from anywhere and may have technical merit, but the most successful innovations stem from deep-seated consumer-driven insights, including meeting a consumer need.
The challenging issues with consumers’ needs are that they can differ in every product category, are often evolving, and are multi-dimensional: physical/functional, emotional/ psychological and aspirational/values based. Therefore, it’s critical to put your consumers’ voice at the heart of your innovation process.
In this session, we will discuss the different types of innovations: core, break-out, and transformational, and the risk and reward that each one presents. Then we’ll present a framework that outlines different types of research that bring the consumer voice to key stages of the innovation process. We’ll walk through the principles for doing successful research and provide practical tips for getting the most out of your research investment.
