What your favorite products can teach you about innovation strategy
As professionals who study human behavior and are immersed in innovation strategy and new product development, its easy to forget that our own behavior can teach us a lot. Sometimes when the researcher becomes the subject, it reminds us that there are human truths that we cannot out-innovate.
Innovators’ Book Club: The Innovator’s DNA
Today, you can get your DNA tested for almost anything. You can learn about your ethnic background, who your long-lost relatives are and even what food and medications work best with your body.
But can you be tested to see if you have the innovation gene? Not yet, but luckily the authors of The Innovator’s DNA have determined that being an innovator is more nurture than nature.
Ideas are not the problem…
There is a myth in new product innovation that good ideas are hard to come by, but we find that most of our client are swimming in a pool of possibilities. The real challenge of new product innovation is aligning the team to a singular innovation strategy based on the needs of a well-defined consumer target. Getting to a good understanding of the needs of the target begins with deep empathetic focus. By that we mean a deliberate design target - the tightest, most homogenized consumer group that has a set of real problems that can be served with differentiated solutions.
How can a Random Forest Help my innovation?
Random Forests are one of many statistical regression tools used by Mission Field in the analytical process of projecting your innovations’ success potential. It is one of four key machine learning models we are currently using within our advanced metrics package on transactional tests of innovations, and we believe it is a key anchor for leveraging these test and learn experiences into driving future launch successes. To understand why we are using Random Forests, it helps to know what one is and how it works…
3 Keys to Winning Product Innovation
Creating a winning new product innovation is no simple feat and can be downright challenging. It takes clarity of your target audience, understanding of their needs, deep insight, and great ideas. Once you have distilled the work to a few lead ideas, check them against these three key criteria before diving deeper into development, execution, or launch…
Innovators’ Book Club: Think Big Act Small
A summation of Mission Field's philosophy and the title of a great book is Think Big, Act Small. In the book, Jason Jennings shares anecdotes of how America’s best performing companies keep the start up spirit alive. At Mission Field, we apply lessons we learned while building small companies to innovation challenges of big companies. The parallels between the two are one of the reasons we decided to kick off our new Innovators’ Book Club with a book that has the same title as a Mission Field mantra.
Jennings writes the book with the organization as a whole in mind, we read the book with the lens of how to apply the best practices to innovation.
Successful Virtual Ideation
All innovation starts with an idea in someone’s head. Or at least a kernel of an idea. Many entrepreneurs take their own idea and talk to friends & family to test it out and improve it in their discussions. Most CPG companies use a variety of more formal research tools to extract & hone a set of ideas that could turn into innovations that drive incremental growth for a specific part of their business or with a new target audience.
Celebrating innovation day 2021
We are celebrating the introduction of our EMBR Innovation process by honoring innovators like you with a $10 donation in your name. Head over to Mission Field and help us select one of four worthy innovation causes that we think are sparking change. A quick visit is all it takes to learn more and vote.
What a gas leak can teach us about launching successful innovation
The Mission Field approach to transactional retail testing encompasses 5 different data sources to pressure test the crucial elements of successful innovation. After 3+ months in market, you can understand where all the leaks are, fix them and create a viable and successful launch.
New Beginnings
A new year brings a new look and feel for Mission Field. Introducing our new EMBR (Energize, Make, Burst & Roar) offerings.
All of us at Mission Field wish you and your families a happy, healthy 2020 and bright new beginnings for 2021.
Belief and Emotional Attachment in Innovation
As a researcher who studies consumers’ wants, needs, and beliefs, the past year of national upheaval has been very interesting to observe. Whether it was politics, protests or mask-wearing - the contradictive narratives were a good reminder that people’s internal belief systems and their emotional attachment to that knowledge is a primacy that must always be adhered to when developing new innovations.
Surprising Innovation Lessons You Can Only Learn in the Real World
The real world is in a state of flux right now. What is certain, is that during times like this, the ability for people to predict what they will do is even more difficult because there are so many unknowns about what the future holds and how it will impact them.
Instead, observing actual behavior is much more reliable. At Mission Field, we encourage our partners to use transactional testing because we believe consumers “vote with their wallets” and the best predictor of what someone will do in the future is what they do today, not what they say they’ll do tomorrow.
Studying consumer behavior in an actual store with real product on the shelf is the best way to understand what is working, what is not working, and why they do or do not decide to buy something.
Adventures in In-Store Research
You’ve probably read articles recently about the return to pre-pandemic levels of in-store foot traffic and the general improvement in the supply chain of most consumer products, particularly foods & beverages. On Mission Field’s end of the spectrum, that has translated into the ability to get back to conducting in-person in-store research in the latter half of the summer.
Sampling Returns to Costco-Are Shoppers Ready?
Grocery retail has experienced one of the biggest transformations during the pandemic. From making sure the shelves stay stocked to implementing new safety protocols, they’ve had to pivot quickly to keep ahead of curve. One indicator that retailers are adjusting to the new normal is Costco’s return to in-store sampling
Our People: An Unsung Hero + a New Welcome!
It’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge the unsung heroes at Mission Field who are vital to the success of our client’s efforts but aren't often overtly acknowledged. For starters, I’d like to acknowledge Julie Beck, VP of Retailer Strategy…
How we're working around Covid-19
Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to innovate some of our processes and get creative with our tried & true research approaches. Here are two examples that everyone can learn from:
1) Online Research Works.
Center Store Is Making a Comeback....
On February 1st you could have rolled a bowling ball down the center store aisle in any grocery store and not hit very many people. Today, and most likely for many weeks in the future, the aisles are more crowded than Chicago’s Mag Mile during Christmas. The resurgence of center store is good for retailers, and it can also be a great opportunity for CPG innovation.
The New Normal
“When or how long do you think it will take shopping behavior to normalize after a crisis like this?”. As innovation leaders we’ve been contemplating this question and what the balance of this year will look like for shoppers, consumers and our innovation clients. Read four points of view from the Mission Field core team below:
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Jonathan Tofel has a point of view of optimistic-urgency on the state of CPG and the need to Battle Test™ new product innovation against the “new normal”
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Carolina Fryer sees a short-term shift to comfort foods with a resurgence towards healthier eating as our “new normal” set in and the initial panic subsides
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Caragh McLaughlin sees opportunities for new products if they can find deep connections with our current stay-at-home lifestyles
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Julie Beck has an eye on the retailer mindset and how they are likely to “pull” CPG innovations in a certain direction based on today’s experiences
Celebrating Innovation Day 2020
At Mission Field, we celebrate all things innovation. So, for Innovation Day 2020, we put together a list of 20 ways to spark innovation. These are some of our tried & true tools and approaches and we hope they help you spark your own innovation journey.
Speed and Your Innovation Strategy
A recent discussion I had with a retail VP of a major Organic/Natural grocery chain hammered home the point of the need for speed as it relates to innovation… and our contact made a point that “large CPGs are falling behind in many ways” because they “are waiting too long to get into the mix.” This does not have to be you!