19 min
A customer-first approach to successful innovation C3Centricity Podcasts
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- Business
Whether you believe that 60% of new product launches fail, or the number is 80% or 95%+, the truth is that successful innovation is rare. Why is this? Here are some solutions.
Start with the Category rather than (just) the Customer
Every customer-centric organisation should start their processes with a review of the customers they are looking to please. However, in order to do this, the actual first step to both insight development and successful innovation is to identify the category in which you are, or want to compete.
Another practice I use is to zoom in or out when looking at a category, in order to identify new opportunities.
Your business is or will change - fast - so don't depend on your skills alone
Many industries have been cloned into totally new businesses as a result of technology and new customer priorities.
As just one example of this, Food companies must now adapt to delivering family time, not just ready-made meals. There has therefore been an explosion in meal kits because families want to eat better and even prepare together.
The future of the future
Google has gone from Internet-related products and services to hardware such as Pixel smartphones and Google Home, an Amazon Echo-like device. It has also expanded into energy, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and eye-tracking.
Virgin has gone from airlines, media and entertainment, to travel, health and aerospace. Amazon has gone from an online bookstore to the general retail of a vast selection of products.
Facebook started as a social media and networking service. One year ago, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed his ten-year vision, centred around artificial intelligence, global connectivity, VR and AR.
Tesla started in the automotive industry but has since moved into energy storage and residential solar panels. Today it is advancing into underground high-speed transport and space travel.
All these examples show the importance of preparing to adapt to fast innovation change impacting many industries at lightning speed.
Your next steps to future-proofing your innovation
#1. Working with new innovation levers
As already mentioned, most organisations start innovating from their past successes and current skills. While this is certainly quick, it is unlikely to lead to successful innovations. Why not challenge yourself to look at your business from a new perspective?
A personally adapted and developed wheel is a powerful tool to get people to think differently about their brand, category or offer. What all successes have in common is a deep understanding of both their customers and their own brand image.
#2. Zooming out for brands and categories
When you are successful in one category, it can be tempting to extend into others. However, this needs to be done after careful thought. Go too far from the parent brand, as the above examples did and you'll be doomed to failure. Stay too close and you'll not benefit from anything more than a mere renovation.
#3. Zooming into a category niche
It is possible to innovate by zooming in rather than out of the category in which you are in. There are again many examples of this since, in theory at least, it is simpler because you already know the category customers and can segment to appeal more strongly to certain groups of them.
Food manufacturers use this strategy a lot. They often extend into low calorie or low fat, and more recently into gluten-free, OMG-free or lactose-free offerings.
Online marketers depend a lot upon finding the right niche for their product or service offer. They have the advantage over bricks-and-mortar stores of collecting a wealth of personalised information. Together with machine learning, they can quickly develop algorithms to precisely target each person with relevant offers. I don't believe that offline retail will ever catch up, however long they collect data - unless they have an online sales strategy too of course.
Whether you believe that 60% of new product launches fail, or the number is 80% or 95%+, the truth is that successful innovation is rare. Why is this? Here are some solutions.
Start with the Category rather than (just) the Customer
Every customer-centric organisation should start their processes with a review of the customers they are looking to please. However, in order to do this, the actual first step to both insight development and successful innovation is to identify the category in which you are, or want to compete.
Another practice I use is to zoom in or out when looking at a category, in order to identify new opportunities.
Your business is or will change - fast - so don't depend on your skills alone
Many industries have been cloned into totally new businesses as a result of technology and new customer priorities.
As just one example of this, Food companies must now adapt to delivering family time, not just ready-made meals. There has therefore been an explosion in meal kits because families want to eat better and even prepare together.
The future of the future
Google has gone from Internet-related products and services to hardware such as Pixel smartphones and Google Home, an Amazon Echo-like device. It has also expanded into energy, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and eye-tracking.
Virgin has gone from airlines, media and entertainment, to travel, health and aerospace. Amazon has gone from an online bookstore to the general retail of a vast selection of products.
Facebook started as a social media and networking service. One year ago, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed his ten-year vision, centred around artificial intelligence, global connectivity, VR and AR.
Tesla started in the automotive industry but has since moved into energy storage and residential solar panels. Today it is advancing into underground high-speed transport and space travel.
All these examples show the importance of preparing to adapt to fast innovation change impacting many industries at lightning speed.
Your next steps to future-proofing your innovation
#1. Working with new innovation levers
As already mentioned, most organisations start innovating from their past successes and current skills. While this is certainly quick, it is unlikely to lead to successful innovations. Why not challenge yourself to look at your business from a new perspective?
A personally adapted and developed wheel is a powerful tool to get people to think differently about their brand, category or offer. What all successes have in common is a deep understanding of both their customers and their own brand image.
#2. Zooming out for brands and categories
When you are successful in one category, it can be tempting to extend into others. However, this needs to be done after careful thought. Go too far from the parent brand, as the above examples did and you'll be doomed to failure. Stay too close and you'll not benefit from anything more than a mere renovation.
#3. Zooming into a category niche
It is possible to innovate by zooming in rather than out of the category in which you are in. There are again many examples of this since, in theory at least, it is simpler because you already know the category customers and can segment to appeal more strongly to certain groups of them.
Food manufacturers use this strategy a lot. They often extend into low calorie or low fat, and more recently into gluten-free, OMG-free or lactose-free offerings.
Online marketers depend a lot upon finding the right niche for their product or service offer. They have the advantage over bricks-and-mortar stores of collecting a wealth of personalised information. Together with machine learning, they can quickly develop algorithms to precisely target each person with relevant offers. I don't believe that offline retail will ever catch up, however long they collect data - unless they have an online sales strategy too of course.
19 min