Innovation — hunt for quick wins
By James Jesty, Shape New Ideas
Be connected to the day-to-day business
As your innovation team go on a journey of discovery and invention they will uncover ideas that could impact the core business in the short term.
So whilst they might have their eye on the big idea 12–24 months downstream, encourage them to ask: “How can we apply our insights and ideas to make sustaining incremental improvements to our core business now?”
Look for quick wins
Spin off early ideas — it keeps the energy and motivation levels high, and confidence that a program of innovation and change is gathering momentum.
Marketing activation — reframe benefits and address frustrations
Many insights uncovered in the early stages of the innovation journey can be adapted to your existing marketing activities:
- New ways to re-frame existing benefits and make your marketing initiatives more relevant and engaging
- New claims that re-frame superiority of your existing products
- Improvements to services and customer interactions to satisfy unmet needs and frustrations
- Improvements to packaging design, messages and design to overcome barriers to trial at the point of sale
Use your digital media ecosystems and small scale pilots to quickly test out ideas arising from fresh insights — be agile.
Revisit old concepts
You probably have a library of concepts that never hit the necessary criteria to progress through to launch. However, armed with your fresh insights you might be able to dust these off and sharpen up the proposition to be more relevant, distinctive and unique.
A new insight applied to an existing idea can dramatically change the way it’s positioned — which in turn can dramatically change the performance of a concept.
Challenge sessions
As an innovation team, always challenge yourselves by asking ‘how can we apply new insights and ideas to our core business?’
Find ways to fast adapt any new insights. It will have many benefits:
- Business impact
- Enhances the team’s credibility and keeps them connected to the core business
- Creates momentum and pace
