Purple Sheep Project - Being Market Led

I am a believer that advertising in its traditional sense is no longer effective. Consumers are swamped for choice of products and brands.

Consumers are switched off to advertising.

Products now sell based on their ability to enhance people's lives, they are marketed via word of mouth. Products must now have the marketing built in.
Apple announced recently that they will no longer use trade shows, they are too expensive and time consuming compared with retail and on-line marketing (the i-store).

This all goes to say research and development must be in tune with markets to be guaranteed of success. Pure brainstorming and experiment has its place in the creative process but it cannot be isolated from the market if it is to have any value.

The enormous success of companies like Apple, IDEO, Disney, Google, Phillips etc... All stem from a simple product development formula. Disney's Imagineering teams no 1 rule.. Know your audience. It is critical in all Innovation processes to truly understand the market needs. The companies above think like the people that use their products. They really understand how to anticipate basic social changes and to develop products ahead of their competitors.

The very start of the development cycle, before R&D, design are even briefed is always comprehensive market research. Not to be confused with market sizing. This means using observation, sociology, anthropology etc, to fully comprehend how markets are shifting and what future consumers will value. The easiest way is to pretend you are the customer and see it from their eyes.

Visiting a trade show or attending a focus group is not going to help much. In the UK carpet trade for example it takes time to earn the respect of local buying groups and retailers before they will open up and tell you what they really believe. Networking is critical and time consuming but the long-term benefits for gaining in-depth market knowledge are very powerful. Standing in a retail environment and observing consumers is a great method to see what gets noticed and why.

R&D and Innovation is often seen as expensive and having been a waste of time and money. Some institutions will have 200 projects for every market success story.
Every product range designed can be successful in the market. This is not luck; it is basic rules of design. Don't design anything in isolation from the market. During the development process engage constantly with the market and check on your direction.
Institutions that are struggling with high failure rates are not engaging with the market effectively or just not listening.

If you look at most successful product innovation it will illustrate an incredible insight into the intended customer, but also a very well streamlined and educated value chain. It is important that all levels of a value chain are focused on the end result.
If everyone who touches the product realise the end goal, we have a far greater chance of success. In fact we have a guarantee of success.
Phillips are a good example, they design and market products, but they don't program microchips and manufacture quantum dots. They just ensure everyone who makes any part of their product knows the market. Especially the guys in the R&D environment.

The key thing is to ensure those responsible for leading research and development teams and those sponsoring projects are asking the right questions.

Who is the customer?

How will this enhance the lifestyles of consumer?

The outcome of course may not be financial gain, it could be a social or ecological benefit.. But when if marketed correctly will always lead to the financial reward.
This leads back to using the best consumer touch points - not advertising. New marketing is about understanding people, what they need and how to communicate with them.

Ideas come faster when the brain is engaged in frequent problem solving. People thinking about a market, and thinking about the needs of consumers will have ideas, and those ideas will generally be of some value.

People working in isolation will lack inspiration

Research can be in the right area, on a very market driven subject, but methodology can be out of sync with international best practice.

When we ask a scientist to work on something we need to be able to trust that a brief will not just be followed but that the same critical questions will be asked, why am I doing this?, who is the customer?, how can I give them results that will be valuable?..

We should expect great customer service, which must include the people doing the research really getting to understand the benefits they are trying to achieve. R&D to a strict brief is likely to be less valuable than R&D that is done in partnership with the market.

Most of all we need people who are customer driven and passionate about creating new and cool stuff that will enhance peoples lives.

We need more Purple Sheep