“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
… but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust.
Referred to as the fuzzy
front-end of innovation, ideation is regarded by many as the most challenging
stage in the innovation process.
Ideation begins with insights. Insights yield ideas,
and the flow of ideas is the creative force that drives innovation. Gleaned
from the tension arising from unmet needs, insights inspire innovation not only
in new product development, but in all elements of the marketing mix, and at
all stages of the product life cycle.
The Ideation Process
In the context of brand
management, an insight is a realization that may be channelled to
strengthen and grow the brand. It essentially emerges from a penetrating
understanding of consumers.
In order, therefore, to succeed in new product
development, consumer goods companies need to remain connected with their
consumers. Many of these organizations adopt a consumer engagement ideation programme
for new product and strategy development. This cross-functional programme with
participants from marketing, R&D, market research, trade marketing and
sales, comprises a series of individual and team activities spread over four to
six weeks, and culminating in an insight generation workshop. Typically, there
are about 8 to 12 participants, each devoting about 7-to-14-man days engaged in
the following activities:
(a) Knowledge
immersion
(b) Consumer immersion
(c) Insights
generation
(d) Ideas generation
The knowledge immersion and consumer immersion activities are
undertaken individually by the participants in preparation for the workshops,
where they engage within teams to generate insights and ideas.
