Category: Innovation

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Innovation is just inherent in our culture. We are expected to innovate, and we have innovation budgets to use. The other challenge in doing innovative research is that stakeholders usually pay for the majority of the research, and I have to execute it. So with that, they hold their money in their budget very sacred – what that means is that it’s a lot easier to rinse and repeat. If you’re doing something more innovative, it is scarier, and you are taking a lot bigger risk. It is not just a risk of the stakeholder and me, but also of the business and all retail partnerships that we have – there is a lot at stake. So I really gauge how to approach innovation based on whether or not my stakeholder really wants to play and try new things or if they are a little more apprehensive. I will typically start with something more comfortable but then push the boundaries. So, for example, it’s a lot easier to say we’re making a quantitative approach with this study. We do those all the time, but if we do this quantitative study, we push this other little piece on top of it; it unlocks a whole different area. Are we willing to try that?

So I am just ticking away at those things and building on what’s comfortable, but always thinking a couple of steps ahead of what the stakeholder’s needs.

I think that’s where you get a nice secret sauce.

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Over recent years, we at EyeSee have been experimenting with a series of possibilities in terms of 3D stores and virtual shopping. The idea was to always immerse the consumer into a realistic context. The unique component for this study with Google has been the fact that we have been integrating video content into another video of the merchandise fixtures. We make our 3D stores very agile in terms of setup, so the experience for the respondents becomes very shoppable.

It’s important to think pragmatical when we are configuring the study – so we must always balance the granularity of the environment.

Some components we develop in 2D with a bit of depth versus some other objects that we are studying, we fully develop in 3D. Ultimately we love to understand not only the shopping behavior but whether we can generate any level of emotional response as a trigger to that shopping experience. That’s not only important for companies like Google but just imagine what that would be like in luxury and retail for cosmetics and beyond!

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There are a number of lessons that I’ve learned over the years in innovation – one being that

people just seem more comfortable and more honest when they are in their own house.

They have an easier time admitting that maybe they had a chocolate donut for breakfast, or that they have chips sometimes in the afternoon, or that maybe they don’t always read the nutrition facts on the back of a package.

They are more comfortable and it seems like just our insights are just a lot better.

So, that’s one of those things that I’m definitely going to be carrying forward.

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Sephora has done an excellent job of making it easy to shop and navigate. They have their ‘Clean by Sephora’ logo that’s easy to find in-store or if you’re online. It’s easy to click in and filter, and it gives you peace of mind that everything that’s labeled is eco-friendly and good for the planet. Thrive Market is another one that I often hear when I’m doing consumer interviews, as a place where people go just because it’s almost a mental shortcut. They know that if they’re buying from Thrive Market, it will be eco-friendly, not toxic, good for their bodies, and good for the world. Another example on the brand side is Ethique shampoo bars. They started as a solid shampoo, but now they’ve launched into other adjacent categories and waterless solutions.

From the moment you enter their website, their direct consumer experience online is clear and easy to navigate.

It’s in the very human and culturally relevant language. Then, when you get the product shipped home, they make the unboxing spirit fun. Some of the shampoo bars are heart-shaped, which is just a great thing to experience when you’re taking on a new sustainable product form. Finally, the product usage itself can be quite pleasant. That’s an example for me of a brand that’s gone above and beyond delivering on basic category benefits, like cleaning into an experience that actually surprises and delights people along the way.

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There are two different types of data: primary research data and the data that we have from our own system, from the funnel conversion, etc.

Magic happens when you marry both those data sets, but it is easier said than done.

As researchers, we tend to get very academic about it a lot of times, and we want to do it in a proper way. But what’s the purpose of doing it in the first place, right? The purpose of doing it in the first place is to generate some actionable insights or some action or initiative which essentially moves certain KPIs.

At the end of the day, you are pushing the envelope in terms of getting that additional data or pulling people’s loyalty or motivation. That’s the name of the game at the end of the day.

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Because many of the occasions have changed, we switched more from “away from home” to “at home” consumption – so the atmosphere, the energy, the context of consumption of our brands has changed. When we’re talking about the new product, consumers are more willing to try the new product.

Consumers are definitely in a position where they want to explore new products and try different types of categories.

According to some data in Europe which we have, we know that in, for example, Germany, 72% of total consumers of the age of 16 to 34 are willing to try new exotic flavors – that’s 65% in France and Spain. Among those flavors, they would like to try some of them that they’ve never tried, so they can kind of transform themselves to the areas of the world they are now not able to travel. Knowing that we at Coca-Cola definitely we’re thinking about some exotic flavors that we can offer to our consumers to satisfy that need. COVID-19 also brought the overall health concern – so now consumers are looking at the drinks and foods as a vehicle for better health. Functionalities are getting more traction and that is something that we are paying attention to. The consumers are also looking to support as well – they are interested in immunity, boosting their energy, improving gut health and concentration, managing the mood, and many other products features out that were not so typical prior to COVID-19.

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It’s very important to create a space for innovation by partnering and brainstorming with many diverse research companies – it can go from a startup building experimentations to very large and well-known research vendors in many countries.

It’s like an interactive process as we are always happy to share best practices and new methodologies with our vendors, research guidelines, and UX requirements for mobile questionnaires, for example, to improve research quality.

We love to work with different vendors and people because we are convinced that diversity favors the appearance of new ideas and methodologies. Of course, not all ideas succeed in the short term because innovation takes time, and you can fail, but that’s okay. As marketers, it is on us to choose where to put the cursor of innovation.

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The question often is now what? That’s the kind of a question you need to ask yourself as a marketer with any kind of insight or research: what can I do with this? It’s something that I almost find difficult more than the research itself – how do I find the way to use this usefully? Ultimately, what you should do as a company is to say what does this tell me about my core objectives and business goals.

For me, marketing is a subset of business, communication, and media goals, etc. If you want to find out how does this help, go back to big questions and big issues you were trying to address as a marketer and what does this tell me:

either to confirm that those were the right issues or to contradict,

give me a new insight in terms of how I relate to the target audience, how they think and feel about my brand, etc. Relate back what you learned to what you are trying to do in your marketing efforts.