Npd should not be a leap in the dark

We were delighted to read Alan Mitchell’s article (MW January 8) stating that real, customer-centric innovation is essential for long-term brand health – and that innovation must have built-in differentiation. This last point is now critical because the ever more choice that consumers have has become a burden, not a benefit, in many categories.

However, the challenge of true innovation in saturated markets remains “where to focus?” Too many new product development briefs start from the wish to be unconstrained by reality – the “we don’t want to restrict the creative thinking” premise – in the hope that some huge nugget of pure gold will appear among the heaps of dross generated by endless brainstorming.

But this only leads to a wandering in the wilderness – a doomed search among acres of Nobo flipchart scribbles, subjective debates about what a good idea looks like, and what is “on trend”. You find, like the poor consumer, that too much choice is hell.

The “three levels of innovation” mentioned in Mitchell’s article are a useful discipline (we use a similar model to assess appropriate potential) but it leaves the reader wondering how to judge which level to work on. Unless you have a well-structured analysis of your brand’s true potential and the “corporate will” behind it, you are in danger of letting ambition drive the decision – taking a leap in the dark with something just because it feels different (or worse, because it feels familiar). This inevitably leads to failure in the market and then a corporate return to caution and conservatism: no more new product development.

Ideas are cheap. Good ideas, however – those that are relevant both to your brand and to the customer – are the result of structured analysis, clear vision and new information or thinking. They are really worth the money.

Stuart MacKay

Partner

Ergo

London NW3