Three powerful co-creation techniques to craft compelling innovation concepts

28 Sep 2017
Uncategorised

You’ve got a great idea.

So, all you need to do is race straight to quant research.  Right?

Wrong!

More potentially brilliant ideas die in quant testing than anywhere else.

When success or failure can turn on the choice of a word, or an image … concept co-creation allows innovators to maximise their probability of success.

We’ve helped our clients:

  • Achieve some of the highest innovation concept scores they’ve ever achieved
  • Bring concepts back from the dead so they achieve ‘all-green’ traffic-light scores
  • Deliver 7 winning NPD concepts out 15 concept-screened
  • And score a 93% innovation concept viability rating in a Bases SnapShot!

We’ve done this by intelligent use of co-creation.

Yes it costs money, yes it takes time (but not a lot) and yes it demands your involvement (but less than you’d think).  But it often makes the difference between an innovation project failure … and a huge career success!

Our creative catalysts will work with you and a small team of carefully selected ‘super-consumers’ to pinpoint the motivating benefits and compelling RTBs that’ll transform your idea … into a concept that’ll perform brilliantly in Quant.

These three approaches to consumer concept co-creation could be just what you need to craft your potentially brilliant idea into a winning concept.

 

Consumer Concept Recycling

Concept Rapid-Recycling is a ‘smart’ adaptation of classic consumer groups.  Rather than executing multiple groups (and then subsequently discovering you got something minor wrong at the debrief) they integrate team re-work into the fast track process.

Typically, after two groups, the observing client & agency team will hot-debrief their learning and creatively explore how the concepts should be evolved to:

  • Reinforce the positives
  • Fix any negatives and
  • Add stimulus to fill any gaps or spot opportunities uncovered

The evolved concepts are then re-evaluated by subsequent groups – with opportunities for the client & agency team to refine and polish the concepts during every break.

Application:  Rapid-Recycling is brilliant for optimising and perfecting both written concepts and product prototypes

 

Consumer Concept Incubation

Concept Incubation is far more hands-on!  It engages the super-consumers in the creative process itself.

During every Incubator session, the super-consumers:

  • Physically deconstruct each of your concepts
  • Identify what works and doesn’t
  • Before reconstructing their own personal, ideal concept using your draft & the building-blocks of additional raw-stimulus provided

Investing in just a few Consumer Concept Incubators, can help you spot the strengths of your starter-ideas and craft them into compelling concepts … all within a couple of days.

Application:  Concept Incubators are ideal for early-stage creation of robust written and visual concepts.  It’s a highly visual process, so works brilliantly across diverse geographical and cultural locations.

 

Online Consumer Concept Incubation

Online Incubation harnesses the power of internet ethnography and online groups to get consumers working both individually and as homogeneous mini-clusters to:

  • Generate insight banks
  • Create image and word banks
  • Analyse and deconstruct concepts
  • Reinvent and polish concepts to make them ‘their own’

Online co-creators have the huge advantage that the stimulus gathering and concept crafting can be sequenced over 3-5 days, and client / agency team can interact and collaborate with consumers 24 hours a day from a wide range of geographical locations.

Application:  Online Incubation is ideal for early-stage creation of written and visual concepts, but also allows for them to be refined and recycled across a number of iterations! 

We love consumer-driven concept co-creation.  It adds a powerful weapon into every innovators’ armoury.

Our planning and creative teams are on standby to help you apply these techniques to your own concept challenges …

If you’d like to know more about our thinking on crafting the optimum concept, or you have a pressing concept optimisation challenge – why not get in touch to find out how we can help you turn your cool ideas into winning concepts?

Written by  David Goudge