How to Innovate in this Digital era
You would hear this a lot from big companies (Especially during your interviews) “We are a big company with a start-up attitude and have entrepreneurial spirit” or something like “Our philosophy is to create value through innovations”. That's all well and wonderful in prose, and I don't deny the honesty in their intention, but it doesn't quite true in most cases. It is because these big businesses lack the patience and financial appetite to see innovations through their natural life-cycle and so when it comes to innovations, more often than not, they are just varianting or incremental innovations. However, things are changing fast and new trends are emerging.
One of the most trends in FMCG is the increase in digital penetration. This has reduced the barrier to entry of new competitors and offerings significantly and is giving a level playing field for the smaller companies and startups who don’t have distribution muscle. The consumers are spoiled for choices and are much more informed than ever. They not only want brands to talk to them but also want them to listen to what they have to say in terms of reviews, ratings, social media posts etc. As per Deloitte, 71% of Indian shoppers use digital before their purchase journey. So how do you keep up with the pace of change among these trends and volatility in the digital customers’ preferences and launch a successful innovation?
1. Define who are you talking to - Understand your target audience. This is critical because the language, channels and information you use to communicate with and appeal to one demographic may not be as effective with another.
2. Know where and what time to talk - Understand the target audience and how to reach them effectively, both with the ad and mentally. Get in the mind of your target audience and understand where the best place to reach them is and how they will interpret your ad. For this, it is important to know your TG’s media consumption habits – what do they consume, what time they consume and maybe why they consume.
3. Know The Problem You're Solving - It is important to have a deep understanding of how are you making the lives of consumers easier or meeting a particular need in a better way. It can either be better performance, cheaper cost, less time consuming etc. Always stay focused on your "who" and "why." Test it with your personas, talk to them about it, and know it is something that will fulfill an unmet need first.
4. Understand The Buying behavior and journey - The buying process forms the foundation of all marketing and sales activities. You need to have an intimate understanding the buyer's pain points, where they get their information and who influences the purchase.
5. Be meaningfully Different - We see many "Me Too" brands popping up that want to ride the trend wave and cash in on others fast-growing successes. Instead of following other successful brands blindly, look to what makes you different. But just being different is not enough as differentiation for the sake of it will not break ice until it is relevant for the consumers as well. Try to fill the void, not follow the trend.
6. Know Your Story - Every successful brand has a story. Find yours which you think will resonate well with consumers. If you can’t clearly say who you are, what you do, why you do it and what inspired you, you will not be able to find preference in consumers’ mind over hundreds of options she already has in any category. Remember people don’t remember facts and features but they are more interested in knowing how will a particular product makes their lives better.
7. Validate Your Product mix and Selling story - Try to validate your product mix and selling story – even before it's built. If people won't buy the product or service based on a pitch, they probably won't buy the product or service when it exists. I am not talking about the old school way of concept testing. With E-commerce boom, doing a pilot test for new products has become much easier and you would be surprised that in some cases, the cost of failing is lower than what you would end up spending in different researches such as concept test, blind product tests etc. and even after that there is no guarantee that your product mix will ring bells with consumers. An easy way to do this is to develop a landing page. Run ads. See if anyone clicks the "Buy Now" button.
8. Start Planning the Next Version - Taking a long time to perfect your product before going to market could be the reason it fails. This is truer in case of a tech product. Release it, and start planning the next model. Remember in most cases, it is better to be first than it is to be better.