Keynote Speech: Innovation is SIMPLE, but NOT EASY ——Benton N. Sauer, Vice President, Managing Director/Executive Creative Director, LPK Asia

1. Keynote Speech: Innovation is SIMPLE, but NOT EASY
— — Benton N. Sauer, Vice President, Managing Director/Executive
Creative Director, LPK Asia
Does innovation refer to a simple idea? For many people, there are
different meanings about this question. The innovative process is simple
but not easy. LPK is one of the world's most successful brand design and
innovation companies, which has committed to helping clients to occupy
the market, win the consumers and become the industry leader.
Experience and learning from experience is very important, for me, living
in Shanghai is about interpersonal relationship experience. Our team
members are from different cultural backgrounds, and they have rich
experience in design and brand creation. In this opportunity, I bring the
knowledge and experience about brand and innovation here. I think if

2. you want to put a successful new idea into the market, a leader who can
lead the whole journey and broaden the horizon is necessary, as well as
the demand for effective process and time.
Assuming that your innovation project has got support and adequate
funding input from the top management, the project team has been
formed by the appropriate members, and there is plenty of time, so we
focus on key steps and considerations of the innovation process.
The first step is to understand the real needs and wants of consumers, to
understand their life and demand motivation, and hope to understand
their present, history and even the future. We all know that empathy is
very important, so where empathy is from? Empathy comes from respect
and respect comes from understanding and appreciation to others.
Therefore, before we create new ideas for others and step into a new
market, we must at first understand the consumers in the market. In
addition, in the process of innovation, we also need to take the basis,
trend, market conditions, production conditions and research in the past
of the brand into consideration.
We want to understand the consumers, so we need to understand not
only their current but also their future. There is a book on what Chinese

3. consumers want to buy and how to sell goods to them. The author of the
book has stressed all the time that we need to take time to understand
and learn to appreciate the Chinese culture, history and language.
Wherever you are, be all there. If you want to get success, first of all you
should integrate into the local culture. Innovation should not be a
process like fast food, we need spend more time understanding the
needs and wants of consumers, meanwhile getting more insight and
finding more opportunities.
LPK has entered the Chinese market for more than ten years, and has
never stopped learning the market and each member in the market,
which is the process to understand consumers.
The first important step to success journey is the understanding. We see
with our eyes, but we understand with our mind. Eyes can only see things,
but the mind will see the answer. In today's world, everyone wants to get

4. things done as soon as possible, but it is extremely difficult to give much
thought in the innovation work. How long we spend on our work
depends on the importance of thinking. To achieve the goal to create
more value for the market, we should understand our innovative thinking
and ability firstly, and then put our ideas into reality. When the demand is
made by ideas, design plays a great role. To be widely recognized in the
industry, marketers must carefully select their factors of the frequency
marketing, enhance the brand’s awareness and understanding, and
improve the public to have a strong good opinion, a unique association
and a positive judgment about the brand.
Design and effective visualization, are very important for the
dissemination of ideas, and a breakthrough business innovation must
have this thought of design. Our team provided "tennis", an innovative
idea to the brand "Pringles", but this innovative idea was inspired by the
cans of the product. We applied it to the spread of different contact
points, and saw the effect of integration and elements of the market,
especially when people brought the "Pringles" to the tennis court. We
know how different cultures insight into the snack consumption, and
have built a worldwide brand in an unexpected way.

5. In the innovation process, the expression of a variety of potential design
paths is essential for the development of creativity, as these are the
"entrances" to gain insight into more opportunities of the design path to
ensure more possibilities. In the creation method of new products, it is
very important to transfer the information clearly to the participants,
only in this way can the team not die out in the stage of concept
development.
In short, from the external language expression to the internal visual
expression, we need to show better ideas to our consumers, and help our
team to understand our design idea. Before a good idea is widely
recognized, only through a thoughtful and careful design can we create a
compelling creative product concept and brand vision, and then
promote business performance by the expression of the brand.

6. What I just said was that the first step is the understanding, and the
second key step is making our creativity characteristic, which is a process
to believe and also a process of verification. If the top executives believe
the creativity, they will see the creative potential value for the enterprises,
and consumers also need this to verify the products, so the products may
be listed in the market.
However, knowledge is not enough, we must apply it. Willing is not
enough, we must do. Therefore, the third key point is the action. To get
successful in the product innovation, we must take action. Don't let the
knowledge depend on dogma, because the dogma will make you a fool,
so we should apply the knowledge to action. The key step to list the
products is to put innovation into practice.

7. According to the above three steps, I want to share with you a case about
Jim Beam. While these three steps have helped them launch many
innovative products in each product line. When Jim Beam expanded their
product lines, we filled the product line with new product concepts,
meanwhile we studied the root of the liquor history, the process of liquor
brewing, and what consumers concerned about this kind of product. At
the same time, we cooperated with local liquor experts, so we had a basic
understanding of some details of the industry, and recruited several loyal
fans of the brand. On the one hand, they provided us with some point of
views as a consumer; on the other hand, they provided us with insight
feedback and opinions in the process of innovation.
Our cross-functional team speculated the idea for two days, and worked
out more than 100 innovative ideas. We got to understand that, when
the wine fermented in the cellar, a part of the wine would evaporate,

8. which was called "angel purification" by the winemaker, as they thought
this part was drunk by the angel in heaven. At the same time,
winemakers often poured water into the empty barrels, they drank one
or two liters of the leaching whisky as far as possible, so they named this
process "the devil's essence". Finally, we made this idea
conceptualization, commercialization, and renamed it, making it even
more out of the ordinary.
Through a deep interview with the consumer marketing and R & D
department, visiting the brewing process, packaging lines, as well as a
basic industry research and trend analysis, the innovative team could
have a deeper understanding, and design a set of framing in the field of
opportunities. These concepts and ideas that consumers touch must be
able to put into effect, and a moving story is necessary to attract them.
To conclude, we must always understand the demand of consumers and

9. the market opportunities firstly. Secondly, we then change ideas into the
real products, and get the recognition of consumers. Finally, the new
products innovation must be implemented and put into effect. As long
as we enforce these key steps and make them work, the new product
innovation must be a great success.
Innovation is not easy, but it can be very simple. To improve the rate of
the success of innovation, keep in mind to understand, believe and act.
Either do or not do, there is nothing to try.