Als talk consumer-insighting_4_contnuous_innovations_27_july11

1. Consumer Insighting
for Continuous Product Innovations
An Invited Presentation at:
The 12th SLV’s ALS
27 July 2011, New World Hotel
Prepared & Presented by:
Ned Roberto, Ph.D.
Salt & Light Ventures, Inc.
Note: No part of this briefing material may be circulated, quoted, or
reproduced for distribution without the written approval from
Roberto & Associates, Inc.
©2002- 2011 by Dr. Ned Roberto. All rights reserved.

2. Basic Proposition …
“Underpinning every
marketing strategy model
that worked is an appropriate
consumer behavior model.”
Ned Roberto (2010)

3. So, 1st things 1st …
 Start by understanding where the consumers
are, and not from where you are as marketers.
 Where you are as marketers must come after.
 So, begin with consumer insighting.

4. And What’s
Consumer
Insighting in the First
Place?

5. Consumer Insighting is about …
… uncovering, unlocking business and
market growing opportunities.
 There are several types.
 Here, we focus on 2.
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6. 1st. Let’s consider …
… this consumer insight:
“What everyone has seen but THINKING
what nobody has thought.”
… to paraphrase Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi,
Hungarian medical scientist & Nobel
Laureate in physiology.
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7. 2nd. We next consider …
… this consumer insight:
What competitors DO NOT SEE or do
not YET see NOR do consumers.
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8. And now to …
… the Consumer
Insight that: “Everyone
has seen but thinking
what nobody has
thought.”

9. Case: ELECTRIC CARS
“How can you get electric cars to run more
cost-effectively than gas-based ones?”

10. Why are automobile consumers not
switching to electric cars?
 Is the value of eco-friendliness, the values for clean
energy vehicles & pollution control, efficient fuel
consumption & emission control, recycling & energy
conservation not a priority with them?
 Yes, these are priority consumer values.
 So what is holding them back?

11. Consumer Insighting Research …
… where an IDI* found most car owners saying:
“I think electric cars are good. But I’m a sales manager. I drive
to work everyday and I go around accompanying 1 or 2 of my
sales reps visiting clients who have problems. And that’s
everyday too and most of the time we’re driving. Using an
electric car in this kind of job means we have to recharge every
so often. Depends. Maybe once or twice during the day.
That’s not the real problem. It’s the recharging time. It takes
so long. If recharging will take only as long as it takes me to fill
up at the gas station, I’d immediately go for an electric car.
Why not?”
*From a “Deconstruction” role playing workshop among ExecDev Workshop attendees.

12. So, here’s the consumer’s …
… perceived problem = a real here-&-now
felt problem of inconvenience.
 What’s the consumer’s own idea of what’s
“convenient?”
 Convenient = “If recharging will take only as
long as it takes me to fill up at the gas station.”

13. Another Respondent Said:*
“During weekends especially come summer months, I like
driving and taking the kids to the beach. Vacation time is either
up north or down south and really far away from Manila. When
it’s a 4 or 5 or 10 hours driving, my wife and I take turns. So
how long or how far can a fully charged battery of an electric
car last? I read somewhere about 100 or at most 150 km. And
then when fully discharged you’ll have to have it fully charged
overnight or for 8 hours. The time of the electric car has not
come yet … not for me and my family. If electric cars can offer
a prepaid card for their electric battery, then and only will I say
that it finally has arrived. In the U.S., you can subscribe to
electric power on a prepaid and postpaid basis. So why not for
the electric power in electric cars?”
*From a “Deconstruction” role playing workshop among ExecDev Workshop attendees.

14. So, here’s a clue …
… from the consumer about the problem
solution.
 And what’s that problem solution idea?
 Problem solution idea = “If electric cars can
offer (something like) a prepaid card for their
electric battery …” [Parenthetical phrase inserted]

15. And what is that …
… “something like?” It comes from insighting
that yields our kind of consumer insight:
“What everyone has seen but THINKING
what nobody has thought.”
… to paraphrase Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi,
Hungarian medical scientist & Nobel
Laureate in physiology.
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16. And This Was Precisely …
… the kind of insight that Shai Agassi
uncovered on which he founded and
organized his company to create the
battery-swapping innovation.

17. Shai Agassi’s Battery
Distribution Strategy Model …
 1st. Think of car batteries as part of the electric
infrastructure.
 This way, you separate car ownership from battery
ownership.
 Then build that infrastructure so that you have a network
of charge spots where motorists can hook up to all
along the way.

19.  2nd. At each battery switching station, do battery
swapping = to like filling up gas.
 Travelers drive in their cars to a battery switching,
swapping station.
 Then the depleted battery, removed.
 Next, fully charged one installed in less than it takes to
fill a gas tank.
 Batteries then charged at night when electricity costs =
low to allow a by-use pricing formula for the swapped
battery < gas price.
.

20. 20

21. And as this was on-going …
… and as Shai Agassi persuaded Israel, Denmark
and Australia to set up and test nationwide the
“Better Place” innovation.
 In another place, another related innovation
was under testing and incubation.

22. 22

23. The Innovator …
accelerating the transition to
sustainable transportation

24. Before proceeding …
… a word or 2 about
“Deconstruction.”

25. And What Is Deconstruction?
 It’s re-analyzing the past to see what it could,
even what it should have been.
 Adapted, synthesized from:
Bill McMillon, The Archaeology Handbook (1991)
E. Agirre & P. Edwards, Word Sense
Disambiguation (2007)

26. And Now, We Next Consider …
… this consumer insight:
What competitors DO NOT SEE and
NEITHER do the consumers.
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27. Case:
“How do you grow a
business in a niche
market of young heavy
T-shirt wearers, a niche
that partakes of the
character of a club but
where you can not
generate revenue by
membership fee nor by
advertisements?”

28. Consumer Insighting Research …
… where an IDI* found many saying:
“Why should I buy my T-shirt from a club of T-shirt
wearers? Sure. But let me tell you why I won’t. Even
if I’m a T-shirt fan, or even if I’m a club member,
what’s in it for me to get my next Tee through this
club? You know, the T-shirt price will only be higher
by how much commission the club will charge for
selling. That’s why I won’t.”
*From a “Deconstruction” role playing workshop among ExecDev Workshop attendees.

29. So, here’s the consumer’s …
… felt barrier to buying = a demotivator
problem.
 So how can this barrier be overcome?
 Do consumers themselves, or some of them
have any practical ideas about how to remove
the demotivator?

30. Another IDI Respondent Said:*
“What do I think they can do just among themselves to
generate T-shirt sales? You know, we have our
Church sponsor every so often a food fair or bazaar.
Each of us who bake or cook a specialty bring each
one’s thing and put it up for sale. At the end of that
day’s fair, I’m always amaze to see everyone’s item
sold. I guess if I want my cookies sold, I feel almost
obligated to buy someone’s beef stew. So why don’t
they think like that?”
*From a “Deconstruction” role playing workshop among ExecDev Workshop attendees.

31. So, here’s a clue …
… from the consumer about how to
overcome the barrier.
 And it’s a simple idea; it’s about side-tracking
a problem or jujitsu-ing it in order to solve it.
 It’s also problem solving by “analogy,” by
“benchmarking.”

32. And Indeed, …
… & its co-founders, Jake Nickell and Jacob
deHart, thought along how the potluck and the
food fair people did things.
 So the resultant marketing strategy model =
Crowd-source, Community-driven Model

33. Here are the steps in that …
… modeling process to answer that question:
 Step #1. Each member of the Threadless
Community works on a t-shirt design that each likes.
 Step #2. The designers submit their t-shirt designs
to the Threadless website.
 Step #3. Community members and visitors are
asked to score each submitted design on a 5-point
scale.

34.  Step #4. Each week, some 1,500 designs compete.
During the week, the Threadless staff selects the 10
most voted designs. The selected designer gets
$2,000 in cash, a $500 in GCs each of which can be
traded in for $200 in cash plus additional $500 for
every reprint.
 These 10 winning designs are then printed and sold
through an online store.
 Sold-out designs with unfilled orders are scheduled
for reprinting and second round selling.

35. Basic Proposition …
“Underpinning every
marketing strategy model
that worked is an appropriate
consumer behavior model.”
Ned Roberto (2010)

36. Why Be Theory Guided?
“Nothing is more practical than a
good theory. If it’s bad in practice, it
came from a bad theory. If it’s good
in practice, a good theory made it
happen. A good theory is responsible
for a good practice.”
Kurt Lewin
Pioneering Psychologist

37. The Eric von Hippel Model …
 “It’s more the consumers, the users who innovate
and less us, marketers and manufacturers.” 
“CONSUMER-CREATED Innovations”
 To successfully “innovate” =
“Watch, monitor how consumers,
users solve their daily as well as
emergent problems.”

38. Threadless as a Company
 Threadless =“ a phenomenally successful T-shirt company
with more than 4 million tees sold since it began in 2000.”
 It pioneered the online business model of crowd-sourced or
community-driven design.
 Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company
with $1,000 in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design
contest.

39. Threadless: 10 Years
of T-Shirts from the
World’s Most Inspiring
Online Design Community
by Jake Nickell. 2010

40. So, there’s your …
… consumer insighting for
2 categories of continuous
innovations.

41. 1st. Continuous for …
… MARKETER-CREATED innovations.
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42. 2nd. Continuous for …
… CONSUMER-CREATED innovations.
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43. So What’s …
… your choice?
 What’s your choice about …
How to consumer insight for
continuously innovating?
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44. On Making Choices
“In any choice situation, avoid framing your
choice decision as an either-this-or-that.
Instead frame it as a both-this-and-that kind
of choice. Either-or is a prisoner’s dilemma.
Both-and is win-win.”
Paul Schoemacher

45. Questions you were unable to ask?
Email me at:
ned.roberto@gmail.com
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