The current change in consumer behaviour under the impacts of the need for sustainable development, stagnating incomes and shifting priorities means that classical approaches to identifying new markets and products are becoming outmoded.

Once regarded as being at the forefront of innovation, the Consumer Goods sector is now bogged down by conservative approaches dedicated to incremental innovation. Conventional practices oblige brand managers, who have only a few years to climb the corporate ladder, to avoid taking risks. Incremental development can be useful for maintaining market shares and achieving short-term financial goals. However, many Consumer Goods companies recognize that even if they did develop all the incremental ideas they have in the pipeline they could never meet their performance targets. What they need are disruptive ideas that lead to the breakthrough products they are looking for.

Foresight and forethought, two assets that give you the edge.

Consumer goods companies cannot use the same procedures for developing incremental and breakthrough ideas. With incremental ideas, companies need to confirm that a product is feasible and that current consumers are interested in it. Thus a standard stage-gate process is applicable for this type of approach. By contrast, breakthrough ideas benefit from an iterative, learning based approach since the aim is to offer new consumers benefits that do not yet exist, but become industry standards when they do.

The solution  is to first realise that conventional approaches lead to conventional products and little impact in the eyes of consumers who are looking for household appliances with designs and features that in some way change their everyday lives. Identifying white spaces between brand categories, out-of-the-box thinking, new consumer insights and capturing ideas outside the company are a few of the ways towards spurring genuine innovation