Hey There Good Lookin’: Idea Screening for the Tinder Generation

CHALLENGE

Like many other companies, the client was challenged to innovate in a more “agile” way – identifying opportunities and innovating against those opportunities in a way that is both faster and cheaper. Past attempts at agile research had resulted in learning that was superficial, often limited to a ranking of popularity among the general population. A secondary issue was that the client was targeting millennials with their snacking innovations. Millennials were increasingly uninterested in participating in traditional concept screening research. The client was concerned that millennials who were willing to participate in this kind of research were not representative of the broader target. Because of these issues, the client was seeing low success rates for their innovations in market. There was a need for a fast, cost-efficient solution that also provided deeper insight that the team could use to make strategic decisions.

SOLUTION

The client switched to innovation screening with Upsiide, a technology-empowered innovation screening solution from Dig Insights. Upsiide is a fundamentally different approach to innovation screening. The consumer experience is essentially Tinder for ideas. Millennials (and many non-millennials) are comfortable with this interface. Upsiide is research that uses a language that consumers are comfortable with (swiping), as opposed to a language that researchers are comfortable with (5-point Likert scales). This results in an easier, more intuitive, more enjoyable respondent experience. The client experience leverages proprietary software that allows us to conduct very sophisticated analysis, including Network Maps (which reveal how innovations relate to each other, which can inform future innovation, communication, planograms, etc.) and TURF analysis (which reveals the mix of innovations that most efficiently maximizes potential penetration).

OUTCOME

The client was able to understand not only how popular each potential innovation was, but also how they related to each other. They were able to discuss the tension between the mix of products identified in TURF (which favors a very diverse product set) vs. the mix of products identified in network maps (which favors a more focused product set) and to identify a channel-specific strategy that prioritized a diverse product set online (where reach is potentially huge) and a focused product set in-store (where velocities are critical). Upsiide results were demonstrated to be highly predictive of in-market volumes.

“I love the Upsiide tool because it gives my team the ability to test concepts that they may not have had the opportunity to test otherwise. In a category like ice cream where innovation drives growth, there are always so many ideas in the pipeline and Upsiide allows us to have quick consumer feedback to narrow down the list.” – Katie Mundell, Consumer & Shopper Insight Strategy, Nestlé

“Upsiide is an incredibly useful tool that allows us to integrate consumer feedback into our innovation pipeline earlier and faster. We no longer waste time and resources having our development teams focus on ideas that have little consumer appeal, and instead can focus on refining and improving on the truly breakthrough ones. Put plainly, Upsiide makes us smarter and faster.” – Consumer Insights Manager, Global Quick Service Restaurant Brand

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