Wide Angle

Last weekend, I spoke with a friend who just returned from Italy.  He asked: do you know how long it took to build the St. Peter’s basilica?

120 years!  That’s 1.2 centuries.  Or, a decent-sized-fraction of a millennium.

Awe-inspiring, no doubt.  But what is particularly remarkable is that the basilica planners had to answer some extremely important questions before construction even began: would the building accommodate the size of the community in 120 years?  Would the design meet the aesthetic tastes of our grandchildren?  To answer these questions without the luxury of Excel, Stata or dartboards (created 100’s of years later by our friends in England) must have required luck—and prayer.

In many ways, it’s the equivalent of a modern-day, consumer product development cycle.  In a sea of shifting segments, who will purchase my product when it finally hits store shelves?  Not an easy question to answer, even with modern, predictive tools we now have at our disposal. Read More »

At first blush (okay, pun intended), it’s hard to imagine anything that would be fit for print in a post on a marketing blog.  But in reality, NASA and the nudists in question are but two examples of an increasing trend we are seeing as marketers.  If I said the answer is “open source innovation” would that allow for too many bad jokes?  The truth is NASA has been a proponent of open source innovation since 2003 and in 2002 market researchers at Moen Faucets recruited 20 nudists to be videotaped while bathing to enhance their product development efforts.

Whether co-opting outsiders into helping you innovate as NASA does or getting creative with your ethnographic research as Moen did, we are seeing more and more members reaching out to their customers – and even their non-customers – for innovation help.  Already NASA’s Centennial Challenge Program has resulted in technological breakthroughs orchestrated by a “regular guy” from Maine working alone in his dining room as well as a group led by an undergraduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Read More »

I’m no wine connoisseur, so the marketer in me kicked in on a recent trip to my local liquor store.  I considered the attributes I wanted – under $15, preferably red, not too sweet or fruity, a familiar brand name and something that connotes a fun experience. Faced with an array of wines from California to Chile, from Merlot to Bordeaux, I was struck by the enormous difficulty marketers face in differentiating their brands and creating a connection with consumers in the moment.

Granted, I was probably a little outside of the target segment for most wine makers, but what would have altered my decision? A catchy label or even a suggestion from one of the sales people could have nudged me in a different direction. The lesson for me here: while there is immense opportunity to influence a brand decision before a consumer goes shopping, the importance of the in-store experience—whether through product placement, point of purchase signage or a well trained store employee—cannot be minimized. Read More »

What can Romano’s Macaroni Grill’s re-engineering of its tomato bruschetta dish teach us about innovation in a recession?

Most marketers are relying on price and promotional shifts to re-position their brands for value.  By contrast, savvy marketers are re-assessing their products more holistically, taking into account how raw materials and production costs interact with traditional marketing disciplines like consumer understanding and pricing.

Enter Macaroni Grill, which reported in The Wall Street Journal | Sep 16 is reworking its menu to get away from 1,000 + calorie items—its consumers want to eat more healthily.  The restaurant’s tomato bruschetta appetizer makeover illustrates recession-minded innovation at its best: Read More »