Last year, we unveiled Spark MCR's groundbreaking approach to more completely evaluate ideas than traditional surveys by capturing Impulse and Emotion, as well as conscious Reflection. Spark MCR is 2x more likely to capture consumers' "gut" reactions, and better discriminates across ideas to find the real winners. Now we're unveiling in-market results from a new study on Pinterest for a major retailer which demonstrates that Spark MCR results are significantly and more strongly correlated with higher online "engagement" and e-commerce sales than the traditional approach.
Differentiate or Disappear
The only way to escape the "competitive herd" and grow is to differentiate, yet many clients struggle to create unique ideas that people actually want.
Here we offer 3 suggestions to ensure your innovation doesn't disappear in the crowd…
Research On Research: Methods Matter
Everyone knows the questions are important – but so are the answers! In this head-to-head comparison, we assessed two research scales to see which performs better.
Nobody Reads A Concept: Packaging Must Sell Your Idea!
Ever wonder why so many new products fail after so much effort getting the concept exactly right, and pairing it with a great product? While some failures can be traced to missed consumer concerns or business plan flaws, many simply result from poor marketing execution, such as failing to effectively communicate the concept. It does not matter how good a concept is if the consumer never gets it; nobody reads a concept before making a purchase decision!
Mind The Gap: Don't Let Your Packaging Forecast Fall Short!
Packaging can be a game-changer at the “first moment of truth” and is the one marketing execution every one of your users will experience. After all, nobody reads a concept; your advertising – for those you can afford to reach – and ultimately the package must communicate the idea fully, with no major gaps, or there will be no sale.
12 Ways To Boost Perceived Value Without Sacrificing Profit
Recession. A jobless recovery. Consumer fears stoked with every bank announcement.
No matter how much you spend in marketing, the news networks will out-GRP your glitziest appeals to spend with recommendations to consumers to belt-tighten. So how do you position your brand to “win” with cost-conscious consumers, without lowering your price?
Leveraging Innovation Summits as Ingenuity Catalysts
The bigger the company and the greater its internal resources, the easier it is to believe that “we have all the answers internally” when it comes to innovation and marketing ideas. And many people rightly complain that some brainstorming sessions create heaps of undeveloped ideas that never go anywhere. Yet two recent innovation summits that we were involved with have reminded us of the dramatic value that savvy, experienced outsiders with a fresh perspective can bring to a project in just a few days. Read our two brief case studies and learning for the future
Brands Through the Eyes of an "Outlaw" (and Other Archetypes)
Brands are finding the need to partner more than ever, from co-brands like Crest+Scope, to co-locations like Starbucks inside Target stores or Dunkin’ Donuts inside gas stations, to brand sponsorships like branded NASCAR vehicles, and even movie and media integrations like Coke and American Idol. But just because brand demos or even equity attributes line up doesn’t make you the perfect mates; the brand personas can still mix like oil and water (i.e. Crisco and Aquafina). That’s why AcuPOLL developed a new technique to better understand brand archetypes.
Anatomy of an Effective Marketing Message: 3 Key Concept Components to Capture the Minds or Hearts of Your Customers
Here’s a novel business plan. Develop a great product or service. Leverage technology, lower costs, and offer great value. Then, just when you have something that customers relish, do what many good businesses do: describe it in a way that sounds like everything else, or even worse… don’t offer a message at all. Sound crazy? Well, many of the businesses we see miss one or more of the 3 key elements that make a marketing message effective.
Learning from 8 Years of Innovation Success: What you can discover from top CPG launches
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) publishes an annual pacesetters report of the top new “brands” launched in food, drug, and mass merchandiser stores each year that demonstrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of innovation. We’ve analyzed the results from 2004–2012 and found some really intriguing insights.