Why innovation is about alignment not just customers

The customer is now king or so I’m told.

One part of their kingdom appears to be innovation. I can’t remember the number of times recently that people have said to me, “The best innovation starts with the consumer” or “Good innovation starts with a consumer insight”.

While many innovations do indeed start with the customer, the reality is that customers don’t have a monopoly on new ideas and don’t always need to be the point of departure.

Rather than a linear process that starts with the customer, innovation can be seen as a process of aligning 3 different elements - the customers, the brand and the technology/capability and it is therefore not necessary to always start at the same place.

Technology-led innovations lead with the application or adaptation of technological advances. To succeed they do have to meet consumer needs and deliver them in line with the chosen or new brand’s vision and values. The classic example is the Post-it note, which was for a while a technology in search of a need, showing both the strength and the danger of a technology led approach. Technology can take you to places you or more importantly your customers would never have thought but equally they do ultimately need to address a consumer need! The two Steves - Jobs and Wozniak - weren’t consumer led and indeed the former is famously quoted as saying “the consumer often does know what they want till you show them it”.

They also said “We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. We just want to design and develop and bring to market great products. We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence we’ll make some money.”

Brand-led technology. This is based on defining an innovation strategy that comes from your brand vision and values directly and then developing products/services in line with that and your target groups’ needs – using or developing technology accordingly. An example here would be the Lego watch – a twist on the familiar watch with a built element of creativity and ‘construction’. There was no crying need for another children’s watch but there was an opportunity for a watch that was from a much loved brand whose values were aligned with what parents wanted.

There is of course still a place for customer-led innovation. This is based on identifying consumers’ unmet needs (existing and emerging) and delivering them in line with your brand’s vision and values by finding or developing the appropriate technology to produce them. A recent example would be the rapidly growing purplebricks.com brand.

Asked about why they knew they were onto something good Michael Bruce said “Customers!  We have not rushed to launch. Over the last two and a half years, we have spoken to hundreds of customers in six areas of the UK about their experience of estate agents and what they like about it and what they dislike. We have included them in everything from branding to messaging to marketing to service and price”

So i) you don’t have to start at the same place, ii) you need to align three elements and iii) the three key elements for any innovations are technology, customer need and brand.

Please arrange i), ii) and iii) in whichever order you choose.