Battle of concepts: Astma Fonds

Again we joined the battle of concepts... This time Asmidin, Peter, Omer and I created a concept for the Astma Fonds.
You can see the result here (ppt).

Interviews RockArt Museum Hoek van Holland

For the project of this quarter I have interviewed 6 people from the target group. The target group is families with children. I interviewed 6 parents. First I asked general questions; about what role music plays in their lives and their music preferences. After that I explained the project and our concept.
Underneath you can read the results, some interesting answers and how we use these answers in our project.

Part 1: General musical interests
The ages of the people I interviewed varied from 27 to 51. I interviewed 3 women and 3 men.
For 5 out of 6 people, music is important in their lives. It influences them in all kinds of ways: when they like a song they buy a CD (2) or download it (3), they go out dancing, they go to concerts and listen to music while driving their car. One person said it influences her mood; music makes her happy or sad. Every person interviewed relates music to memories.
Their music taste varies from Deep Purple to Tiësto, from the Eagles to Phil Collins and from the Golden Earring to Robbie Williams.
For most people their music taste has not changed over the years, it only did for one person; from rock to R&B/ Pop.

To the question whether they attach much emotional value to music, most answered neutral (they were given an indication from 1-5 (very little – very much).
Social value scored much higher, an average of 4.
It’s interesting to see that cultural value was important for the women (score 5) but not so important for men (score 2).

All interviewed people agree that it is important to preserve the Dutch musical heritage.
Neither of the people had ever heard of the RockArt Museum in Hoek van Holland.

Part 2: the museum and its goals
After this first part of exploring the role music plays in general in our target groups lives, I explained the museum and its goals.

All the people think it is a good initiative, but only three consider actually visiting the museum some time. If there is to come a ‘National Pop Museum’ (a goal for the RockArt Museum), they would want it to be more than just expositions. They would be interested in musical experiences, making music themselves and a large database where you can find any music related information.
Although only three would visit it, all agree that a National Pop Museum would be an added value to the Dutch society.

Part 3: explaining the campaign
In the third part of the interview I explained the campaign we are planning to start for the RockArt museum. I explained the concept, without showing any visuals yet.

All people answered that they like the initiative and that if they would see it somewhere, they’d support it. Supporting would be done by telling around (4) and if possible signing a petition that the National Pop Museum should become reality (2).

Part 4: visuals of the cards
The fourth part of the interview was showing some visuals of the cards we want to spread with the promotional campaign.

To the question ‘How does this card make you feel?’ five people answered: curious. This is exactly what we were hoping for. But of course one person answered something different. She said she didn’t feel anything and she would throw it away. I showed her another card with an artist I thought she might like more and asked her if this changed her mind. It didn’t because she still didn’t like the artist, but she came to the conclusion that if she saw a card with an artist she liked, she would be curious as well. For the promotion campaign it is thus important we have a big variety of artists shown on the cards.

Because we are planning to distribute the cards in public transport, I asked the people whether they travel by public transport, and if yes by what means. Only three of the six people travel by public transport on a regular basis. Therefore we came to the conclusion that we should distribute the cards at other public places as well. Suggestions from the people I interviewed were: busy shopping centers like the ‘koopgoot’, the airport, the harbor of Rotterdam where all the ferries arrive, cafés (music related places), gasstations or roadrestaurants and the Nieuwe Waterweg (Hoek van Holland, many tourists in the summer).

Other interesting remarks about the cards were:

- Make it clear on the cards that the museum already exists; now I would think there’s nothing there yet and that there is only a plan for a National Pop Museum

- Music is a colorful thing. Can’t the cards be more colorful?

All remarks are taken in consideration and used in the project.

On the back of the card is a URL to the campaign website, www.savetherockart.nl. Five of six interviewed people say they would visit the website after seeing this card.

Part 5: campaign website and (viral) game
The fifth part of the interview. I explained the campaign website and the (viral) game that is attached to it. Four of the six people would play the game. The two who wouldn’t, wouldn’t because they don’t like to give away their email address. I asked them whether their opinions would change if they could win something. This doesn’t influence their answer.
All four would send the game to people they know, especially if this improves their chances of winning.

Part 6: the website
The last part of the interview was about the website for the RockArt museum. I first showed them the current website; www.rockart.nl. To the answer whether they liked what they saw, all six said no. I asked them why they didn’t like it and this were the answers:

- To much information/ chaos

- Takes too ling to find information

- It’s not up to date

- Looks unprofessional

- Looks boring

- Too many colours

- Logo sucks

- Menu not readable

- I hate the scrolling

After that I showed them the prototype we’ve developed for the RockArt Museum and asked the same question: “Do you like what you see?”
One person said ‘No’, five people said ‘Yes, but…’.
I asked the person who said ‘No’, what she didn’t like about it. She answered that she thought it was too black. She did think it looked more professional and organized though. We’ve taken this comment in consideration and will use more shades of grey.

Other comments on the site were:

- I’d like more space, now it still looks messy to me

- I’d like the headers to be bigger

Positive remarks were:

- I feel like watching the movie

- I want to click on the items shown on the homepage (3)

- This looks professional (5)

- The menu looks clear

- I like the search function! (4)

Conclusion:
Altogether I think these interviews have really given me a better view of the target group and that we’re going in the right direction. In general they all like the concept; there are only some minor adjustments we have to make, based on what the interviewed people said. The remarks were really valuable, because they make you see things from a different angle. Everything is taken in consideration and we’ve made some changes already. The final result of the project will be online the 5^th of July.

Innovation without a customer is not innovation

836 words

To prove the phrase stated in the title of this essay either wrong or right, we’ll have to define the meaning of the word ‘innovation’. A random dictionary translates the word innovation as ‘the introduction of something new’. But in today’s world, what is new? Is it body lotion with ‘skin-identical lipids’, extra large coffee-pads for a mug of coffee instead of a cup, or a cell phone with a 3.0 megapixel camera instead of 2.0? These products are all introduced to the market as innovative, but are they really? Or are they just improvements of products which ones were innovations? And even more important, what is the role of the value a consumer attaches to the so-called innovation? Should the word ‘innovative’ be related to the value the consumer attaches to it? Can a product be tagged ‘innovative’ if the consumer doesn’t want it?

A perfect example of a case which emphasizes that innovation without a customer is not innovation is the Nestlé story in April of this year. With the help of many experts, Nestlé decided it was time to ‘innovate’ their chocolate brand Cailler. A new recipe and a new wrap were the result. One thing Nestlé ‘forgot’ was to research whether there actually was a need for this innovation. What should have been a boost for the traditional chocolate brand eventually ended up as a total failure. One of the causes for this failure was the non-recyclable wrap. In a time like this, where climate changes and environmental issues are a huge trend, Nestlé could have easily known the non-recyclable wrap would not be a good idea. Not only research about the needs and wants of the customers lacked; apparently research lacked at all points.

A person with an interesting view on new products is Gijs van Wulfen. This economist, writer, marketer and innovation accelerator doesn’t only have an opinion about what innovation is, but also knows the importance of customer insights.
Gijs van Wulfen sees it this way: each ‘new’ product can be placed in a category. There are three different categories: new to the world, new to the market and new to the company.
In his opinion, innovation can be applied in all three categories. The classification just decides what the amount of innovation is. Clearly the new to the world products are the most innovative; new to the company products are innovative as well, but just for the company.
I consider new to the market and new to the company products not as innovative. I rather see them as ‘me too’ products or improvements of products that already exist.

But let’s say there is a new to the world product. It’s never been seen before. This would then be called a truly innovative product. But then there is the customer issue. Does the world, to which the product is so new, need it? When innovating, Gijs van Wulfen emphasizes the importance of customer insights: “A customer insight is a fresh and not-yet-obvious understanding of customers that can become the basis for competitive advantage.”

Especially in this time where (potential) customers can so easily be reached (internet), this should be one of the first steps in the process of developing a new product. But Nestlé is not the only company who lacks researching customer insights. Recent research done by MarketResponse shows that marketers lack to explore good ways to get customer insights. The current developments on the internet make it easy for marketers to contact their (potential) customers. All they have to do is take a look at social networking websites to find out about their preferences. It appears from the research that many marketers don’t know how to handle the information.
In my opinion in the process of innovating could be enriched with customer insights easily this way. All the marketers have to do is take the step into this world that seems so hard for them to reach.

I think a product can only be tagged ‘innovative’ when it meets two requirements:
1. The product is new to the world
2. There is a market for the product
When the newly introduced product doesn’t meet one of these requirements, I think it is not innovative. Is it not new to the world, but there is a market for it? That is fine, but not innovative. It is simply a ‘me too’ product or an improvement of an existing product. Is the product new to the world, but there is no market for it? Then the product is useless, it will not generate profit and it is not worth the word innovative. It’s clear that an innovation defined as above, results in very little innovations a year. But isn’t this what being innovative is all about? Not every company can simply define themselves as being innovative; it is something you have to earn by introducing a world-changing product. It takes understanding your customer and whole lot of creativity and competence, not just adding to word ‘innovative’ to your positioning.

Literature
Jacqueline Fackeldey. Innovatie zonder de klant is geen innovatie: Nestlé chocola voor alle Zwitsers. Molblog. April 24th, 2007. June 30th, 2007, <http://www.molblog.nl/innovatie/5022>

Gijs van Wulfen (2006). Nieuwe producten bedenken. Amsterdam: Pearson Education Benelux

Onderzoek naar gebruik online sociale netwerken: marketeers zijn nog te voorzichtig. Marketing Online. June 25th, 2007. June 29th, 2007, <http://www.marketingonline.nl/nieuws/moduleitem50819.html>