Consumer goods companies typically look to innovation to open new streams of revenue, stay ahead of competitors and justify price increases. But nine out of 10 innovations die in the pipeline, and about three-quarters fail after launch. Searching for growth, the temptation is to pump out more and more in hopes of finding a few big winners - often an expensive and ineffective approach.
There is a better and less costly way. It involves screening what goes into the pipeline far more carefully by using innovation “platforms” to generate ideas with higher potential and lower risks of failure. That approach provides parameters for innovation and gives lift - you don't have to start from scratch each time, but can tee up big-hit innovation that offers “repeatability” across product lines.
It’s an approach that carmakers and technology firms have used to build multiple models from the same core parts, but that consumer goods makers have only begun to exploit and adapt broadly.
In car manufacturing, a platform may be a new technology – say, a new engine. In consumer products, it is more likely to be a consumer insight that fosters new product innovation (not just technology) including “occasions”, channels, and packaging.
Take, for example, Danone. In the 1990s, the company saw that consumers’ increasing concern for healthy eating - in particular a healthy start to their day - offered a platform to reposition its yogurt and biscuit products for innovation and growth. First, Danone identified a new occasion for health-based innovation: breakfast. Traditionally, the firm’s yogurts and biscuits competed in both the snack and dessert categories for the whimsies of mid-day munchers. But breakfast, Danone noted, was an occasion where consumers not only wanted healthy choices, but also exhibited high product loyalty, eating the same thing day after day. Danone innovated its