Isn’t all innovation “strategic?” No.
The only strategic innovation is innovation that drives self-sustaining growth. Innovation should be a conduit to greater strength in the marketplace, greater customer loyalty, greater competitive leverage, and greater price leverage. Most new product introductions are little more than “noise” designed to keep a brand looking fresh, even though customers are just waiting for someone to really respond to their unstated, unaddressed needs and wishes.
We’ve spent most of the past 25 years proving that it is possible to take even stagnant brands and drive them into leadership roles with “strategic” innovation. That’s how The Department of the Treasury changed what was called “the worst financial product in America” (U.S. Savings Bonds) and made it into one of the fastest growing financial product in America. It went from double-digit decline to double-digit growth with one innovation based upon our strategic innovation research. It’s also how Subway Sandwiches and Salads discovered how to double per-store sales. It’s how more than 75 other national and international brands proved that self-sustaining growth is possible.
Strategic innovation is driven by understanding the possible new drivers of decisions that will create self-sustaining growth. That means we go beyond what’s happening now in your category, and we discover what end-users wish was happening. Those new potential drivers of decisions are then matched with your capabilities for addressing them to create new market approaches that drive dramatic new growth and greater control over the marketplace.
Check out our many methods for driving strategic innovation and discover how you can start to take greater control of your product category. The tools we provide to help you innovate strategically don’t just give you direction and ideas, they also provide means for inexpensively testing possible strategies for potential effectiveness, so you walk away with real implementation strategies.