Market Research for Oral Care Products: From Insight to Innovation
Analysis and creativity for successful oral-care products
One of Europe’s leading manufacturers of medical oral-care products asked us to conduct a consumer-based baseline study to collect innovation input for the coming years. GIM provided the client with a process comprising everything from ethnographic interviews to concept-development workshops to online focus groups, thus covering all necessary research stages in a smart and cost-efficient way.
The challenge
Our task was to help our client understand their consumers and the field even better and to identify as yet unaddressed needs. The questions we asked were:
- What drives the target segments?
- What are the main needs and motives within the oral-care field?
- What are the hidden drivers and barriers?
The solution
We developed a four-phase research design for our client:
Consumers’ life worlds and needs:
We recruited our ethnographic interview respondents using a special battery of statements. Thanks to this screening process, we were able to explore their life worlds, their motives and their reasoning. We then produced a video clip reporting our quintessential findings. This “bring-to-life” phase formed the basis for the following ideation process.
Ideation phase:
Together with our client we held a two-day workshop to develop the benchmarks and routes for potential product innovations. Based on these developments we then generated as many ideas as possible (some of them intentionally odd). The ideation phase was modeled after a workshop; we employed many creative methods, worked in task forces, and put special emphasis on visualizing innovation.
Concept development:
For the following workshop, we selected the best ideas and developed them into concrete product concepts. GIM Concept-Writing is the standardized method we use to transform ideas into testable concepts.
Concept check and optimization:
Each concept was further enhanced with a visual and discussed in online focus groups, which helped to develop optimization ideas.
The success
Our consumer-inspired innovation process combined quantity and quality. 123 (!) ideas were condensed into sound concepts and promising products – coming soon to a drugstore near you…