Innovation oriented organizations need to be on their toes for white spaces & emerging trends. But here’s a twist. Its not enough to know the m$ white spaces but whether we have the brands to carry them with credibility. Hypothesize a new brand compatible with the disruptive white spaces alongside making your current brands work hard to embrace the adjacent white spaces.

Do a quick check before full-fledged embarking on these spaces. Ride on any planned strategic researches that explore brand questions. Eg at the back of a Usage & Attitude study, include a basic branded concept exploration. Write down a few well-recycled, insightful concepts under current brands and the new brand. Ask for credibility, relevance & differentiation.

The new brand scored higher on credibility in most of the disruptive white spaces. Few were higher than even the study average. Reasons: (i) The current famed brands are credible around their own & adjacent spaces. But when they extend beyond that, there’s a dissonance around their expertise. (ii) New brands that are well thought out are devoid of that baggage.

Final validation thru forecasting researches show that the new brand had an average Trial Index of 121 for the disruptive spaces. It was just 113 for the adjacent spaces in which other brands exist. We sowed the seeds for a m$ new brand. Yes, lots of upfront thinking & work but less time & money spent.

Wellness brands are all busy in getting a stress-free lifestyle for you. But how will they target you? What are the health markers to target?

If you ask, >50% in urban India will claim they suffer from stress. But how will you target them? Generally stress & quality of sleep has a good correlation. In the same study where people claimed about stress, have a sub-sample of people to wear trackers for a good no of days. You will get a much lower focused number, ~20%. They would be from a sharper lifestage. Collect their e-behavioral data & then they are easier to target.​

Getting implicit data thru devices at the back of the same study might provide you with some surprising output. You not only know whom to target but also what should be in your proposition & product to target them with.

Do you know that an e-commerce eco-system creates a distinctly different kind of category expectations for product & pack design? But why?

n a recent research, we decided to completely change the way we approach a mix forecasting study. We gave people a freehand to search, browse and e-shop and express their intents. We had smartly integrated our brand in that. We didn't show a traditional concept for this e-com cell forecast.

As compared to the traditional concept exposed offline-commerce cell, the e-com cell had a significantly higher trial index. This is because the way people engaged themselves, created their own expectations and when the e-brand ticked off those expectations, it created that extra interest.

Imagine in a case like this, your entire GTM and media choice will change alongside the product and pack design (in case, you are still in the exploratory stage of the project). I’ll limit it to this for reasons of confidentiality.