| |DECEMBER 20188Consultants ReviewINSIGHTS FOR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: INTEGRATING THE TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVEMarico is one of India's leading Consumer Products Group, in the global beauty and wellness space. An empathetic consumer scientist and mind-sets explorer, Shilpa is responsible for unearthing insights for product opportunities that lay the foundation for Innovation DesignsBy Shilpa Mhatre, Marico Ltd.Research & Development [R&D] & Transforming Face of MarketThe role of R& D function in any or-ganisation of any size or tenure stays unquestionable as here lies the Cradle of Innovations. This more so in times where fast, faster & fastest Innova-tions will sustain the changing market dynamics which has got spurred by the Technology revolution. The rising ephemeralism caused by advent of new buying trends, responsive & reac-tive consumers and the many emerg-ing A's viz. Awareness, Accessibility, Actionability & Alternates posing new challenges to research teams. Adding to this dynamism are new age platforms of e-Comm and higher competitive market. Brand, product loyalties and `Icon's' seem to be coming under a threat in near future! The challenge of creating differentiation with high standout value along the entire product lifecycle includ-ing initial & sustainable repeats is getting higher. Insights for R & DOverwhelming influence of AI, Big Data and Analytics has positively forced the Insights disciplines in organ-isations to re-align & reframe strategies for higher pre-dictability &sharper forecasting. My experience keep-ing in mind the business role of R & D believes, that a technically nuanced, science based sharper in-sighting approach benefits the R & D team to come up with con-sumer need based innovations.While Big Data is a source; inter-preting Product Insights of technical nature that influence consumer be-haviours will be the key to bring in differentiation & thus higher success in product designs. These insights not only identify opportunities for Technology Innovations of future but also map out the risk involved in a potential innovation. Various cohorts in Insights viz - Sensory, Product, Point of purchase, Usage & Habits, Benefits, Value, Segment, Experience and more, needs to be culminated together for a relevant & compelling Product Storyline. Not Just How's & What's; Whys AlsoOne trend that we observe amongst consumers whether in India or globally is the pride and comfort in using products or brands that are indigenous. This is an atti-tudinal evolution. Further while the modalities by which consumers are accessing or reaching out to products are modern, they do cherish closer to root experiences embedded in local values e.g. CHAAYOS. A striking and known example of this is Indian cuisine inspired fla-IN MY OPINIONShilpa Mhatre
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