By: Mike Rodenburgh, SVP of Consumer Goods Practice – Vision Critical

The other day a recommendation was given to a client based on research that was conducted for a new brand innovation. I was fascinated by the client’s response. They felt an important finding had been missed in our recommendation since consumers in the focus group said that they liked the brand innovation. In contrast our research showed that the innovation should be retired from consideration, or at least be applied to a more suitable brand in the client’s portfolio. In a subsequent round of quantitative research, we continued to see problems with the value of the innovation created, specifically in how it laddered to particular end-benefits.

Innovation is all about creating value for the customer, however the value created must be consistent with a brand’s values and positioning. In this particular case, we found very specifically that the innovation’s main value did not ladder to a benefit that was consistent with the brand’s value and positioning. So unless the idea was to reposition the brand with a new set of core values and benefits, it appeared that the innovation was not appropriate. Despite the evidence and recommendation that were presented, the brand manager decided to move ahead and implement the innovation regardless.

This scenario is a classic example of an alternate objective being pursued – an objective outside of innovating in order to create value for the customer. This secret undertone is that if this idea was killed, it would appear as if the brand team had been stagnating for the entire year and hadn’t made any progress in developing the brand.

If the idea fails – and it might – all I will be left to say to my client is an unfortunate “I told you so”. What’s interesting is that the more I see innovation for innovation’s sake, the more I believe that most brand managers are not rewarded for saying “no”, they’re only rewarded for saying “yes”, even when “yes” may be the wrong answer. As the pace of innovation increases, companies need to reward their brand managers for making right (and sometimes difficult) decisions that keep a focus on innovating for the customer’s sake while keeping the brand’s value and positioning in mind. Otherwise, brand managers may be hearing a dreaded “I told you so” from consultants like me, more often then they’d probably like.