Capturing emotions and buzz in concept screening
Last month I attended the MRS New Product Research Conference in London. It’s been a while since I spotted a program for a whole day conference that looked so unanimously interesting. So I looked forward to this conference.
The content was really focused and was all about using consumer connections efficiently throughout the innovation funnel to deliver better and more consumer centric innovation. Also the role of emerging markets and how to connect with them was a prominent topic.
What struck me is that every participant was aligned on the core beliefs regarding consumer connections in the fuzzy front end, but how we all execute it can be quite different. Some of the contributions where about new style co-creation with consumers in workshops, online communities, … But it was a more traditional topic that struck my attention the most.
The contribution that really got me started was by Conquest on the measurement of emotions and buzz in concept and idea screening. A principle that I support tremendously but that is extremely difficult to operationalize. They have developed the award winning Methaphorix method, that uses avatars to express emotions and buzz potential.
Although I am quite septic about the universal interpretation of avatars, facial emotions,… , I truly appreciate the agencies that are trying to capture more ‘contemporary’ KPI’s in the concept potential measurement. For me this is not only an example of the intrinsic need to capture more emotions and buzz potential in the concept testing phase, it also expresses that the confidence in purchase intention is melting away. Let’s take this forward!