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The roaring Year of the Tiger: embark on your consumer collaboration adventure

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2022 is the roaring Year of the Tiger. While the ‘Year of the Rat’ (2020) was about survival, and the ‘Year of the Ox’ (2021) about adapting to a new reality, the ‘Year of the Tiger’ will be about adventure and making big changes. In fact, Susan Levitt states in her book ‘Taoist Astrology that the Tiger is known for its power, being daring and having a penchant for doing everything big.

So, let’s see where 2022 will be heading…

The roaring year 2022

For the past two years, change has been inevitable as we were collectively battling through the COVID-19 health pandemic. To surf this wave of change, businesses needed to be agile, constantly adapting to a new reality, coming up with new ideas and innovations. Some even believe the end of the pandemic will usher in a second Roaring ’20s. Yet, grasping the changing needs of consumers and developing relevant solutions at the right time have been key. This is also how we supported Nike during the pandemic. With traditional (offline) research methods being challenged, online insight communities helped this brand to better understand their consumers in these unprecedented times.

To not only understand the consumer reality today, but also adopt a more future-forward perspective, we developed our 2022 Consumer Trends Report: Rebound + Rebalance. In this report, we identify 10 trends that will define the attitude and behavior of consumers around the world in the roaring year ahead. In our ‘2021 Culture + Trends: Happiness Reset’ report, Relationships, Engagement and Security were at the forefront of our minds when pursuing happiness. Entering 2022, Achievement and Positive Emotions are becoming core drivers as we re-evaluate how we spend our time and energy in a world where uncertainty is the only given. We are actively seeking to rebound and rebalance our lives.

 

Innovation research to conquer the brave new world

According to McKinsey, ‘Prioritizing innovation today is the key to unlocking post-crisis growth’. Yet, in such a brave new world challenged by successful disruptors and start-ups, innovation research is imperative. It helps brands to identify gaps in the market, and offer new and refreshing products or services.

To break with the old ways of innovating, we provide a tailored innovation track, based on three key characteristics present amongst successful innovators:

  • Friction
    Understanding relevant consumer frictions and underlying insights is important. Insights are the driver of the whole innovation process; they form the starting point and should be embedded in everything you do. We help you uncover, validate, and activate relevant insights throughout the organization.
  • Passion
    Successful innovators do not rest before their problem is solved. Their insight does not change, but their solution iterates constantly through careful ‘curation’ of their innovation assets and smart co-creation.
  • Pilot
    The innovation process does not end at market launch; it often works with beta launches and explores new routes along the way. Go-to-market is part of the innovation cycle.
Standard Chartered

An example of how we support brands in their innovation efforts is our collaboration with Standard Chartered. In light of the new regulation in Singapore to make aggregating bank products and services in a single app easier, we co-created CardsPal. This app helps users find credit card deals to maximize savings on shopping, dining and more.

We conducted research over several weeks, using an insight community – a great place to experiment with prototypes or conduct UX testing in many different shapes and forms throughout the development cycle. Forums were set up to explore users’ frictions, their needs and existing perspectives through a series of asynchronous tasks and one-on-one standard UX interviews to drill into specific issues.

Through prototyping and testing multiple UX approaches, we were able to understand the contexts of users’ current credit card usage, and we pilot-tested the beta version of the new CardsPal app.

Ready to brave 2022 with us?

Many more brands such as HSBC, Bupa and Cathay Pacific have all successfully displayed enviable innovation through co-creating a new innovation culture. So, are you ready to ‘rebalance + rebound’ and become a leader of change and innovation in the Year of The Tiger?

We’d love to showcase what our Insight Communities can do for your brand. So get in touch to request your showcase!

Innovation Envy bookzine cover

Innovation Envy

Unfolding the DNA of successful disruptors. What can established innovators learn from these successful disruptors? How do you increase the speed and quality of innovation internally? How can your organization embed the disruption DNA in your innovation process and research?

Request your download

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