Tag concept statements

Adcepts – A Better Way to Reduce Innovation Risk

The fundamental purpose of qualitative market research is to reduce the risk of failure – failure likely to cost the brand owner many millions in product development, production and marketing support. The technique is very simple – ask target consumers in focus groups to tell us if an idea will work or not, and ideally, indicate how it will work best. Simple as that. Very sensible. Except…

Except that we are doing it all wrong. For qualitative research to do its job, the new ideas need to be presented in a way that is familiar, realistic and ‘everyday’ to consumers. Instead, we show them cold written concept statements, perhaps supported by a few visual ‘mood boards’. Focus group members have never seen a concept statement before in their lives and have no context within which to judge it. Also, concept statements have no emotional resonance, so cannot convey what is often the most important aspect of a brand – its personality. Finally, showing words and visuals on separate boards means that the message is fragmented and confusing. Risk reducing this is not. This is where Adcepts come in…

Adcepts are different from concept statements. They are in the everyday language of brands – advertising – so consumers can quickly and easily evaluate an idea within the context of real life products with which they are already familiar.

Adcepts convey emotion in very precise and subtly differentiated ways. A single product idea can have multiple emotional expressions to isolate which is the most compelling.

Adcepts put words and images together on the same page, bringing the expression of an idea together holistically in a way concept statements + mood boards cannot.

Adcepts give us feedback which is much more useful and reliable than concept statements can provide. They also allow us to explore many more idea areas so that no good idea is needlessly lost. B7 Innovation shows up to 80 Adcepts per focus group, versus a typical six concept statements in traditional research. So Adcepts don’t merely reduce the risk of launching the wrong product/brand, they also remove the risk of a strong idea being left out due to limited space, or that it could be rejected because there was only room for one version.

B7 founder Paul Tidmarsh comments “Innovation is an essential but risky process. Replacing concept statements with Adcepts gives much richer, more precise information, significantly reducing the chances of getting it wrong.”