Successful NPD is one of the foremost challenges that the marketing fraternity grapples with today. Always an uncertain territory, it has become even more of a battle in the present context, with a fatigued consumer overloaded with sameness. An attempt to get the consumer attention in this crowded space has increasingly led to NPD efforts that have an exaggerated focus on the 'radical' and & 'cutting edge'. This paper shares learnings in the arena of new product development. While the successes are obviously important to demonstrate 'best practice' an analysis of the failures is also critical to develop sensitivity to the pitfalls and likely blind spots inherent in innovation exercises.
Innovation and differentiation are the buzzwords in any client organization - and if market research is looked upon as lacking the ability to provide creative solutions - or, even worse, as killing the creative spark - then we as an industry are in a danger zone. This presentation addresses solutions to the perceived (or real) absence of creative thinking among the research fraternity. The focus of this presentation is on three main areas: how creativity is defined; what prevents researchers from being creative; and where we can look for solutions.