INNOVATION ATELIER

Helping you fuel growth with innovation

COMPANIES THAT INNOVATE MORE OUT-PERFORM THEIR PEERS BY ABOUT 3% YEAR ON YEAR. INNOVATION IS THE BEST WAY TO GAIN COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND WIN IN THE MARKET PLACE… INNOVATION ATELIER IS YOUR PARTNER OF CHOICE TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AND MAXIMIZE THEIR SALES POTENTIAL.

Our approach

No other business situation is like yours, so we listen and adapt. Our ability to understand your business issue enables us to turn our expertise into practical solutions for you. We bring you the latest, from applied cognitive science to predictive modeling.

Innovation Research

Research outside of a R&D lab is not always as clear-cut. Thanks to our breadth of experience, a perfect balance between robust standards and flexibility, we get to these insights you need to develop, screen and qualify your next product hit.

Marketing Optimization

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” – If like us you find this quote disturbing, then you should give a try to our proprietary optimization models. We offer best in class accuracy for new products sales forecasts and marketing optimization, leaving no chance to waste.

Innovation-focused Organization

It is not easy to find the right balance between creativity and rigor when it comes to innovation. Yet both aspects are critical. Specialized trainings, proven processes and organization design will help you get there.

OUR APPROACH

Innovation Atelier helps you fuel growth with innovation. We act as true partners; we listen to your needs and understand your business issue before proposing a tailored approach. We combine our deep expertise in market research and analytics with creativity to come up with practical solutions for you.

Because no other business situation is like yours. More than our tools and assets, it is our agility to turn problems upside-down, ask different questions and look into the market with a brand new lens that delivers these insights you can act upon.

INNOVATION RESEARCH

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever" - Chinese proverb
We can help you understand the market, its competitors and its dynamics to prepare a new product launch. Listening to consumers, uncovering their needs and aspirations is crucial to shape a new proposition that will appeal to consumers. Innovation Atelier offers a range of research resources and analytics to help you create, develop and optimize your innovation. We have developed a battery of new tools & techniques based on best approaches in cognitive science, packaging research and conceptual research. While we can go a long way with our standards, we will tailor a unique solution to best meet your needs.
MARKET ANALYSIS

Innovation Atelier performs a 360° market analysis to help you map the landscape for a new product launch. We start by using publicly available information and assess the information gaps to get to the full picture. We can create a learning plan for you, balancing risk and speed to answer the success/failure questions and assess the market potential for a new product or brand.

Our Market Analysis approach is composed of three main stages:
1. Review of available information from public sources
2. Assessment of information gap and learning plan creation
3. Desk analysis of syndicated data & reports

Get a clear recommendation whether and how to proceed with new product or brand development in a particular market.

IDEATION LABS

Ideation Labs are used to find applications for an upstream technology, or explore possible innovations for a specific market. They are working sessions to stimulate creativity and generate ideas in a spirit of co-creation with consumers, using a mix of team workshops and brainstorming with consumers. What matters is not to take what consumers say for granted, but apply our knowledge of cognitive science and spend time with the business team to get to the precious insights.

Here is how an Ideation Labs could be composed of:
• Brainstorming sessions with team members and creative consumers,
• Mini focus groups with consumers to get preliminary feedback & builds on innovation routes, and
• Team workshops to nail down the insights learned during the brainstorming sessions,
further reflect on promising innovation routes, and select the ideas with most potential.

Get a short list of disruptive innovation ideas co-created with your consumers.

CONCEPT EXPLORATION

Concept exploration is important to get some feedback on the idea(s) pursued in a quality way. It helps gaining insights on consumers’ preferences and needs for a product category. Concept exploration is instrumental to find the right language/descriptions of a new product. Typically, concept exploration needs a set of draft concepts, each representing distinct innovation routes. Concept exploration uses In-depth qualitative research with consumers.

• Understand emotional connections and needs of consumers for specific new products to find the most relevant insights for communication
• De-structure concepts to identify the most promising features of the new idea
• Explore wording and visual territories for the new products

Working with a selection of creative and traditional consumers enables to find the right balance between disruptiveness and popularity for the new product.

Get a set of consumer proof concepts, ready to go into communication and design briefs, as well as in quantitative testing.

CONCEPT SELECTION

To select the best idea amongst different options, we turn to a concept selection quantitative research, which can effectively identify the option with most consumer potential.

The research methodology has been created to test the concept and its packaging in an environment that is as close to reality as possible. The focus of the research is to measure consumer purchase interest of the different alternatives and benchmark them vs. existing/similar products. Further diagnostics will help you improve the proposition.

It is a sequential monadic screening test placed amongst 300 consumers. The approach is fast, flexible and statistically robust. We also offer a holistic evaluation tool to assess the potential of your ideas based on all critical factors (the factors that have the biggest impact on success likelihood) in addition to consumer appeal. Technical feasibility, patentability and financial attractiveness are some of these critical factors reviewed to make a final ranking.

Find the most promising concept based on a robust assessment of consumer interest and the critical success factors.

PROPOSITION QUALIFICATION

This is a holistic, behavioural quantitative approach. The goal of this piece of research is to measure the success potential of a new product and gain insights on how to improve it further.

We test the new product packaging and communication (or advertising) to replicate real market stimuli and capture consumer purchase behaviour. The research design has been inspired by traditional concept tests, packaging tests, claims test and shelf tests to take the best of each of them. This way, all consumer touch-points are captured, from pack design to shelf stand-out and communication. It uses a very robust base size of five hundred respondents.

The research allows us to observe consumer purchase patterns for the holistic consumer proposition and benchmark it vs. existing/similar products. This test can be used to give the final green light for a product launch. Further diagnostics will help fine-tune the final proposition.

Get a go/no-go recommendation for new product launch based on a holistic consumer assessment.

CONSUMER TRACKING

We can help you put in place an effective tracking system once your new product is in the market. This enables you to quickly respond to changing environment conditions in the market-place (for example if competition is significantly reacting to your innovation).

Consumer research can help gain insights on how to keep improving the launch plans of the new product and increase sales momentum.

Diagnostics can be elaborated with quantitative: visibility/cut-through of the new product in the store, level of awareness generated by the above-the-line communication. Depth understanding is privileged through personal interviews with target consumers and observation to understand the overall appeal of the proposition in the market, as well as the motivational drivers of purchase/non-purchase of the new product.

Get an assessment of what is working and what is not working with the new product launch and improvement recommendations.

MARKETING OPTIMIZATION

Achieve more with less. Innovation Atelier offers marketing optimization solutions for your business. We help you increase your marketing ROI by identifying which activities drive sales and which ones don’t. Marketing plans are optimized through the modeling of different scenarios: we can help you increase sales at constant investment, maintain sales with a lower investment, or do both. To deliver marketing mix optimization, we use two proprietary models: a new product sales forecasting model for new products and an integrated share optimization model for base business and new products. These models have been validated in most FMCG product categories with major manufacturers.
NEW PRODUCT SALES FORECASTING & OPTIMIZATION

Knowing your marketing and trade plans, and integrating consumer test results, we estimate the sales potential of your new product. We use a proprietary forecasting model based on advanced algorithms to capture the complexity of a new product launch. The model we use has an excellent accuracy of +/- 11% in 90% of the cases. The model enables simulation-based marketing optimization: playing with the marketing mix, we can identify the optimal launch plan based on your budget or reach your sales objectives with minimal investment. In all cases, the efficiencies in your marketing plans are increasing your marketing ROI.

Sales forecasting and optimization have a dramatic impact on your new product launch by:
• Improving your odds of success by a factor 2 to 3
• Increasing your new product sales potential by up to +100%

More than forecasting, we help you conceive your future success.

INTEGRATED SHARE OPTIMIZATION

We have developed a brand new market share model for Integrated Share Optimization (ISO). This tool is incredibly powerful: it gives you a solid understanding of your marketing ROI across the different pillars of your business: brands, variants, new products and restages.

With the integrated share optimization model, you can find the right balance between innovation and base business support to grow your total market share.

The model uses historical data to estimate the impact of all marketing and trade activities in the market on your brand share; your activities and activities from competitors. Its edge is that it integrates the consumer testing and forecasting of new products together with traditional marketing mix modeling on the base business. The ISO model has an accuracy of +/-18% in 90% of the cases.

Get an integrated framework for resource allocation across your marketing mix, the different pillars of your business, and across R&D priorities, enabling better innovation and financial planning.

INNOVATION-FOCUSED ORGANIZATION

Unleash your organization innovative power. Ideas lie everywhere; they are here, within your organization, and you may not be aware of them – yet. With the appropriate ground, these ideas can flourish and be harvested. We can help you create the fertile environment which will see the emergence of these ideas and the processes to carry these ideas into the market place. Innovation management is a mix between an art and a science, where creativity can be enhanced by rigor. There are three axes where we can help you enhance your organization innovative potential:
PEOPLE

To unleash your organization’s potential for innovation, your people need to master a certain set of skills.

Proven tools and frameworks enable managers to imagine and develop innovative ideas.

At Innovation Atelier, we have experience in training organizations in the area of innovation: conceptual tools for idea generation, market analysis, consumer research analysis, marketing optimization, etc.

Our recipe for success is our emphasis on skills acquisition in an engaging way, mixing theory, real-life examples and practice.

As a delighted client puts it: “Dramatic changes have occurred since the training”. The results speak for themselves.

ORGANIZATION

Innovation within an organization typically goes bottom-up. The organization should provide the right environment for managers to take calculated risks. This is a matter of culture and structure.

Freedom Empowering managers to effectively progress ideas
Risk The risk of failure has to be embraced by the organization
Resources Innovation takes time and money; their allocation between going operations and innovation is critical
Skills Creating multi-functional team structures to grant innovation with the right pool of skills

This approach has already been proven by 3M, Google, and a few other innovation pioneers, we can help you replicate this emerging work paradigm.

PROCESSES

When it comes to innovation, there is often a tension between speed and quality. Doing things well takes time, yet time is crucial to gain first mover advantage in the market place.

Speed is maximized with delegation and autonomy, while quality is ensured by top management intervention. Finding the balance between the two is a fragile equilibrium. It is important not to get paralyzed by consensus or data, and conversely not to rush into half-cooked solutions.

Transparent working principles and decision making can significantly simplify innovation development. Having the right stakeholders at the right time and on the right decision point can be achieved with adapted processes. This is how speed and quality are maximized.

We can assist you in putting in place effective innovation management processes.

Why Innovation Atelier

Well, Why not ! We are flexible and dedicated to offer you the best. We listen to your needs and deliver that tailored solution you will love. Our services are 100% customizable to best meet your needs. We are experienced and resourceful, with more than seven years of experience in innovation management as well as multiple collaborations with academics and international companies.

We hold a few proprietary assets that can make the difference for your business and that you will not find anywhere else:
  • Market
    analysis
    methodology
  • Innovation
    consumer
    research
    standards
  • Innovation
    potential
    evaluation
    tool
  • New product
    sales
    optimization
    model
  • Integrated
    Share
    optimization
    model

We have a proven track record with a few multinational companies; amongst which the second biggest retailer and the third cigarette manufacturer worldwide, providing them with high quality work that delivered results. Finally, we won’t break your purse; we are nicely competitive on price.

values


Innovation Atelier’s philosophy is to deal with innovation with what it takes of rigor without forgetting that innovation design and management should be fun. It takes the right balance between discipline and creativity to reach the sweet spot – innovation is half way between science and art.

Innovation Atelier has the highest dedication to quality work. In pure Swiss tradition, the satisfaction of a job well done is fostered and cherished at Innovation Atelier. Flexibility is by nature an asset that Innovation Atelier wants to offer its clients. Given its size, it can work with maximum agility to get things done.

Innovation Atelier is dedicated to transparency towards clients and partners. Nothing is more powerful than trust to increase work effectiveness and deliver greatest results.

Innovation Atelier is a firm believer in clients economy, not in the sense of internet-based economy, but in the sense of building lasting relationships across independent experts. Networks increase added value to clients and enable more breakthrough innovation in the industry. It also enables more personal relationships in business, which are sometimes neglected by bigger structures.

Last but not least, client success is Innovation Atelier’s ultimate goal. Hard-work is meaningless in comparison to delighted clients.

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