THE DRIVERS OF INNOVATION

At Lab42, we understand the importance of innovation – we are innovators ourselves – but we wanted to know how important it was to the average consumer. What do consumers think makes a company innovative and how do they see the process of innovation?

As established in our post The Innovation Premium, consumers are willing to pay significantly more for products they feel are innovative. But how do consumers perceive innovation in a company?The answer surprisingly, is not all about technology. Technology was the lowest driver in the perception of innovation, with 66.3% of consumers agreeing that a company can be innovative without technology. The most important element in perception of innovation for almost half of all consumers is ‘coming up with new ideas’, regardless of a technological component; an interesting finding for brands that might be trying to shoehorn modern digital technologies into their new products.

One of the key findings of the study, and most certainly a result of the modern way brands communicate with consumers, is that a third of our respondents cite ‘listening to consumers’ as a key driver for innovation. When coupled with the fact that 69% of respondents agree that research is required to create innovative products, it clearly shows the need for the modern marketing research discipline to be part of the innovation process.

Take a look at our Drivers of Innovation infographic to discover the full details of how your company can be perceived as an innovator.

Interested in learning more about Lab42’s research methodology and how it stacks up against traditional panels? Check out our Research on Research.