In the ultra-competitive world of consumer electronics, innovation isn’t just a powerful driver – it’s essential for survival. At the top of the elite heap are companies that have engineers creating products just beyond the consumer’s imagination. But innovation isn’t just about technological breakthroughs. Plenty of companies have made their mark by acquiring technology and offering it in an attractive or inexpensive package. Using innovative research to understand the market and get into the psyche of the consumer is just as, if not more, important than the apparatus itself.

The boob tube

 

Sony’s Trinitron technology in the 1970s helped establish it as a company known for innovation – a reputation it maintains decades later. While Sony is typically ranked first when people are asked to think of an innovative tech company, Panasonic and LG are close behind – even though those companies haven’t necessarily been pioneers.

 

With about 2.5 televisions per household in the United States, traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) technology seemed for generations like it was here to stay. The arrival of plasma or LCD display TVs and computer monitors, however, heralded the death of CRT. While some bulky boxes continue to linger in homes, the coolness factor of the lithe screens is so high that consumers are hard-pressed to find a CRT model in the stores any more.  Innovative products can open one door while firmly closing another.

 

Perception is often more important than technological realities. “There’s zero difference between any of the TVs,” says Andrew Greenberg, CEO of Greenberg Brand Strategy. “It doesn’t matter who you buy – they’re all digital, it’s not about tubes. Now what’s important is coming forward to meet the consumer: the form factors, the way they treat you.”

 

While plasma and LCD screens are technologically a cut above the old-school CRTs that they’ve replaced, products eclipsing a predecessor aren’t always so. Sony’s Betamax is a classic example of a format that had superior qualities compared to the ubiquitous VHS format, but that failed to secure its market early on.

 

According to Steve Levine, Synovate’s senior head of technology for the Americas, every manufacturer other than Sony worked on creating and marketing VHS technology. This resulted in consumers feeling that it would be difficult to get parts for a Betamax – even though repairing a VCR is often just as expensive as replacing the unit altogether.

Testing reality

 

Blurring form factors is the hottest tech trend of the moment. Just what is a device that receives a phone call, sends email, takes pictures and plays Top 40 hits? “Some people don’t want to take along a million different gadgets, so we’ll continue to see that type of convergence,” predicts Levine. Where is it all going to end up? “That’s the fun part. I can say, ‘That’s a cool product,’ but in the end, the consumer decides what they want to adopt.”

 

Levine adds that the distinguishing factor of today’s tech market research is the speed with which it’s done. While researchers used to physically go to malls and intercept users, now the same experiences and data can be done using online technology.

 

Of course, traditional focus groups, phone surveys, and face-to-face interviews still have their place. Once the initial concept has been developed, companies like Yahoo, AOL, and E*Trade get in the same room with creative consumers for input about how to modify products to become more relevant. Whether it’s 10-year-olds playing a demo video game, or 40-year-old managers checking out video conferencing technology, a key factor in coming up with ideas is passion.

However, when researchers turn to customers for ideas for new products, it’s “almost always a recipe for disaster,” says Greenberg. “People have a safety zone and are willing to go X amount of feet, but ideas are going to be within that radius.

 

People are going to kill anything that’s very innovative because it scares them. One of the things we know and like is the size of a desktop PC. It’s comfortable, and as they get smaller, people start to wonder, ‘What if I lose it? What if it gets stolen?’ ”

 

Ideas that break through and challenge boundaries, from this perspective, can’t come from individual consumers – when they hear about it, it may sound cool, but it also makes them wary.
“The biggest mistake some companies make nowadays is that they don’t explore all the options, or truly understand what the goal of their research is – which may not be the ultimate research approach,” says Levine.

 

Some brands have won big by innovating in the sense of creating a new product or technology, but it’s simply not enough. Other factors, like coolness and convenience, demand just as much innovation as do researching and understanding the market.