Consumer Excitement

42 Technology has assisted a number of companies with their innovation process to develop new packaging product concepts by taking a fresh look at the things that drive a consumer to choose a particular product and how this has changed over time. For example, a major driver for the personal care and household market is consumer anxiety. Creating ideas is not a problem. The problem is; will the solution be liked by the customer?

One tool we have adapted is the Kano process to understand why customers buy. The Kano analysis looks at the Threshold, Performance and Excitement attributes in selected categories. This helps to maximise customer satisfaction while avoiding unnecessary extras that would add cost but with little added benefit.

Threshold attributes are those which the end product must have. Having more of them doesn’t make the product more attractive but if any of them are missing then this can be very damaging. (For example; the brakes are poor). Performance attributes are those where more is better. For a car this might be a CD player or air conditioning. Excitement attributes are those which are unexpected and unpredictable.

Over time and as innovation and consumer expectations move on, the attributes gradually migrate. Attributes that were once excitement eventually trend towards being threshold attributes. The advantage of Kano analysis is that designers can build an understanding of not only the customer, but also all of the other stakeholders within the product lifecycle and so determine opportunities for improvement. Innovation can then be apparent at any stage in the lifecycle.

An example of the use of the Kano analysis is in a recent project we did in the beer industry. Workshops undertaken to find new ideas uncovered some revealing truths about the how the industry has often concentrated on the excitement attributes (branding, glass shapes etc) to the detriment of meeting threshold attributes such as consistent beer quality and glass cleanliness. This insight opens up new opportunities in this very competitive and mature market.

The Kano approach can be used to gain customer insight in almost any product, packaging or dispense application. Understanding customer needs is key to finding good solutions; after all necessity is the mother of invention. If you are struggling to know where to point your creative energy, tools like Kano can help you to maximise your opportunity for finding new innovation with your feet firmly on the ground.