The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

17.6. Summary

I've been in advertising and marketing for about thirty years and if somebody had told me that two hundred beginning concepts could be generated, screened, and refined by consumers, prioritized by feasibility and business potential and distilled to about ten finished winning concepts in four days, I would have thought that there's a better chance the jack of Spades would jump out of the deck and spit cider in my ear. (Cuys & Dolls)

—AL CARLSON, FORMER BRAND MANAGER THOMAS J. UPTON COMPANY

Ideation and concept creation is an opportunity to build more than just the portfolio of concepts necessary to fill your product pipeline. Ideation is a time to build the customer-centric innovation-friendly culture necessary to drive your product ideas through to market. Throughout the NPD process, you will need to call on adherence to the voice of the customer and a willingness to invent new solutions to make your product concept a market reality. CUNA Mutual and National Liberty Corporation had been working jointly to get products to market with little success for four years. In frustration, the teams were sent into the desert for two weeks only to return with a clearer understanding of why they did not want to work together. Finally, Carol Myers, Vice President of Marketing at National Liberty and her CUNA Mutual partner, Janice Schlimgen, agreed to throw all ideas out and start from scratch. Starting with basic consumer needs and basic capabilities of the two corporations they ...