297. IJRM. Ideation & Innovation.
January 11, 2024
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In today’s podcast, global marketing and innovation expert Professor Stefan Stremersch offers insights into a holistic ideation process, balancing customer-centric approaches, diverse ideation sources, and the evolving role of AI. As businesses navigate the innovation landscape, understanding consumer perceptions and strategically implementing generative AI tools can shape the future of ideation and market success.
Key topics discussed:
Source of Innovation: Inspired by design thinking, Professor Stremersch emphasizes starting the search for new ideas by understanding customer needs. Although he notes that ideation methods extend beyond design thinking to include such things as breakthroughs in technology, science, new business models, and societal trends.
Customer-Centric Approach: Professor Stremersch highlights the significance of empathizing with customers, citing examples where observation and immersion in their daily lives led to valuable insights. Acknowledges the challenge of relying solely on customer input, as customers may express current needs rather than anticipate future ones.
Ideation Dimensions: Ideation is divided into dimensions such as the source of innovation, scope of innovation, sharing, and selection (decision-making speed and method). The importance of having multiple ideation domains to encourage creativity, prevent fixation, and inspire diverse ideas is highlighted.
Idea Napkin: The idea napkin is introduced as a tool for ideation, providing a concise format for expressing ideas. It includes a title, idea owner, customer need, solution, and visual inputs, acting as a simplified but effective prototype for early-stage ideas.
Early Sharing of Ideas: Professor Stremersch advocates for early sharing of ideas, emphasizing the value of feedback in refining and enriching the ideation process. Companies are encouraged to standardize ideation templates for effective evaluation, sharing and collaboration.
Generative AI in Ideation: Professor Stremersch discusses the growing impact of generative AI in various aspects of ideation, from trends analysis to feature optimization. Acknowledges the ongoing evolution of AI applications and their potential to significantly influence the innovation landscape.
Consumer Reaction to Innovation: Professor Stremersch challenges the notion that consumers prefer novelty, highlighting that innovation often requires behavior change, which consumers may resist.
Click here for the Research Article
The Up Next podcast’s access to this content is courtesy of the International Journal of Research in Marketing, an international, double-blind peer-reviewed journal for marketing academics and practitioners. IJRM aims to contribute to the marketing discipline by providing high-quality, original research which advances marketing knowledge and techniques. As marketers increasingly draw on diverse and sophisticated methods, IJRM‘s target audience is comprised of marketing scholars, practitioners (e.g., marketing research and consulting professionals) and policymakers.
IJRM aims to be at the forefront of the marketing field with a particular emphasis on bringing timely ideas to market. The journal embraces innovative research with the potential to spur future research and influence practice. Hence, it welcomes contributions in various aspects of marketing. The editors, while accepting a wide array of scholarly contributions from different disciplinary approaches, especially encourage research that is novel, visionary or path breaking.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Stremersch is a global expert on marketing and innovation, bridging thought leadership and leading practice. He is a Professor at the Erasmus School of Economics. Previously, he has worked at some of the world’s best business schools and research universities (e.g., Emory, Duke, IESE Business School).
Stefan is also a partner and founder of MTI2. He has offered executive education and consulted in marketing and innovation at all levels of seniority and at many multinational firms, typically science- and engineering-intensive industries (e.g., Aliaxis, Alcatel-Lucent, Baxter, Boehringer Ingelheim, Grünenthal, GSK, Merck, Michelin, Novartis, Siemens, SKF, Takeda, Total, to name just a few).
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International Journal of Research in Marketing
Stefan Stremersch