Share this article
As we already know, knowledge sharing is fundamental when you want to come up with fantastic consumer products. Companies invest millions of dollars in research every year to improve their products, but often this knowledge lies in silos and the research is duplicated. This ends up creating a huge waste of budget that could be effectively utilized elsewhere.
The first step is to invest in a knowledge management software tool (like what we provide at Market Logic). This makes knowledge easy to find and re-use for future research projects. This is beneficial not only for the research department to see what has already been tested in the past, but also for marketers to get inspiration for new campaigns and ideas.
Every marketer dreams of coming up with the next big campaign or successful brand, which means they need constant inspiration from across all potential areas. At Market Logic, we often see that clients who provide multi-category products not only learn from their past but also from other categories of the organization.
For example, a marketer might want to learn which flavors are preferred by female consumers for a new foods product. This marketer can use the knowledge management software tool to find out whether other categories already have the answer to their business question – meaning he isn’t limited to the obvious choice of category. To further this example, a marketer might ask, “what do we know about females in the US between the ages of 30-40 years old and their preferred tea flavor?”. He would then receive answers across all categories – including food, skincare, deodorant, etc.
It’s easy to find what’s been tested in the past for similar products, but it’s even more helpful to have a look beyond just one category. Smaller categories may not have the budget to request research on that topic, and thus wouldn’t be able to share within the group.
However, with bigger categories come bigger budgets – which means conducting past research on similar topics but for different products. Quite often this knowledge can be leveraged and great new ideas can come from this process.
Have you ever been inspired by answers “outside the box” that came from the not-so-obvious place? Using a knowledge management tool takes away the search limitations and allows you to receive insights from outside the “obvious” category.
What are your experiences with searching across categories? We’d love to hear your feedback.