Product Innovation for CPG Brand Marketers (Virtual)

How to Implement Innovation Principles and Process for Brand Growth
(Virtual Half Day Workshop)

Virtual Workshop Description
According to a November 2023 McKinsey report, eight in ten surveyed CEOs report new-business building as a top five priority. Leaders in the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) space recognize that innovation will make or break the future of their business – and product innovation, in particular, represents a key component of a company’s growth strategy.

In recent years companies have experimented with a variety of models for longer term innovation activity including dedicated teams working inside the company or in a separate entity, startup accelerator partners, and venture studios. But CPG companies differ from other industries because consumers expect them to regularly deliver new products to the market. This type of shorter-term innovation is frequently overseen by brand marketers.

In this introduction to innovation workshop, we introduce brand marketers to the standard innovation processes, starting with developing an innovation brief and moving from insights to ideas to prototyping and testing concepts. It will introduce topics including human centered design, collaboration with R&D and Design, tools for validation, transition to commercialization and how to partner with innovation agencies.

This workshop will include individual, and team exercises as well as case studies, to support the adoption of the principles being taught. Participants will walk away with an in-depth grasp of the basic principles and terminology of product innovation so they can successfully lead an innovation project for their brand.

Target Audience
This workshop is ideal for brand marketing leaders who oversee innovation as part of their overall remit as well as mid-level brand marketers who are responsible for developing and launching short to mid-term product innovations such as line extensions. It is also relevant for marketers who may want to transition into an innovation specialization.

Virtual Workshop Benefits
The benefits of attending this workshop fall under the following key drivers of growth: improving marketing effectiveness, increasing marketing efficiencies, improving marketing ROI, and improving employee alignment and collaboration.

This workshop helps attendees improve marketing efficiency by teaching them:

• A step-by-step process to innovating new products
• Guidelines to engaging innovation agencies and what to look out for

This workshop helps attendees improve marketing effectiveness by teaching them:

• The process and components of front-end innovation and commercialization
• Multiple innovation tools as well as the critical skill of writing a sharp innovation brief
• How to identify consumer white space and uncover potential innovation territories to grow a brand
• How to skillfully apply insights to write impactful new product concepts that score highly with consumers

This workshop helps attendees improve marketing ROI by teaching them:

• How to uncover opportunities for revenue growth
• How to target new customer segments by leveraging industry and societal trends
• How to reframe business problems as brand growth opportunities

This workshop helps attendees improve employee alignment and collaboration by teaching them:

• How to work cross functionally to develop new products

Download the full agenda here