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As a specialist front-end innovation agency, we use a wide range of tools and techniques to help leading global brands develop and identify winning product concepts or claims. An individual project can typically take 6-12 weeks, with inputs from innovation teams and target consumers from around the world. But with the expansion of Artificial Intelligence, can all of this work be replaced by the computer and done in much less time?
Set with this challenge, this month's blog post had some fun with tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini, and how they can be quickly used for a leading brand such as Gillette, to help identify the next "BIG IDEA" in men's shaving. And full disclosure, while we work for many leading companies such as Unilever, BP, J&J or PepsiCo, we have never run projects for P&G or for the Gillette brand.
To give our "AI Gillette Big Idea Challenge" a little structure, our fun exercise follows our 5-step approach for winning concepts and claims. After each step, we make an initial assessment on the potential of AI in the process, and whether our team of Trend Scouts, Insight Finders, Creative Agents, Copy Writers and Idea Testers can all escape to the sun for an extended holiday:)
1. Defining the Focus for Winning Ideas
Whether you are using AI or a more traditional approach, we certainly recommend that you need to define the focus and scope for your innovation work....this encourages deeper and bigger thinking. What are the growth sectors in your market? What problems are trying to solve for your target customer? For Gillette, our AI friend provided a really wide range of options, from environmental focus to simplification to tech collaboration in adjacent markets. Our AI assessment - there is no doubt that AI will provide some really great thought starters, but it probably doesn't immediately replace the strategic and creative thinking needed to define a tight innovation objective for winning product ideas.
2. Finding Deeper Insights to Inspire Creative Thinking
On most of our innovation projects, we typically take 3-4 weeks to gather and identify "winning insights" linked to the agreed innovation objectives defined in step 1 above. This typically involves revisiting “old data” with a fresh eyes; trend scouting; “social media listening”; and topped-up with depth interviews with target consumers in local markets. And once early insights are captured, to identify the "STAR INSIGHTS" with internal team feedback plus fast consumer screening. For Gillette, when asked to list some of the problems using modern razors, AI goes into overdrive with a list of areas to explore such as: "razor burn and irritation, cost and value perceptions, environmental concerns, hygiene factors" etc. Our AI assessment - a fantastic tool to gather early insights, although further nuance work is needed to "dig deeper". Even with a quick exercise, we felt that some deeper insights were missing e.g. around when consumers need to change their blades. We also still need tools to gain broader feedback to help confirm which insights to focus on....although there is no doubt that AI will soon provide this guidance.
3. Use STAR Insights to Inspire and Brainstorm New Ideas
When brainstorming early ideas, we normally like to start with a list of around 20-40 "Star Insights". If relevant and well written, this can be used to inspire creative thinking for new product ideas or new claims. On most projects, this work is often kick-started by our network of Creative Agents who provide a fast and effective way to turn leading insights into early ideas. For the Gillette Big Idea Challenge, we asked our AI tool for new product ideas to address the following insight:
"I never really know if my blade is blunt or if it's the right time to change....and they really are so expensive that I want to get this right".
And the result from AI was outstanding....so many great ideas including wear indicators, smart usage tracking, built-in sharpness test, longer-lasting blades, sustainable alternatives, gamify blade replacement etc etc. Our AI assessment - if provided with good insights, tools such as ChaptGPT can certainly enhance or even replace traditional idea generation work. Creative Agents could then be deployed to refine and build ideas with input from creative-thinking consumers.
4. Creative Facilitation and Interactive Collaboration
Providing a good creative facilitator can inspire teams to think in new ways, while keeping them focused on key insights and the overall innovation challenge of each project. From our experience, the best results come when people come together in one room, although online brainstorm workshops can also deliver outstanding results. But can this creative facilitation for a brand like Gillette be replaced by the computer or an AI Creative Avatar? Our AI Assessment - never say never, but at this stage having a good facilitator is probably best served by a human facilitator with a broad range of tools and techniques to inspire new thinking (which should include AI tools as described in step 3 above). In addition, we probably still need to use online collaboration tools such as Zip-Zap Ideas® to give the internal teams an easy way to share and evaluate early ideas.
5. Refine and Validate Your Big Bang Idea
The final step of one of our typical projects is to refine leading ideas with copy writers, and then to run fast-track screening with target consumers, to identify the concepts with greatest consumer appeal. For the first task, our copy writers use a standard and tight "mini-concept format" that highlights the core benefit, but with insightful consumer language. For the Gillette Challenge, we asked our AI tool to:"write me a product concept for a new razor that provides me with feedback on when it is the right time to change the blade". And the result:
"The Gillette SenseRazor™ is a next-generation smart razor designed to eliminate the guesswork around blade replacement. By combining cutting-edge sensor technology with user-centric design, the SenseRazor™ provides real-time feedback on blade sharpness, ensuring an optimal shaving experience while maximizing blade value. Priced at $29.99 plus $14.99 for replacement blades and $2.99 for premium app subscription".
And when we asked our AI tool how big this idea will be for P&G , the answer was: "The Gillette SenseRazor has the potential to be a game-changing innovation, tapping into unmet customer needs and aligning with broader market trends. Here’s an analysis of how big this idea could be and its growth potential: the total market is worth $10 billion with Gillette's global share at 60%. If SenseRazor takes 10% of Gillette's customers, it could be worth $1.2 billion annually."
Our AI assessment - wow, from this fun and short challenge, AI clearly provides a great enhancement to traditional idea generation and concept writing. But what about concept validation and volumetrics? We weren’t able to validate this question as part of this blog post. Hopefully someone from P&G will test the SenseRazor™ idea and provide the answer:) But our initial feeling is that if not today, the power of AI will soon be able to predict and validate a winning concept more accurately than a panel of 400-500 consumers.
So overall, can most of our team take an extended holiday in the sun? Probably not just yet, although there is no doubt that AI will become an ever important tool and it will start to replace traditional front-end innovation tasks. But at this stage, our feeling that in order to truly find winning ideas, innovation teams will need to nuance the use of AI with traditional insight gathering, creative thinking, idea collaboration and concept validation tools.