GfK Launches Innovation Management Solution to Support Commercialization and Market Launch

NUREMBERG, Germany, June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

GfK today announced the launch of GfK MarketBuilder, an innovation management solution that proactively drives successful commercialization and market launch of new products and services.

Based on a new paradigm that puts actual consumer behaviour (not just stated intentions) and influencers at the center of measuring innovation performance, GfK MarketBuilder defines what factors will really drive adoption. Moreover, it measures how new experiences might fit into consumers' lives.

In explaining the value of this new approach to innovation management, Marilyn Raymond, global head of GfK's Market Opportunities & Innovation product group, comments, "Innovation adoption is driven by a complex interaction between the individual and the market. Often, too little attention is paid to the realities and complexities of the marketplace and to the fact that the attractiveness of an innovation is only one of the factors that influence its adoption. GfK MarketBuilder helps our clients actively manage the full range of drivers for innovation uptake - maximizing adoption and therefore the return on their investment in new product or service experiences."

GfK MarketBuilder supports three areas that are critical to successful commercialization and market launch:

• It provides a holistic understanding of the drivers of adoption, so that brands can proactively manage the areas that really matter;
• It translates this understanding into informed decision making by using scenario planning and relevant performance metrics to forecast sales;
• It reorients the brand's innovation management to focus on behavior-centric KPIs, supporting a sustained improvement in innovation performance.

The solution generates business intelligence that helps businesses to develop better product or service design and make more informed launch decisions. Additionally, by looking closely at the different aspects of innovation success, GfK MarketBuilder enables companies to avoid throwing away concepts, and investments, just because the marketplace isn't ready for the proposition.

GfK MarketBuilder is an integral part of GfK's end-to-end strategic innovation process, GfK Innovation Roadmap, which guides an organization's entire innovation journey - from growth plans to launch - by exploring market dynamics, identifying market opportunities and enabling market impact. With focused deliverables at every milestone, the process provides actionable growth plans, a pipeline of compelling innovation initiatives and a blueprint for how to activate those.

Further information and country-specific contact details for GfK MarketBuilder are available at http://www.gfk.com/marketmaker

Contact:
Marilyn Raymond
Global Head, Market Opportunities ＆ Innovation
+1-905-277-2669 x361
Marilyn.Raymond@gfk.com