Nothing is as much fun as a great ideation session.
People are happy to be away from their desks, and they look forward to having some fun as they solve the problems of the work. Generally the firm spends half an hour explaining the process and then a researcher shows the fundamentals of the category and brand. By now it's 10:00 and the people are bored. Ideation is a right-brain process and should rely on creative instincts rather than logic. So, say hello, state the target problem in one sentence, and then start with a crazy creative exercise. You'll be amazed how quickly the participants will get to the heart of the matter when right from the start they rely on the right side of the brain and their gut feelings from the start.
People should reveal the aspects of their personalities you never knew existed, enhancing the creative mood. Bring creative types who have nothing to do with marketing—actors, musicians, writers, artists, and others. They might not know "the business," but they do understand, intuitively, how to communicate and connect with people. They'll give you ideas you'd otherwise not think of.
Momentum is key in the innovation process - stay on a roll by not letting a lot of time elapse between the ideation session and the first day of qualitative research – and don’t only focus on the score – you must gain a deep understanding of why they'd work (or not) with target consumers. During the research stage, insights are far more valuable than a test score.
I like to leave just enough time to write concepts. Maybe a couple of days, at most. I also conduct research the same evening as the ideation, which provides the advantage of having all or most of the ideation participants react and rewrite on the spot.
Though this subject deserves far more attention, the basic idea is to keep concepts short and simple. Concepts should be emotionally driven, but they should in no way resemble ads. A headline and a sentence or two of copy works best. Give respondents a wide range of such building blocks. Rather than having your moderator go through them one by one for "strengths and weaknesses," hand them over and let respondents discuss them on their own.
I usually ask them to select two concepts that would motivate them most to buy the product, and then I give them a series of short creative assignments to bring those ideas to life. Assignments might include identifying a spokesperson (personification), writing an ad, designing a logo, designing a package, or creating a promotional event based on the selected concept.
Doing so not only removes the "respondent as marketing critic" factor from the research but also demonstrates before your very eyes how respondents think and feel about your brand and category. And in that process, the best ideas always rise to the top.
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