Test Your Idea

We PREDICT and IMPROVE your New Product Effectiveness
better than any1

Test Your Idea

Predict And Improve
Your New Product Idea Effectiveness

As World leaders in predicting and improving new product idea effectiveness, this case study shows how Test Your Idea provides the most predictive metrics, richest diagnostics, and advice.

Food innovation

How far is too far?

The gap between a market-ready idea and a flop is often a case of finding the right framing. This food and drink innovation case study, looks at winning and losing ideas – from the tempting (Frozen Coca-Cola) to the somewhat niche. Anyone for Avocado Gelato? Food holds a special place in our hearts, and when we see the foods we love being consumed and combined in ways we don’t expect, we’re easily outraged. The key to innovation – in any category, not just food and drink – is to strike a balance between familiarity and novelty.

At System1, we call this Fluent Innovation: 80% familiar, 20% new. New products must remind consumers of something they’re already familiar with, while simultaneously infusing just the right amount of novelty to excite and surprise. We conducted an internally funded study on 9 real world products launched within the past year in the food and beverage space. These ranged from condiment ideas (Heinz Mayochup, Slice of Sauce) to flavored water ideas (PepsiCo’s Drinkfinity, Twinings Cold In’Fuse) to ideas for sweet treats (Nestle’s Milkybar Wowsomes, the Avo-lato). The results fell in line with our predictions about Fluent Innovation: the winning ideas were more familiar than they were new, and transformed existing products in ways that still lined up with consumers’ expectations about the product itself. The losing ideas were so new they stopped resembling the original product on which they were based and lost all familiarity.

Two of the ideas tested, Heinz Mayochup and Slice of Sauce, perfectly exemplify this trade-off. Both are innovations in the condiment space. Neither score especially well. But Mayochup, earning a high 2 star rating, is more successful in its efforts than Slice of Sauce, which falls to the bottom of the 1 star range.

Why? Our hypothesis: Mayochup is innovating in the flavor space (combining Mayo and Ketchup) that already lines up with consumer habits. It’s not uncommon for people to mix these two condiments on their own; in fact, it’s so popular in Latin America that Goya already produces its own version, called MayoKetchup. Mayochup introduces a flavor that is new for the brand but familiar to our palettes.

In contrast, Slice of Sauce attempts to invent a new format and package for sauce, the likes of which the world has never seen. We expect sauces to be viscous and squirt out of a bottle, not pre-packaged, solid squares that resemble jelly more than they do sauce. Slice of Sauce takes our expectations of what a sauce should be and turns it on its head – as a result, the concept is perceived as strange and off-putting

The emotional profiles for each innovation tell the story even more starkly. Slice of Sauce records sky-high Disgust (59%) whereas Mayochup has a rather healthier level of Happiness – though there’s still too much Disgust for comfort.

What we know

The innovations that really take off are the ones that feel familiar as well as new. So we measure Fluent Innovation – detecting not just great ideas but the ones primed and ready to make the leap to market success.

From the initial insight to the final launch, our system matches where you are in the funnel, and gives clear guidance for the next step. We measure emotion, rapid response and use a unique Predictive Markets exercise to uncover your next big things.

Test Your Idea is designed to adapt to your innovation pipeline and process. Still looking for initial insights? We offer quantitative validation to spot the most powerful. Close to launch? We use emotional response data to make a good idea great.

Want to know your next market winner?

See Our Fluent Innovation Paper

What We Offer

Test Your Idea provides the most accurate predictions of your New Product Idea Effectiveness and the richest diagnostics for improvement, and our expert creative guidance where required.

Essential £500/$1,000 per idea, includes:

Predicted Acceptance 
Speed of Choice
Emotional Pull
Star Rating – predicted market success
Pro from £750/$1,500 per idea, includes:

In addition to Essential
Custom sample x200 – in addition to the x500 nat-rep sample
Pro diagnostics – to enrich understanding and improvement

Get In Touch

“System1 are the go-to for concept screening and market predictions, using their Test Your Idea approach. My experience with them has been a breakthrough on how companies look at innovation, and that’s just one of the things in which they are exceptional. Forward thinkers par excellence!”

Ana Kieckbusch Insights into Strategic Planning Director, SABMiller

Test Your Idea

Predict And Improve
Your New Product Idea Effectiveness

How far is too far?

What we know

What We Offer

Essential £500/$1,000 per idea, includes:

Pro from £750/$1,500 per idea, includes:

Test Your Idea

Predict And Improve Your New Product Idea Effectiveness

How far is too far?

What we know

What We Offer

Essential £500/$1,000 per idea, includes:

Pro from £750/$1,500 per idea, includes:

Predict And Improve
Your New Product Idea Effectiveness