Innovation games are a type of primary market research where customers interact with staff in creative ways to provide actionable insights into a company’s consumer base. The facilitator must be a leader, problem solver, and creative thinker. Designers look at scalability, open interactions, and costs. Innovation games are a form of qualitative market research that provides in-depth responses from a small number of people.
Many average consumers may have never heard of an innovation game, but some companies are engaging in this type of creative market research to help with a consumer marketing plan or overall strategy. An innovation game is a type of activity in which a focus group, or other individuals or groups of customers, interact with staff in creative ways. In many of these “games,” the customers are actually providing actionable insights into the company’s consumer base. This search model was developed by Luke Hohmann, founder of The Innovation Games Company.
Market research related to innovation games is referred to as primary market research as the information gleaned with these exercises is both direct and previously unknown. Innovation games provide companies with information they could not get from their customer database or other indirect methods. The company’s professionals serve as facilitators of innovative games to offer customer focus groups or other customer teams creative challenges that will reveal clues about what they think about the company and its products or services.
The facilitator of an innovation game must be a real leader and a good problem solver as well as a creative thinker. This individual must monitor the pace of the game, explain the rules to the group, and consider specific principles that will support the effectiveness of this type of interactive market research.
Some of the basic principles for designing good innovation games are very similar to those of an educational curriculum. Interactive game research designers are looking at scalability, or the number of customers that can interact at the same time. They also look for open interactions, where customers are less driven and more likely to offer their opinions or proactive feedback. In terms of the “costs” of researching innovation games, designers also look at how much physical materials must be provided to support the game, as well as how much ground work must be done before interactive play can be implemented.
Innovation games are seen as a kind of qualitative market research. Qualitative market research commonly refers to market research that relies heavily on in-depth responses from a small number of people, rather than the relatively superficial data that online or print surveys or other tools provide from large numbers of people. While many companies find simple quantitative market research effective, some view qualitative market research, such as innovation games, as a critical part of crafting the right consumer marketing strategy for the future.
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