Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Accepted Category Beliefs -- Reveals Real Opportunities

Recently when giving a presentation on "Keeping the Pipeline Full," I mentioned the concept of "Accepted Category Beliefs" as a way to uncover new ideas. It wasn't until after the meeting that I became aware of the level of interest in the research idea.

The method is very easy and fast to execute, leading to a number of ideas for category improvements. The basic concept deals with uncovering the consumer's negative impressions of product categories. For example, you might find consumers saying the following:

The above resulted in brand changes that were considered to be major category shifts. These category failures are easily identified. We (at P & G) would use "Accepted Category Belief" research as a tag on to many projects. Frequently we would have test participants who were waiting to be interviewed fill out a "While you are waiting" questionnaire. These questionnaires would focus on many questions that were being asked but were not important enough to justify a test of their own. For example, one or more of the questions on the questionnaire would be as follows.

Complete the following statement(s):

This approach to new ideas is good for uncovering evolutionary category changes and matches up well with the negative Brand Share" method aimed at brand improvements. The "Negative Brand Share" method was covered in my Views of October 17, 1994.

NOTE: For those interested in links to various market research information sources, try the new web site "http://www.MR-online.org." Among the many links supplied by this source is a link to all of the Views from the Hills of Kentucky that I have written. 


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