DervalResearch

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We are presenting part of our amazing research on the impact of hormones on the 5 senses at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.

You can discover in the poster how hormones are linked to human perception of taste, and vocation:

• The Hormonal Fingerprint overrides gender, ethnicity, and age in explaining the different sensory representations of a same taste stimulus.

• The value of the Hormonal Fingerprint is linked to the vocation, independent of the gender.

• Food preferences are linked to the vocation. This is explained by the fact that the vocation itself is linked to the Hormonal Fingerprint.

You can download the full poster here: Poster

Socio-demographic segmentation becomes more irrelevant than ever :)

If you want to know more about this research, take part into the next steps or understand how the Hormonal Fingerprint can help design the right sensory mix for your target clients, contact Prof. Diana Derval at +31 61 824 0803 or email info@derval-research.com

We just established that our perception of taste, and also of colors and shapes is directly linked to our Hormonal Fingerprint!

This fascinating breakthrough - confirmed by scientific measurements performed on 500 people from over 25 countries - offers endless opportunities in the field of new product development and commercialization.

Our client Vidya Sagar Gannamani, Category Leader, Beverage Appliances at Philips, shares: "We discovered and experienced with Prof. Diana Derval the Hormonal Fingerprint. This remarkable biological fact explains why our perception of taste is at the same time unique and predictable"

Learn more about the Hormonal Fingerprint in this 6mn video clip, produced in partnership with COPUS 2009 Year of Science and NEMO Science Center.

You can read the Press Release here

Generating Groundbreaking Insights in 4 Steps

by Prof. Diana Derval (info@derval-research.com), September 19, 2008 

Open and Cross-Industry Innovation - with the strong statement that all the smart people are not necessarily working within the company (Chesbrough 2003) – provides companies with a sudden research freedom that triggers many questions: In which direction to research? Which industry to observe? For which Return on Innovation?

Firms can generate groundbreaking insights with the Innovation Path 4i (Ardet and Derval, 2008):

1. Identity. Understanding Personas and their User Experience Chain. Answering the following questions is key to finding the right innovation path: Who are my target customers? What do I know about their profile, daily life, and expectations? How can I improve their User Experience Chain?

Fig. 1 - Example of Persona: Gary , e-Business Consultant

Gary is 32-years old and e-business consultant in a big consultancy firm.

He loves technology, challenging video games, high-end cars, good food and wines, and networking. He goes to work in his BMW with all the options. Between visits to clients, he likes relaxing at café terraces and hunting for the latest innovations at the MediaMarkt.

2. Industry. Observing successful industries along the User Experience Chain. BMW surprised the market when they introduced the iDrive on-board system in 2002. One single button commanding 700 functions is too complicated to use. Is this true for everybody? Probably not for Persona Gary , who masters the most sophisticated XBox joysticks. By observing Persona Gary ’s hobbies and User Experience Chain, BMW had the idea to collaborate with the gaming industry in order to make an intuitive and appealing ‘Gary-interface’.

3. Insight. Firms can evaluate the possible innovation paths in terms of business risk and R&D integration effort with the help of the Open Innovation Path Matrix (Ardet and Derval 2008).

Figure 2 - Open Innovation Paths Matrix (Ardet and Derval 2008)

§ Best Practice or Imitating Innovation. Firms imitating companies from the same industry are not innovating but gathering best practice. The TomTom lane guidance feature, for instance, introduced for the Go x30 series in March 2008, had already been available since 2007 on competitor Navigon’s devices. This approach should be conducted in the background in complement to a horizontal or vertical innovation path.

§ Horizontal Innovation. Firms look at how companies from other industries serve their current Personas. This cross-industry approach is less risky – refer to the BMW iDrive example above - and can lead to radical or business model innovation.

DervalResearch, with Seattle partner GMI, presented at the IIR Excellence in Market Research in Chicago, the Top 10 Online Personas identified and described thanks to face-to-sofa interviews conducted in Second Life.

The Waitress, the Housewife and the Disabled were the most popular Personas.

You can see the presentation here:

and have a look at the Second Life Interview Corner demo here

Feel free to call us at +31 61 824 0803 for any question

"I cannot afford to waste my time making money." Louis Agassiz

Firms lose 15 to 20 percent of their turnover because their product doesn't suit their customers.

Here are some Quick-Wins for your company:

• Conduct an opportunity and a feasibility study before deciding to launch a new product
• Get consumers interviews and input before designing your product
• Do beta-testing with representative users before freezing your commercialization strategy 

Our Research team will help you avoid costly errors with your customers.

"Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought." Albert Szent-Gyorgyi [Nobel Prize 1937]

Dear Visitor,

Thank you for your interest in our marketing research firm.

We help our clients define and implement winning sales & marketing strategies, with a strong focus on:

• New Product Development and Commercialization
• Disruptive Segmentation and Positioning
• Inspiration and Innovation

Feel free to contact our teams. We will be happy to evaluate how your organization can directly benefit from our expertise.

Prof. Diana Derval, MBA
President, Research Director of DervalResearch 

Successful companies discover new business by observing their customers.

Here are some tips to identify these opportunities:

• Keep up with the latest sales and marketing best practice
• Get feedback from your customers but also from your "non-customers-yet"
• Learn to take measured risks to gain unexplored markets

Our Consultancy team will help you adapt the best practice to your context and grab new opportunities.