Blue Yonder Research is leading the way in R&D insight – we’re experts in our field; we’ve been working in partnership with the world’s biggest brands for over 20 years – globally: but what does this mean? What do we do? And why do you need us?
R&D Specialists at Your Service
Having an R&D specialism always requires a combination of a commitment to excellence, a focus on innovation, and a deep understanding of the needs and goals of clients. It’s about insight, impact, client service, and logistical excellence with equal measure. Here are the 6 top reasons to use Blue Yonder Research Agency for your next R&D project:
1. R&D Expertise
Trained by client-side research and development global best practice leaders, we know precisely what teams need to make decisions and we deliver that to them. With a combined experience of over 150 years working with some of the world’s biggest brands, our collection of expertise spans qualitative, quantitative, ethnography, and shopper market research methodologies.
2. Innovation
We do things differently, not just for the sake of it, but because if we all ask the same questions in the same way, we all get the same answers. We tell you what you need to know, and crucially, what you don’t know, to give you a competitive edge. We are constantly exploring new methods and technologies to improve our research capabilities and stay ahead of industry trends. This is ingrained in our DNA.
3. Customisation & Agility
All our clients have unique needs and goals; no product, brand, company, or project is the same: sometimes ‘off the shelf’ is not enough. We provide bespoke research solutions that meet specific requirements and unique challenges. This requires a deep understanding of our client’s industry, market, competitive landscape, and timing/budget constraints.
4. Collaboration & Partnership
The best work happens in partnership – shared expertise, mutual challenge, and mutual respect: we become part of our client’s team, understanding their needs and goals. This requires exceptional communication skills, as well as a willingness to collaborate and adapt as necessary.
5. Research Quality
To make the right decision, you must have the right data and absolute confidence in the results. We are committed to delivering the highest quality research that is accurate, relevant, and actionable. This requires a rigorous quality control process, as well as a dedication to ongoing improvement and refinement.
6. Technical R&D Insight
R&D technical insight focuses on those tiny edges that make a difference – that make or break a product or brand in the real world – the edges that ensure your product has a competitive advantage. It’s all about precision: specific details, precise insight, and clear recommendations: hard and fast rules that technical teams can use to deliver superior products.
‘Easy to use’ doesn’t cut it. Specifically, what makes it easy to use? Why? How? What does ‘easy to use’ look like? What are the positive and negative parameters of ‘easy to use’ that the teams can use to access their prototypes well after the door has closed on the debrief?
Deep Dive Into The Detail
At Blue Yonder we can get you R&D technical insight that no one else can, by going into the detail; working in these four core areas:
1. Product Claims
Market research claims are powerful in their own right; they give statistical confidence and hard-and-fast evidence that products or campaigns work…but sometimes, people need to see more than just a number to act. It’s crucial that we get the right language for claims; we need to speak the language of the end-users – this increases the likelihood of achieving the claims, shows the end client you understand your target, and eventually drives sales in the real world. Our claims are so robust that they appear on industry-leading marketing campaigns in Times Square, New York!
2. Market Research Benchmarking – Drivers of Liking
In the real world, products are not experienced in isolation: there is rarely just one product to choose from. There is a direct and indirect competitive set that shapes and forms our opinions of the category as a whole: you are only superior or inferior in relation to a competitive set.
Our benchmarking projects are designed specifically to understand consumer perceptions and experience in a competitive context – vs current products, vs immediate competitive sets, or vs indirect competitors who meet the same core need. We map out drivers of liking for the category, exploring linkages of different sensorial attributes on overall liking (Path Modelling). Ultimately, this identifies the relative strengths and improvement areas for your products, identifying those edges and specifically where (and how) to go next.
3. Over The Counter (OTC) Healthcare
In OTC Healthcare, winning in the real world goes beyond efficacy data delivered through clinical trials; it’s about consumer perception. It’s about getting that edge over the competition to deliver a consumer-perceivable advantage. It’s about making sure sensory elements work holistically with the efficacy benefit to deliver a totally superior experience.
Beyond this, where there is a flavour, shape, or mouthfeel change, the clinical efficacy may remain constant, but the consumer experience changes, and we risk a negative halo. We risk a competitor’s product stealing market share. The challenge is that leading healthcare companies do not have the time or budget to use clinical methodologies to get a read on ‘perception,’ and consumer trials on products with active ingredients are deemed a substantial risk to complete.
This means that new stock-keeping units (SKU) and variants often go to the market blind. This is where Blue Yonder can help, we know OTC, and we know ethics and adverse events protocols. We have successfully blended the worlds of clinical and consumer to allow OTC healthcare clients to optimise all elements of their products before launch.
4. Design for Superiority: New Product Development (NPD) and Line Extensions
Superior products are built on holistic insight: 360o understanding of products at every single touchpoint including brand, formulation, pack, and claims – from point of sale to final disposal. What are the edges vs the competition? Specifically, where and how do you need to focus time, effort, and budget to win in the real world? What are the key moments that deliver superiority and get a competitive advantage?
Once we establish these metrics for superiority, we know what we’re aiming for. From idea generation, idea screening, concept development, and product design through to product testing and post-launch evaluation, we have strict key performance indicators by which to measure success: the language of superiority.
Sometimes, it’s an agile sense check, to make sure you’re going to win a claims or benchmarking study. Sometimes, it’s about sense-checking a flavour, a fragrance, or an opening mechanism. Often, it’s about iterative stages: pausing, progressing, pivoting – making sure we decrease NPD time frames by knowing what excellence looks like early on – before we’ve invested heavily. From complex protocols to agile central location tests (CLT), it’s about designing research programmes that meet the needs and budgets of teams – creating products that we are confident will deliver strong commercial success.
World Leaders in R&D Research
Blue Yonder are world leaders in R&D research – we realise this is a big claim, but one backed by over 20 years of experience working with the world’s most successful brands. Trained by client-side global best practice teams, we are dedicated to finding your edge: the little differences that make or break a product to ensure you win in the real world. We give teams the precise recommendations they need to deliver true superiority – globally.
Contact us at [email protected] or call +44 (0) 113 204 4020 to discuss your specific requirements, we look forward to finding your edge!
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