In June 2021, Step Advisory assisted the Marltons management team in the formulation of their three-year strategy.
Throughout the strategy process, Step gained an understanding of how the business operates, the value proposition and the relationships with their customers and consumers. One of the important strategic themes that emerged was the: effective management of the product life cycle, through product development and innovation.
To succeed in the dynamic business environment in which Marltons finds itself, the need to build an innovation proficiency in the business is an essential part of its path towards higher growth. As a result of this, Step Advisory was asked to assist with the innovation ideation and process design.
The Step team used their knowledge of the Marltons business to kick-off the innovation facilitation and design. To improve the level of understanding of the pet-care landscape, customer interviews were held to gain further insight on customer and consumer needs, behaviour and industry trends. Following this, a team workshop was held to imagine all possible products (and non-product) ideas that could be put through the future innovation funnel. The ideas were then further developed and presented to the Marltons executive team, alongside the proposed innovation funnel that the Step team creatively designed.
Step Advisory designed a user-friendly and collaborative innovation process for the Marltons team, with well-defined guidelines and key outputs outlined for each stage. The innovation process was designed in such a way to drive ideas from ideation to shelf, in a more efficient and engaging manner. While the ultimate result of the innovation process will only be known once it has been tried and tested, the team were encouraged and are excited about the clear direction that the process will take the product development process towards.
