Good ideas are ubiquitous. The often bigger challenge is defining which of those ideas are most viable, and adding the necessary richness, texture and strategic support to make those ideas most consumer relevant and marketplace appealing. Successful innovation also demands the critical alignment between all strategic and creative partners (both internal and external) to foster the necessary collaborative focus and deliver the concept successfully through commercialization.

While agency partners are a critical part of the innovation process, their focus is oftentimes dictated by their specific end-deliverable. To the ad agency, therefore, innovation may look like a new advertising campaign. To a product design firm the result of innovation is a new product form. We believe holistic solutions don’t necessary fit so definitively into a single box. The end goal of the innovation process should be fresh thinking, based on sound insights, driven forward to successful implementation and top-line growth. We bring a cross-functional team together to deliver actionable solutions to your business challenges.

Cloverleaf is committed to a collaborative approach – engaging all the key players and partners who touch innovation, and synthesizing their perspectives and voices in defining holistic and viable solutions for the marketplace. It’s been a highly successful and rewarding approach for us and for our clients. Other key differentiators include proprietary methodologies for garnering key consumer insight, relevant trends and concept validation; Our LEAF™ Process which focuses on speed-to-market commercialization: from ideation to dimensionalization, through to successful implementation and; an incomparable customer experience.

Speed-to-market is a fundamental aspect of the Cloverleaf process. A typical project will run from 6-12 weeks – depending on the extent of research in the project. One of our clients exclaims: “I turn to Cloverleaf for real innovation solutions…when I know I need someone who can quickly and effectively get to the problem and develop solutions.”

As an organization, Cloverleaf is constructed to deliver efficiently against innovation projects. A typical project engagement costs between $70,000-$250,000 depending on the extent of research in the project.

Whether an engagement is large or small, we employ our LEAF™ methodology. It’s a well-defined yet highly scaleable and flexible approach designed to meet your specific innovation needs, budget parameters and timing considerations.

While our involvement in an initiative may be at various points along the innovation continuum (from insight through implementation), the Cloverleaf deliverable is always designed to be highly actionable. This means research and trend findings with insights identified and applied to business objectives. It means brand strategies that are both visually and verbally developed. And, product/service concepts that are dimensionalized, validated and fully developed. It also means providing launch strategies to help streamline the sell-in and sell-through efforts. Recognizing that innovation touches so many different hands in the process of successful commercialization, the Cloverleaf deliverable is designed to speak effectively to many audiences: from marketing to manufacturing to the C-Suite – from internal constituents to outside creative partners.

One key aspect of the Collaborative process is to bring together a trans-disciplinary team of creative and strategic experts to complement you and your team. Through our Look/Listen/Learn phases we identify the best team that will deliver beyond expectations for your engagement. A blend of experience, expertise, personality, chemistry, and perspective are all considered to make a perfectly aligned team. Beyond the core team, at least one of the principal partners will maintain on-going involvement throughout the projects. It’s about both practicality and passion: working to ensure our commitment to customer delight, and engaging our tremendous personal involvement in the innovation process. As one client summarizes it: “I get to work directly with their key people, and have a top-notch partnership with the key principals in the company.”

Flexibility is the key word for any Cloverleaf assignment. We want to find the fee structure that best accommodates our client’s needs. While most engagements are estimated on a project basis – accounting for professional fees and out-of-pocket expenses – we have also found a number of creative ways in which to partner financially with our clients. These have included a fixed retainer relationship, as well as compensation based on a fee/royalty ratio.

Our client team is an integral part of the Cloverleaf process – every step of the way. Since you know your business, product/service and brand better than anyone, that knowledge and perspective are essential to building effective solutions. The Cloverleaf innovation process is a partnership – don’t expect to hand-off the project and await the “big reveal.” It’s an approach, we’ve found, that not only benefits our clients on a specific project, but helps them to reinforce their broad innovation techniques and relationships.

Our projects range from evolutionary to revolutionary engagements with our clients. Here are just some of the ways we engage with a client.

• Identifying unmet consumer needs.
• New product development.
• Product and service enhancement.
• Product re-launch/re-positioning.
• Strategic response to competitive challenge.
• Developing an internal “Culture of Innovation.”
• Enhancing the consumer experience.

The need for effective innovation cuts across sectors, departments and titles. We’re working with an increasingly wide variety of people – at various points in the supply chain, the org chart and the marketing mix. Our key client contacts are innovation department heads, consumer insight directors, brand managers, design managers, R&D, CEOs and marketing VPs.