Elmer’s Products Shares its Open Innovation Experiences
Up until two years ago, Elmer’s Products dealt with new product development internally under the direction of individual business leaders. Today, that’s all changed and an Innovation Team works across the company’s business units coordinating internal and external efforts.
In an interview with Consumer Goods Technology, Joe Wetli, director of Innovation and New Business Development for Elmer’s discusses how he has helped the Glue-All and crafts products company switch to an OI approach.
The company’s Innovation Team is tasked with seeking out external partnerships that could bring new technologies to the marketplace. It is also soliciting inputs from consumers through market research and a consumer outreach program. In June 2013, the company launched an open innovation portal for inventors to submit ideas.
“The quality of the ideas has been great and we are actively pursuing a handful of inventors as we speak. Our goal is to identify patented ideas that could be meaningful additions to our brands. It’s about access to the idea as opposed to ownership of the idea.”
The next phase of the company’s transition to an open innovation culture will be to encourage consumers to share their ideas via the portal.
Consumer Trends and Insights
One area where OI has helped has been to identify consumer trends which is guiding the development of products to meet changing demands and preferences. For example, the trend for consumers to favor more natural and organic products has encouraged Elmer’s to seek out businesses and academic institutions that are researching natural adhesives.
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