In the current environment of high gas prices, pressure to reduce carbon emissions, and rapidly developing new technologies, the need for automotive companies to determine which fuel, energy and powertrain technologies to pursue is critical. A key factor in making decisions about future powertrain alternatives is what will appeal most to customers. Any new powertrain technology involves complex trade-offs that affect a driver’s experience with the vehicle, and hence its acceptance in the market. In the case of heavy duty pick-up trucks, the problem of determining future customer preferences is especially important due to interrelated factors that involve performance, utility, cost, image, ‘feel’, and a number of other effects that drivers need and desire.
Inovo Technologies, Inc. has completed a detailed study for Ford Motor Company that provides insight into the Mind of the Customer™ for heavy duty pickup trucks. Ford has a history of offering class-leading powertrain technology in their Super Duty truck line. They recognized the value in applying Inovo’s unique tools to help guide future powertrain efforts. Ford learned how their customers, and other drivers of heavy duty pick-up trucks, would respond to certain new powertrain technologies if they were to be introduced. To deliver this insight, Inovo applied their leading innovation process and tools to create a set of software ‘persona’ models that captured the needs and desires of the different heavy duty pick-up customers.
Among other insights, these models let Ford:

• See customer’s responses to new powertrain solutions
• Compare alternatives to find the optimal tradeoffs
• Evaluate competitive offerings and see the differences
• Test pricing alternatives

Inovo’s innovation process offers a new approach to understanding future customer’s unmet needs and desires that enables companies to identify and test new product possibilities. Inovo’s process goes beyond traditional “voice of the customer” research and yields greater understanding of and insight into the motivations of the various types of future customers. Inovo captures the Mind of the Customer™ in software models that can test future customer responses to new ideas and concepts. This ability to test demand creation gives companies such as Ford insights that have previously been impossible to obtain, and allows them to make informed decisions about investing in potential new technology innovations.

June 2008