whirlpool challenge

Whirlpool Innovation Challenge

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Whirlpool – Designed to Simplify

I. Challenge Question How might the Whirlpool brand adapt and sense to evolving customer needs in and

around the home?

II. Background:

Overview Whirlpool is the world’s #1 major appliance company with $18+ billion in revenue in 2010. Whirlpool products are sold in 130 countries and the company employs 70,000 people. Under the Whirlpool Corporation umbrella are some of the world’s most recognized brands including Whirlpool, Maytag, JennAir, KitchenAid, Amana, BrasTemp, Bauknecht and Consul. Vision At Whirlpool our vision is “Every Home… Everywhere… with Pride, Passion & Performance”. The vision reinforces that every home is our domain, every customer and customer activity our opportunity. This vision fuels the passion that we have for our customers, pushing us to provide innovative solutions to uniquely meet customer needs.

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Strategic Direction To realize our vision and drive our growth, we’ve created Whirlpool’s strategic direction, which consists of three phases:

1. Grow the core appliance business – major appliances 2. Extend core appliance business – products & services that are dependant on and

are related to our core business 3. Expand beyond the core – standalone businesses that leverage core competencies

and core business infrastructure

Global Whirlpool Brand Positioning The company believes there are unprecedented growth opportunities in new spaces that fit Whirlpool Corporation brands and capabilities. For this challenge fit with the Whirlpool brand is very important. The new spaces should also fit well with Whirlpool Corporation capabilities. To ensure alignment with the Whirlpool brand story and positioning, please carefully review the Whirlpool Brand Positioning for the emotional and rational connection, core pillars and brand assurance.

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Whirlpool – Designed to Simplify For women with full lives, Whirlpool is the only brand of home-life solutions that values your

lifestyle by sensing and adapting to your evolving needs. Mega Trends Whirlpool has identified five strategic mega trends that will enable and empower consumers home and lifestyle needs. The mega trends listed below are also detailed in Strategic Mega Trends, it is strongly recommended that you read through this document several times.

• Sustainable Home: o Shift from Utility-Managed Resources to Consumer-Managed Resources

• Energy/Clean Energy: o Shift from Energy Indifference to Home Energy Generation

• Healthy Home: o Shift from Making Tasks Easier to Enabling a Healthier Lifestyle

• Digital/Internet: o Shift from Individual Digital User Interface to Multi-Appliance Platform

• Water: o Shift from Water to Clean & Drink to Home Adapted to My Needs

III. Scope

The identification of a new space for the Whirlpool brand can extend to include a variety of concepts. New spaces will be considered including (but not limited to) the following:

• Opportunity spaces must focus only on the Whirlpool brand. • The new space must represent and clearly articulate the consumer insight or unmet

need. • New spaces should articulate a big dream or inspirational space and be organized in

a migration path (include the chart that exemplifies it) that stretches from quick gains to more aspirational solutions.

• New spaces should push the boundaries where Whirlpool has delivered in the past. • New spaces may specify a single product or service or propose a suite of products or

services. • New spaces should offer solutions. • New spaces may be global in nature or local. If local, please identify country and

customer insight that led to the concept. • New spaces may be new business models or service offerings developed by

Whirlpool.

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IV. Criteria

Concepts clearly should:

• Be revenue generating for Whirlpool • Simultaneously provide value to the end user or business customer • Deliver a sustainable competitive advantage for Whirlpool • Create brand loyalty • Provide differentiated value (consumers are willing to pay for them)

V. Submission Process

1. Choose ONE new opportunity space – Review the Strategic Mega Trends.pdf and PPT Submission Template identify a “new space” based on a need you have identified in the marketplace. We do not want you to create a hodgepodge of unrelated ideas. Submissions may leverage more than one space. It is more important to substantiate the submission with consumer insight than with a mega trend (see evaluation criteria).

2. Give Your Concept a Headline & Summary – The headline (100 character limit) and summary (300 character limit) will be the first thing that our judges and sponsors will see, so be creative, concise and compelling. The headline can be a high-concept pitch (one sentence elevator pitch) or product/service offering name.

3. Show & Tell / Judging Criteria – enter a brief explanation in the online entry form and create a screencast using the Submission Template. You may append additional slides to provide evidence and support your hypotheses and assumptions.

4. Add Supporting Documents – You’ll want to “bring your idea to life” with at least one visual aid. Past participants have created an advertisement, infographic, diagram or schematic drawing to further illustrate their concept.

VI. Judging & Evaluation

Qualifying Round & Final Round Scorecard

A diverse group of judges including innovation experts, sponsors, Innovation Challenge alumni, professors and professionals will evaluate the entries in two rounds of professional evaluation according to the following criteria:

1. Value Proposition (20%) - The "new space" is new and unique. There is a strong reason to believe that the opportunity has consumer value.

o Low Score: Weak. There are many solutions in the market that address the space in different ways. Consumers won't buy into it.

o High Score: Strong. There is a convincing value prop for the consumers. Consumers

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gain more than what they give up. Consumers are willing to pay for solutions that meet their demands in new and compelling ways.

2. Quality of the Insight (20%) – This substantiates the value proposition - the team has done enough work to identify an unmet need in the market.

o Low Score: Superficial. Too evident and not deeply understood.

o High Score: Deep. Clear articulation and understanding of the unmet consumer need. The heart of the insight is understood and is compelling.

3. Compelling Space (20%) - This is a compelling space to get into. Not a lot of solutions/competition in the market and room for sustainable growth.

o Low Score: Not compelling. No evidence that there is a real need and market potential.

o High Score: Very compelling. Strong and documented evidence that there is a need in the market that Whirlpool can fulfill providing a cadence of solutions over time.

4. Fit with Whirlpool Brand & Capabilities (20%) - This is a natural extension for Whirlpool Corp and Whirlpool Brand.

o Low Score: Weak fit. The new space doesn't adhere to the Whirlpool brand positioning nor to Whirlpool Corporation capabilities.

o High Score: Strong fit. The new space and solution(s) associated with it is a natural and strong fiti with Whirlpool's brand and Whirlpool Corp capabilities.

5. Market Potential (20%) - The size of the prices is attractive to Whirlpool Corp.

o Low Score: Low potential. The size of the price is not attractive enough for Whirlpool. The analysis is not convincing to believe that there's an economical benefit associated with it.

o High Score: Huge potential. Size of the price makes it a no-brainer. The new space identified is sizeable and there is strong evidence and economic quantification of its potential. The analysis is believable and robust.

VII. Additional Resources Whirlpool Brand Positioning: https://skild.box.com/s/558d33d54fa64332a6ea

Strategic Mega Trends: https://skild.box.com/s/d5945bffed3a5d0492c7

PPT Submission Template: https://skild.box.com/s/2857547a8a4b4d2911e9

About Whirlpool: https://skild.box.com/s/fd8850bf87267f2108bc

Customer Insights: https://skild.box.com/s/7d1aff2b2797f6cd4ad9