Idea Selection Exercise: The ATAR Technique

Idea Selection Exercise: The ATAR Technique


Purpose

The ATAR acronym stands for Awareness, Trial, Availability, Repeat. It is a technique used to filter through ideas based on a number of criteria. It can be used to understand customers’ perception of a product or service. Hence, it is an ideal marketing tool. The technique can help you recognise your potential customers and to make informed decisions based on this discovery.

Objective

Evaluate ideas based on the ATAR technique.

What You Need

  • 6 copies of the ATAR form provide below.

Setup

  • Divide the delegates to two groups.
  • Give three ATAR forms to each group.
  • Ask each group to consider three innovative products or ideas. These can be new products being developed in their organisation or potential products that can be released to the market.
  • Ask each group to apply the ATAR technique to each product or idea and record their findings on a separate ATAR form. They should consider the following parameters:
 
  • Awareness. What percentage of customers in the market are aware of the product or idea? Quantify the percentage or segment the market to analyse awareness of a product or idea.
  • Trial. What percentage of customers will try the product?
  • Availability. How much effort is needed to find alternative products in the market that do a similar job to the product?
  • Repeat. What percentage of customers will consider buying the product again?

  • Allocate 30 minutes for this part.
  • Bring back everyone together and ask each group to present each idea and their ATAR analysis. Get other groups to provide feedback.
  • Allocate 20 minutes for this part.
  • Follow with a discussion on the effectiveness of the ATAR technique.
  • Timing

    Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

    Activity: 30 min ATAR technique + 20 min group review = 50 minutes

    Group Feedback: 10 minutes

    Discussion

    What do you think of the ATAR technique? How did it help you evaluate the feasibility of an idea or product? How suitable is this technique for your particular industry and workflow?

    Can you apply this technique to any form of idea generation?

    To Tutor: The ATAR technique is highly focused and is best used after ideas have already been generated using other brainstorming techniques. The ATAR technique is ideal to filter through a number of ideas that are already defined to find the most suitable for specific market sector. It is also useful for analysing the business case of a new product idea.

     


    ATAR Form

    Product or Idea: 

     

     

     

     Criteria

    Your Analysis

    Awareness

     

     

     

     

    Trial

     

     

     

     

    Availability

     

     

     

     

    Repeat

     

     

     

     

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