How can morphological analysis help your brand?

Morphological analysis was first carried out by Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky. The tool is a problem-solving method, so that despite its initial use in physics, it quickly found its way into business decision-making as well.

How to perform a morphological analysis?

First phase - identification of the problem

The entire process of morphological analysis takes place in three phases. The first part of the analysis consists of carefully defining the problem and determining what the difficulty is. These steps are primarily aimed at overcoming the natural tendency to narrow down the problem. This is an extremely important point due to the fact that a wrong definition of the problem will hinder our ability to solve it correctly and quickly, as well as prevent us from drawing correct conclusions from the analysis.

Phase two - analysis of the problem

Its purpose is to define and identify the parameters of the problem, such as features, functions, interdependent factors or elements of the problem. The most common method used to support this stage of analysis is brainstorming.

Third phase - synthesis of the problem

The final phase of conducting a morphological analysis is to create a morphological array (matrix), which will show the juxtaposition of parameters and their states. Using this type of visualization, we can verify possible solutions, as well as realize solutions that have been overlooked so far. Methods supporting this phase can be the Monte Carlo method and Moles' Discovery Matrix.

Example of morphological analysis

Suppose you want to launch an innovative product or service, but you can't exactly define the target audience, destination and form of distribution. To solve this problem with the morphological analysis method, create a morphological table that looks like the following, for example.

Having created such a looking matrix, we are able to consider all possibilities for solving the problem. The cited example shows as many as 27 different combinations. It is estimated that on average about 95% of them are rejected at the very beginning of the analysis due to the commonness of the solution or its nonsensicality.

For a more detailed analysis, you can use the Moles' Discovery Matrix, which tabulates two parameters, for example, just the target group and the destination. This method proves particularly effective when we need to consider multiple parameters.

Advantages of morphological analysis

Morphological analysis allows you to discover new ideas. Despite the fact that most of them will probably turn out to be useless, the work put into this type of analysis can bring benefits that turn out to be opportunities to record above-average revenues.