For innovation to have an impact, change is required not only in goods or services, but also in the way consumers consider choices, make decisions and do things. This is a tall order, given that consumers are hard wired to form habits to simplify their chaotic lives.

A year ago, Reveries.com surveyed readers about innovation among supermarkets (The New Super, Jan/Feb 2010). We heard back that shoppers wanted innovations in the shopping experience that delivered economy, convenience and entertainment.

This year, Reveries cast a broader net and asked readers to rate innovation in 20 different industries or categories. In reviewing their opinions, similar themes emerged.

The secret to successful innovation is developing relevant solutions to consumers’ greatest needs. Innovation must deliver against those needs in a way that they can identify with, so they can adapt their behavior accordingly. So what drives consumers today? Consumers desire to:

Simplify. Consumers are interested in innovations that simplify their lives in an increasingly complex and stressful world.

Save. Thrift is in. The recession caused nearly everyone across the income spectrum to reassess their spending habits.

Sustain. Consumers want a broader sense of purpose socially, environmentally, and economically.

Connect. Consumers are looking for ways to bond, share and foster a feeling of belonging.

When multiple trends and needs converge, consumers have more reasons to adapt, and the strength of the innovation concept increases exponentially. When the innovation integrates with relevant and easy technology, it can magnify the impact.

Consider the category deemed innovative by 90 percent of our respondents: mobile phones. Today’s mobile phones continue to innovate in a way that simplifies consumer lives by giving them access, information and connectivity on-the-go, while providing savings in both time and money.

The iPhone is credited with resetting the landscape by providing the consumer with intuitive technology that meets their needs and wants. Mobile phone manufacturers acknowledge that they are looking two years out on trends to best anticipate consumer needs.

In dissecting what makes mobile phones innovative, we uncover layers of innovation in both components (touch screens, apps) and products (iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid). Missing from the conversation is innovation in the delivery system or the wireless network. As a category, half of respondents labeled wireless providers as non-innovative, and often non-responsive.

Often, wireless providers do not meet consumer needs because they are unable to scale supporting technology and provide adequate customer service. When confusion arises on either benefit or cost, poor customer service renders any innovation meaningless.

On the other end of the innovation spectrum were the airline, rental car and hotel industries. Respondents described the airline industry as the total opposite of innovative. As marketing professionals, they did give a nod to innovation in pricing models, but as consumers they criticized the associated complexity, confusion and costs.

Categories that have stronger ties to evolving consumer trends — such as fashion, cosmetics and automotive — were often seen as more innovative. The fashion industry’s connection to evolving street culture, color trends and their proactive efforts around sustainability in manufacturing, recycling and repurposing of materials drove their innovation rankings.

Cosmetics companies were credited with their ability to leverage science and trends to create innovation around color, ingredients and delivery systems.

The automotive category achieved comparable ratings, however many felt that US manufacturers were in an “innovate or die” position. No matter what the motivation, the industry has taken positive steps towards a new, more consumer-centric approach and identifying and leveraging new materials and technologies.

Survey respondents called out innovations that spoke to their need for savings (in both purchase price and maintenance) and sustainability (hybrid, new fuels). A nod was given to European car companies like BMW and Mercedes, which have been proactive in putting the needs of their target consumers at the center of their innovation approaches all along.

Most categories and industries fell in the murky middle with less than half of respondents deeming them innovative. For these industries, innovation challenges fell into two broad buckets:

Lack of perceived need. As the recession wears on, almost half of consumers admit to trying fewer new products. Consumers find comfort in buying the tried-and-true. In some categories, consumers were not looking for wholesale changes. For example, in the beer and wine categories some respondents asked: “Is it broken?” or “Does it need innovation?”

We see this often in packaged goods, where innovation is most often evolutionary versus revolutionary. In 2009, 90 percent of the new products tracked by Information Resources, Inc. were line extensions. In the Reveries survey, respondents were more accepting of packaged-goods innovation around components, ingredients and packaging that delivered improved performance and value.

Supermarkets and quick-serve restaurants, while not seen as extremely innovative, received praise when they provided a product mix that responded to consumer demand for value, sustainability (through healthier and environmentally friendly options) and connected them to their surroundings by providing options that were reflective of regional or personal tastes.

Challenging and changing business models. In other categories, the incremental nature of innovation does not translate into sustainable success. Categories that are built for scale — like carbonated soft drinks — don’t reward niche innovation. New product entries that address the needs of a relatively small audience are challenged to meet the needs of the manufacturer and retail business model — even when they may be addressing a real consumer need.

In most industries, opportunities to innovate can happen in either the product or the delivery mechanism. The entertainment industry is no different. Like many industries, it is challenged to adapt to a changing business model, as consumers want on-demand delivery of a constant stream of new content across a broad range of devices. The needs and wants of the consumer are clear; it is the delivery and the business model that have become challenging.

When we turn the innovation lens on our own disciplines of advertising and shopper marketing, we see a similar issue. For advertising, much of what we do is married to the mainstream business model. To evolve the content to meet consumer needs, we must first evolve the delivery.

To do this, collaboration is both innovative and essential. Shopper marketing is a relative newcomer to the marketing mix. The real test will be to translate shopper insights to executions that drive the shopper to re-imagine and adapt to a new shopping experience.

The survey’s respondents came to life when asked to name the most innovative product they had experienced recently. Each of the favored innovations aligned well with our driving trends and most integrated simple intuitive technology. The iPad and Kindle won, hands down.

Other innovations of note transformed and simplified mundane tasks — such as electronic boarding passes, direct mail prescriptions, Bluetooth printers and all-inclusive car maintenance. Innovations that provided both connectivity and simplicity included Facebook, Google, flip video, GPS, Pandora and a host of mobile applications.

The proof is in the preferences: For innovation to be successful, it needs to respond to one or more of the consumer’s needs to simplify, save, sustain and connect.