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Marketing Innovation: The Activation Tool Using Smartphones

Published date: September 12, 2011 в 3:00 am

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The Activation Tool is one of the most effective but underused tools in advertising.  Commercials based on this tool work well because they make your marketing message stand out in the sea of advertising. They engage the viewer to participate, either mentally or physically.  Instead of just reading, watching, or listening to the message, the viewer is required to take an active part.  This causes a dynamic sensory experience so memorable that the viewer is more likely to remember the commercials main message.

The tool is one of eight patterns embedded in most innovative commercials.  Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe these simple, well-defined design structures in their book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” and provide a step-by-step approach to using them.  The tools are:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort

The Activation Tool is particularly effective when you want to 1. make the target audience aware of a problem, or 2. make the target audience aware of the benefit or solution that your product delivers.  The key is to get the viewer highly involved.  With smart phone technology, advertisers have a whole new medium to do that.  Here is an example:

Innovation: Make It Someone Else’s Problem

Published date: September 5, 2011 в 3:00 am

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New research suggests that you are likely to be more creative when you imagine the problem is someone else’s instead of your own.  Evan Polman and Kyle Emich describe their studies in their April 2011 article that support this conclusion.

In one study, 262 participants were instructed to draw an alien for a story that they would write, or alternatively for a story that someone else would write. When drawing an alien for someone else’s story, they produced a more creative alien. In another study, 137 students were instructed to picture either themselves or a stranger stuck in a tower and to think of a way to escape using only a rope that did not reach the ground. Of the students who imagined a stranger in the tower, 66 percent found the solution—divide the rope lengthwise and tie the pieces together—compared with 48 percent of those who pictured themselves in the tower.

For innovation practitioners, teachers, and consultants, this research suggests a new technique to improve innovation output. When using an innovation method or problem solving technique, participants should try to image the problem is not theirs.  Instead, they want to mentally simulate the problem belongs to someone else.  One way to do this is to have participants imagine they are innovating for a similar issue but in a different industry.  As an exercise, have participants apply a technique in this scenario first as a way to activate and expand their creative output.  Only then, have them apply the same mental structure to their actual problem.

Here is an example.  Imagine you are facilitating a team that makes diagnostic equipment for automobiles. They want to innovate new ways to use the data that is collected by their equipment.  You are about to apply the S.I.T. Subtraction Technique (remove an essential component).  Normally, you would have the team apply Subtraction by eliminating the vehicle data entirely – a great way to break functional fixedness.

Now, in light of this new research, here is what you might do instead.  Tell the team they are in a different industry – medical diagnostics – but that they are not allowed to use any traditional diagnostic tests on their patients (like blood tests, x-rays, vitals, etc).  Ask them, “What would you do now to get useful data about your patients?”  After a round of ideation, have them re-do the exercise back on their own problem.  Mentally imagining the problem to be someone else’s first will boost creative output on their own problem.

Polman, E., & Emich, K. J. (2011). Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 492-501.

Photo by permission: www.cartoonstock.com

The LAB: Innovating Software Applications with S.I.T. (August 2011)

Published date: August 29, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Software runs much of our lives.  It runs everyday items like computers, automobiles, banking, telephones, and even kitchen appliances.  Software will affect more of our daily routines in the future. According to market researcher DataMonitor, the global software market will grow to $457 billion, an increase of 50.5% since 2008.

The problem with software is you cannot see it.  The term was coined originally as a prank to contrast the term, “hardware.” Unlike hardware, software is intangible – it cannot be touched.  So how do you innovate software especially with a corporate innovation method like S.I.T.?  This method uses the components of the product or service as the starting point.  Companies sometimes struggle creating new applications because software seems too abstract.

The secret to using S.I.T. on software is this.  Don’t innovate the software code; rather, use the innovation method on what the software does.  Apply the method to the products and processes that the software affects.  This will create new-to-the-world innovations.  Then, write the software code that implements these new applications.

Here is an example with the software program, Quicken.  We start with a component list of a routine process within the software – creating an invoice.

Innovation Suite 2011 in Berlin

Published date: August 22, 2011 в 3:00 am

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SIT will hold its 7th Innovation Suite in Berlin, Germany from October 24-26, 2011.  Participants will learn the tools and principles of the SIT method step-by-step.  They will also learn how to implement an innovation program within their companies.  It is an intensive learning experience with some of SIT’s most experienced facilitators.

Here is what a participant had to say about it:


Agenda (from the SIT website):
Day 1 – Learn SIT to think and act differently
By 5:30pm you will know how to apply:
– SIT principles and thinking tools for New Product Development
– SIT’s approach to Problem Solving
Day 2 – SIT-in-action
The second day will be conducted mostly by SIT-trained innovation leaders from large organizations around the world.
By 5:30pm you will know how SIT works on different scales and levels of organizations after you have:
– Heard first-hand testimonials, challenges, and case-studies of innovation managers.
– Learned additional SIT tools from the experienced innovation leaders.
Day 3 – Putting it all to work
The third day is all about you and your team, and how to harness your team’s knowledge and resources to meet your business goals, improve the results of strategic projects, and find creative ways to use new thinking in everyday situations.
By 5:30pm you will know how to manage a short innovation process after you have:
– Learned how to identify needs and opportunities for innovation
– Led an innovation session on a real business topic of your own
– Learned what needs to be done to ensure results
After the program, participants will receive personal coaching to help apply the new skills in their organizations and implement an innovation program.

Innovation in Private Equity

Published date: August 15, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Private equity firms can boost the value of their investment portfolio by applying a systematic innovation method along the entire investment value chain – before, during, and even after the investment.

Private equity firms are collections of investors and funds that put money into privately-held companies. Private equity investments provide working capital to a target company to nurture expansion, new product development, or restructuring of the company’s operations, management, or ownership. Private equity firms are betting on their ability to take control of the target, clean it up, make it more competitive, and then sell it for a higher price.  It is like “flipping” a home in the real estate market.

Here is how a private equity firm could apply systematic innovation in their portfolios:

Before Investing:

Take the target company’s main product or service and apply S.I.T. to it during the evaluation process.  There are three things that could happen, all of which are positive outcomes.

1.  The innovation effort is a success.  You conceptualize exciting new innovations for the target firm that could increase its value.  By identifying these new sources of value before the deal, you widen your negotiating envelope.

2.  The innovation effort fails – no new opportunities are identified within the target company.  Given that, the full valuation of the deal should be based on the current products only.  This helps you avoid being overly optimistic about the target’s prospects for growth.  Any increases in value will come from cost cutting and efficiency gains.

3.  The innovation effort is a success, but you decide to walk away from the deal for other reasons.  You still have innovative concepts that you can extract value from.  You could sell the intellectual property to the target firm, or to one of its competitors, or to another private equity investor considering that target.

During the Investment:

By installing innovation processes in the target firm, private equity firms can influence success of the company and its stake in the company,   This would include: idea generation processes, voice of the customer processes, idea evaluation processes, prototyping, testing, validation, and launching.

After the Investment (the equity firm has sold its position):

How would a private equity firm use innovation after exiting?  On itself, of course. Taking the lessons learned from the last investment, and carrying those lessons into a systematic innovation process will yield new insights and opportunities.  Applying S.I.T. on deal flow, target selection processes, due diligence, and other key processes would bring value to the firm where it might be appreciated the most – right at home.

Innovation and Brand Coherence

Published date: August 8, 2011 в 3:00 am

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A quick and effective way to sort ideas generated during an innovation workshop is to apply brand coherence.  This means grouping ideas around relevant themes that support new or existing brands.  Ideation sessions can overwhelm you with hundreds of opportunities.  Teams struggle with evaluating and selecting the best ideas if they do not apply this simple step first.  Here is a suggested way to do it.

1.  Create an Idea Form:  Before the workshop, make sure all participants understand the importance of capturing their ideas using a standard format.  Print a supply of blank forms such as this one, and tell participants that any idea generated must be captured (quickly) using the form instead of taking notes in their own notebooks or lab books.  Engineers in particular like to document ideas in their own lab books for patent filings.  Insist that they do not use workshop time for this. (Your IP lawyers might appreciate this, too.).  Make sure each idea form has a pre-printed number (in sequence) on it.  This will be useful later as you inventory your ideas.

IDEA FORM

NAME OF IDEA:

DESCRIPTION OF WHAT IT DOES:

BENEFITS (TO CUSTOMER OR COMPANY):

CHALLENGES:

NAME OF SUBMITTER:

2.  Identify Possible Themes:  After a round or two of ideation, start scanning the Idea Forms.  Look especially at the BENEFITS.  Take note of recurring themes that participants write about.  For example, you might notice themes such as “increased performance,” “better safety,” “reduced cost,” “reduced inventory,” “better channel management,” and so on.  Start making a list of these for later.

3.  “Affinitize” Ideas Around Themes:  After ideation, have participants decide which of the possible themes are the most relevant to the business.  Then, have them assign each of the ideas (using the IDEA FORMS) to the brand theme that it best belongs to.  Once the ideas have been affinitized around a theme, assign each stack of ideas to subgroups.  Have them analyze the ideas.  They should take note of several things.  First, are there duplicated ideas?  This is likely to happen, so it makes sense to collapse  ideas into one.  Second, which of the ideas belong together within the same product or service?  Two or more ideas that work together in harmony form the basis of a potential development project, so these need to be identified.  Third, what ideas seem to be harmonious around a brand campaign?  Each subgroup should have an experienced marketer who can look at the ideas and foresee “the story” of how these ideas form a cohesive marketing message or campaign.  They are looking for coherence.  That is when a group of ideas that, take together, make the customer go “Wow!”.

Here is an example.  A group of MBA students used an innovation method to create innovations for a commercial airline.  The client told the students that they would welcome innovation in any area of their business.  This broad scope actually made the project harder, not easier, for the students.  After applying the method successfully to a variety of areas of the airline (gate area, baggage handling, in-flight services, etc), the students began to notice ideas relating to “family travel convenience.”  Seeking brand coherence, the students brought together all the ideas that resonated around helping families travel more conveniently regardless of the where it came from.  This set the stage for a new marketing campaign.

Academic Focus: University of Queensland’s TIMC

Published date: August 1, 2011 в 3:00 am

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The University of Queensland’s Technology and Innovation Management Centre (TIMC) is an international leader in research on technological innovation. The center was established in 1989 as a Centre of Excellence in technology management.  Its goal is to be at the leading edge in research and teaching in technological innovation.

The broad aim of the Centre is to understand and teach the role of innovation in improving business productivity and global competitiveness.  From their website:

“The Centre has two core activities: teaching and research. The TIMC has an active research program. Staff members regularly publish articles in leading international innovation journals, along with a number of books. The Centre also has a number of international research and teaching collaborations, including, most recently, with Imperial College, London, University of Cambridge, Anderson School of Management, UCLA; and the Stockholm School of Economics.

The TIMC also focuses on finding ways to effectively communicate its knowledge to the broader community. The Centre offers post-graduate and undergraduate degree courses, conducts international workshops and seminars, and its staff undertake a variety of consultancies for businesses and government agencies.”

Two of the faculty at TIMC are fellow innovation bloggers, Tim Kastelle and John Steen.  They write The Innovation Leadership Network blog.  From their site:
 

“In this blog we share our ideas about effectively managing the innovation process. We have several core themes that inform the discussions here:”

  • Innovation is fundamentally an evolutionary process. We find it useful to think of innovation as consisting of the generic evolutionary steps of variety (idea generation), selection (choosing the best ideas to execute) and replication (getting our ideas to spread).
  • Networks are the primary organisational form that we need to manage in the innovation process. The fundamental creative act in innovation is connecting – connect ideas to each other, and ideas to people. Consequently, looking at how ideas travel through networks is central to gaining an understanding of how innovation works.
  • The business model is the fundamental tool to use to develop an innovation strategy. Three strategies that are very useful in business model innovation are aggregating, filtering and connecting. In particular, these are three ways to build innovative business models in information-based industries.

Any new academic program considering an innovation curriculum would be wise to embrace these principles.

Thanks, Tim and John, for your contributions.

The LAB: Innovating a Corporate Training Program (July 2011)

Published date: July 25, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Corporate training is a $60 billion dollar industry and growing as the economy recovers.  As with any industry, significant changes are occurring.  Companies spend less on fixed internal resources and are outsourcing more.  Learners are changing in the way they learn, perhaps due to the generational shift.  And of course, technology has made the social side of learning more available and effective. Training executives, those who manage company training resources and programs, must continue to innovate to address these changes to stay relevant.

For this month’s LAB, we will apply the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to a training program.  Our goal is to find new-to-the-world concepts that improve a company’s training efforts.  The method works by applying one of five innovation patterns to components within the training environment.  The pattern has the effect of morphing the component into something that seems unrecognizable or ambiguous.  We take that “virtual product” and work backwards to uncover potential benefits or markets served, a process called “Function Follows Form.”

Begin by listing the major components of a corporate training program:

  1. Trainees
  2. Faculty
  3. Classrooms
  4. Curriculum
  5. Lesson Plans
  6. Technology
  7. Customers (of the firm)
  8. Products (services) of the firm
  9. Learning management system (keeps track of courses, enrollments, etc)

Here are five ideas, each using one of the five S.I.T. innovation patterns:

Innovation Sighting: The Great Sunflower Project

Published date: July 18, 2011 в 3:00 am

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On average, one of every three bites of food you put in your mouth depends on “animal pollination” – the movement of insects, particularly bees, between plants.  They play a crucial role in flowering plant reproduction and in the production of most fruits and vegetables. About 80% of all flowering plants and over three-quarters of the staple crop plants that feed humankind rely on animal pollinators like bees.

But bees are in trouble.  Scientific studies have suggested that both honey bee and native bee populations are declining. Scientists fear this will harm pollination of garden plants, crops and wild plants.  If they could collect simple data about their presence at certain times in certain locations, they can devise ways to conserve and improve the bee population.

How do you track something as small as bees on such a large scale?  By assigning the data collection task to an external resource – everyday gardeners.

Started in 2008, The Great Sunflower Project enlists 100,000 participants to count bees for 15 minutes and submit data online. It all happens on the same day, July 16th.  Researchers use the data to map areas that bees are doing well and where they need help.  San Francisco State University Professor Gretchen LeBuhn is founder and director of The Great Sunflower Project.

This is an example of the Task Unification technique, one of five techniques in the S.I.T. innovation method.  Task Unification works by assigning an additional task to an existing resource.  There are three versions of it (The Great Sunflower Project is version 3).

  1. Choose and internal component and make it do something extra, either a specific or non-specific internal task.
  2. Choose an internal component and make it do the function of an external component (it “steals” the external component’s function)
  3. Choose an external component and use it to perform a task within the product or service.

“Simply by taking that 15-minute step, you’ve made a contribution to saving bees,” she said. “It’s remarkable having all these different people willing to participate, willing to help and interested in making the world a better place.”

 

Innovation Sighting: Attribute Dependency in an Exercise Bike

Published date: July 11, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Pro-Form’s Le Tour de France Indoor Cycle lets users choose or create real-world routes, then adjusts the angle of the riding platform to replicate the experience of riding up and down those roads. This new product has three different features using the Attribute Dependency Tool of the corporate innovation method, SIT.

  • iFit Live:  With the iFit Live™ Technology Powered by Google Maps™ you can ride anywhere in the world! Choose from 24 pre-mapped courses or create your own. Ride over the Passage du Gois or climb the hills of Mont des Alouettes in France. Now you can experience these same trails and more on this Indoor Cycle. With iFit Live™ Technology you can ride where the Pro’s do. The world is at your fingertips. Map any route and enjoy the ride!
  • Incline/Decline:  Introducing incline and decline that matches the street! Now, you can experience any route around the world and Le Tour de France Indoor Cycle automatically adjusts the incline and decline to simulate the terrain! No matter the route, no matter the map, your bike moves to follow the road. So, you get a realistic workout-just as if you were outside-but without the traffic, potholes and weather. Now you can have the perfect day on your road bike every day of the year with Le Tour de France Indoor Cycle.
  • Intelligent Wind Resistance:  Any indoor bike can give you resistance-but only Le Tour de France Indoor Cycle can give you Intelligent Wind Resistance. Intelligent Wind Resistance automatically adjusts the resistance of your bike based on your wind profile. Our smart technology calculates your height and weight to apply the natural resistance you would get out on the road. A climb in your basement is exactly like a climb outside.

Wind Attribute Dependency differs from the other templates in that it uses attributes (variables) of the situation rather than components.  Start with an attribute list, then construct a 2 x 2 matrix of these, pairing each against the others.  Each cell represents a potential dependency (or potential break in an existing dependency) that forms a Virtual Product.  Using Function Follows Form, we work backwards and envision a potential benefit or problem that this hypothetical solution solves.  The Tour de France Indoor Cycle creates dependencies between rider preference, bicycle route, road elevation, and wind profile.

What caught my eye is the similarity of these ideas with those of my graduate students in my “Innovation Tools” course.  Using Systematic Inventive Thinking, they have to take a product category and apply the method to create completely new-to-the-world innovations.  For example, a group in my last class tackled the exercise equipment category with a focus on treadmills (see The LAB May 2011).

Compare these student’s ideas for treadmills with Pro-Form’s Le Tour de France Indoor Cycle.  Well done!

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