Посты с тэгом: innovation method

The LAB: Innovating the Pricing Process (November 2011)

Published date: November 14, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Setting prices on new products and services is one of the most challenging roles in marketing. Pricing mistakes are costly, yet it’s one of the most tempting tools to use when trying to generate revenues.  Fortunately, methods like Value Based Pricing and frameworks like The Big Picture make the job easier.

What if you wanted to explore more innovative ways to set prices?  Applying the SIT innovation patterns would create new insights and options. The SIT patterns help break fixedness – the tendency to limit the way we see things to what we know.  These patterns are innate to all of us.  We just need to “extract” them from within and deploy them in a systematic way.

For this month’s LAB, we will apply SIT to pricing.  While there are many methods and schools of thought around pricing, the SIT templates should apply to any of them. I would do the following.

Marketing Innovation: Sharks to the Extreme

Published date: October 3, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Great television commercials deliver the right message in a creative way.  Great commercials are memorable.  The longer customers remember your commercial, the more cost effective the campaign. 

One way to make memorable ads is to make them funny and vivid.  The Vividness Effect causes people to recall experiences and images that stand out in their minds.  Images of wild creatures like sharks, for example, tend to be good choices to create vividness.  But just showing sharks in a commercial is not enough.  They have to be fused to the core marketing message – the value proposition.  That is where you need a structured innovation method to channel the creativity process and regulate your thinking.

Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe eight such tools 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 and 8.Extreme Effort.

Let's look at two examples.  The first uses the EXTREME CONSEQUENCE tool.  This tool conveys the absurd result of using the product or service.  By over exaggerating the brand promise, the ad is viewed as clever and credible versus traditional exaggeration.  It is particularly useful when the product is well-understood.  These ads can help viewers see secondary attributes in new ways.  Snickers does this well in this 2011 commercial.  The exaggeration here is: "Snickers is so good that sharks prefer to eat humans who have eaten a Snickers bar."

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 Division Template on Music

Published date: February 21, 2011 в 3:00 am

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The power of the SIT method lies in the fact that inventors, for thousands of years, have embedded five simple patterns into their inventions, usually without knowing it. These patterns are the “DNA” of products that can be extracted and applied to any product or service to create new-to-the-world innovations.  Here is an example of an innovator working diligently to create a new innovation in the field of music – called “Music for Shuffle.”  The inventor, Matthew Irvine Brown, is using the Divison technique to create musical phrases that can be played together in any random order.  The phrases interlock with each other to create a continuous stream of music – a song.  Listen:


Music for Shuffle #01 from Matt Brown on Vimeo.

While this music may not make the Billboard top 50, it may open up a whole new way to think about song generation.  With this innovation, he introduces the idea of taking a song, physically dividing out parts of it, and rearranging it to create a better outcome.  Music exists because of patterns.  Blues music, for example, is a 12 bar I-IV-V progression. The Division technique works by dividing a product or service (or one of its component) either physically or functionally and then rearranging them to form a new product or service.  The technique is particulary useful to help break structural fixedness, the tendency to see objects as a whole.

To extend this idea, imagine taking the most popular phrases out of songs and “repacking” them together to create a new song.  For example, take a phrase from “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin and a phrase from “Freebrird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and link them together at natural interlocking point to create a new phrase.  Now imagine taking tens of thousands of phrases from top selling songs and interlocking them randomly to find the most interesting sounding ideas.  These new phrases would create the starting point to make adjustments and improvements for better sounding music.

For some, the use of a template seems to defeat the creative purpose.  But in fact, most creative people used some form of pattern to “bootstrap” their innovations and get to a higher level.  The Beatles, for example, have sold more records in the US than anyone.  How?   They used templates.

Super Bowl Innovation

Published date: February 7, 2011 в 3:00 am

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At $3 million dollars for a thirty second spot, Super Bowl advertisers need to create the best, most innovative commercials possible.  How?  Creating innovative TV commercials is more effective when using patterns embedded in other innovative commercials.  Professor Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues discovered that 89% of 200 award winning ads fall into a few simple, well-defined design structures.  Their book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” defines eight of these structures and provides a step-by-step approach to use them.

Here are the eight tools:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort
Let’s see how well 2011 Super Bowl ads fit these patterns.

Are YOU an Innovator?

Published date: May 30, 2009 в 11:29 am

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Do you consider yourself an innovator?  I asked this to a group of participants at a recent PDMA workshop, and the results surprised me.  Only about half of the participants raised their hand.  Many of those had that hesitant look of self-doubt on their face.
It’s a difficult question.  How do you really know if you are an innovator?  Is it based on the number of patents you hold?  Is it a function of your job title?  Is it based on your creative endeavors like music or art?
Take this self-assessment to find out.  Place a check mark beside the statement you believe is more true.  (Click here for a printable version and for scoring instructions.)

 

Innovation Archetypes

Published date: May 10, 2009 в 7:47 pm

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An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all.  Archetypes put context to a situation.  We use archetypes, for example, in marketing.  We create brand archetypes to assign a personality to the brand.  An example of such a model is shown at right.  In political debate, it’s useful to understand whether a commentator is an “archetypical democrat” or an “archetypical republican.” This helps frame their comments so we know where they are coming from.
Listening to the Voice of Innovation is the same. As I read blogs, interviews, and books on innovation, I try to determine the author’s innovation archetype so I know where they are coming from.  I observe at least four of these.
The four Innovation Archetypes are:

The LAB: Innovating a Surgical Mask with Task Unification (May 2009)

Published date: May 3, 2009 в 11:30 am

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Crisis creates opportunity.  That certainly has been the case for surgical mask makers and retailers as people scramble to buy them to protect against the H1N1 swine flu virus.  Companies and governments are ordering masks by the case load.  The surgical mask has become the number four selling item in women’s apparel at Amazon.com, moving ahead of another strapped item – the bra.  The rush to protect against the virus extends beyond surgical masks as people seek any form of protection.  Soon we will be tracking the pandemic on our iPhones.

Surgical masks have been around since 1860.  Since then, lots of innovation has occurred.  One of my favorites is shown here – a clear mask so that doctors and nurses can see each others’ face to improve communications. The fashionable surgical mask idea has been around for a very long time, but it is back with a vengeance.

There is debate about the value of surgical masks in the operating room.  Experts question whether they protect people from viruses like swine flu.  At best, masks seem capable of short term protection from large particle droplets transmitted at close contact.  Masks prevent transmission both to and from the wearer.

Given the questionable efficacy of surgical masks, this would seem a ripe opportunity for PROBLEM-TO-SOLUTION innovation using a methods such as TRIZ and Goldfire.  For this LAB, I will use Systematic Inventive Thinking (SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM innovation) to see if there are novel ideas to extend the value of the surgical mask and perhaps address some of the unmet needs as well.  For this exercise, I am using a 3M 8210 respirator version that is N95 rated.  We start by listing the components:

Applied Marketing Innovation

Published date: January 8, 2009 в 4:33 pm

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Learning a corporate innovation method begins with formal training, and there is no better place to do that than in graduate business school.  I am looking forward to meeting the 37 students enrolled in my MBA course at the University of Cincinnati this month. The course, “Applied Marketing Innovation,” is a full credit course.  It is a fusion of Systematic Inventive Thinking and The Big Picture marketing framework.  The Syllabus can be downloaded, but here are some details about it:

“This course focuses on how to create value and growth through innovation in new and existing markets. Students will learn the skills of innovation and how to apply those skills within the context of a marketing strategy framework. Students will apply innovation methods across the entire marketing management continuum including strategy, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and the 4P’s. The course will be taught using interactive workshop methods and techniques throughout. Students will first experience these facilitation techniques while learning innovation. They will then learn and practice these techniques so that they can apply them routinely throughout their graduate experience and beyond.”

Two aspects of this course are unique.  First, we don’t just talk about innovation…we DO innovation.  MBA students in particular are aggressive and skillful when learning and applying innovation. I am sure this group of students will be no different.  The other unique aspect is the creation of new products and services that are formalized in a hypothetical company catalog – The Dream Catalog.  This is a clever way to take new innovations and rationalize them into a coherent pipeline for growth.  Students work in teams to create an actual Dream Catalog within a business of their choice.  In past courses, some students have used this assignment for their own companies.  It is a graded assignment.  I will publish the results of this exercise here on the blog.

The final exam is scary!  Students will be given a product randomly (with no advance preparation).  They must use each of the five templates of innovation (Subtraction, Task Unification, Multiplication, Division, and Attribute Dependency) on that product to create new-to-the-world inventions.  They have to take each invention and plot what strategic quadrant of The Big Picture would be most suitable.  It is a tough exercise.  It demonstrates: 1. mastery of the skills of innovation, and 2.  the ability innovate within the context of marketing strategy.  I will also post some of the results from the final exam here on the blog. 

If you have a product that you would like to see innovated by my students on the final exam, please let me know!

I want to thank Professor Jacob Goldenberg at Columbia Business School and Professor Christie Nordhielm at the Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan for their support in developing this course.  It is intended to be a blend of their tremendous contributions.  It is a privilege to teach it.

The LAB: Innovating a Fishing Pole with Multiplication (November 2008)

Published date: November 30, 2008 в 8:21 am

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Can you innovate a mature product?  Consider the fishing pole which dates back to the ancient Egyptians – it certainly qualifies as a mature product. This month’s LAB will innovate it by using the systematic innovation method called Multiplication.

Fishing is the largest sporting activity in the U.S. with 40 million participants, far more than golf or tennis combined, the next two on the list.  Recreational fishing generates more than $125 billion in economic output and more than one million American jobs. If sport fishing were a corporation, it would rank above Bank of America or IBM on the Fortune 100 list of largest American companies.  The pathway to growth for any large, mature industry is: innovation!

We start by listing the components of the product.  We then make a copy (or copies) of each component, one at a time.  The new copies must be different in some way from the original component.  We then use Function Follows Form and work backwards to envision what the “pre-inventive form” could be used for.  We innovate by taking something that doesn’t make sense at first, then find a legitimate purpose for it.  Here is what I came up with (about an hour’s worth of work):

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