The mistake many companies make is to continue thinking along traditional lines. SMH, the company marketing the 'Swatch' range of products, has achieved remarkable success by applying creative marketing principles. While other Swiss watchmakers went bust, Swatch learned lessons from other businesses. It made colorful and cheap watches which became fashion accessories. If it had simply tried to copy what others in the same business did it would have probably vanished into the corporate graveyard. In 1993, around 18 million Swatch watches were produced and the company launches up to 150 designs each year. It has become more than a disposable fashion item - Swatch products have been sold at auctions for £20,000 and there is an international club of collectors with 100,000 members. Swatch continues to do things differently. When it launched its 'Chandelier' model UK sales were restricted to 1,000. The company hired a shop in Covent Garden and sold the 1,000 watches by 4 pm - people travelled from Europe, the United States and the Far East for the launch.
As a consequence of Swatch being one of the biggest brands in the world, it tends to be a serious business. That in itself is dangerous because the product is fun. We remind ourselves of that on a daily basis to ensure that the marketing does not lose the spontaneity and flexibility', says John Haynes, divisional director of Swatch UK.'
Creative approaches require that people learn to cast their attention and observing skills beyond the myopic perimeter of their own industry. Simply emulating each other in the same sector is a formula for incestuous stagnation. It often amounts to no more than doing the wrong things better and better. Looking elsewhere - even in the most unlikely places -can reinvent your entire approach.
Severn-Lamb makes steam locomotives. We all know that steam trains are a relic of the past but what Severn-Lamb has done is to discover new markets for an old product. Its turnover has risen from £1 million in 1989 to £4.5 million. The new market discovered by the company is leisure and theme parks - its customers include Europe's newest theme park, Port Aventura in Spain, Eurodisney and Entertainment City in Kuwait. In total 95 per cent of its production is exported. The philosophy of managing director Heinz Roosen is simply: 'If we don't take care of the customer, someone else will.
Learning from others has now acquired a label, 'benchmarking'. Benchmarking works on the principle that no matter what your business you can learn many lessons from the best in the business or from others in completely different fields.
Attribute listing is especially helpful in finding ways to improve an existing product or service. You list the current features or attributes of the firm's existing product and explore ways in which each one could be improved. A bank, for example, could list all the attributes its current services contain and then explore how each one of these attributes can be modified, improved and/or enriched. Provided such steps are taken in conjunction with a clear understanding of what the customers are looking for, the outcome can provide a creative platform for the development of customer-focused competitive advantage.
Brainstorming is a useful technique if managed effectively and carried out by someone with experience. Most people have had experience of brainstorming in the context of solving operational problems or exploring opportunities in day-to-day activities. But brainstorming can be applied to many other apparently imponderable problems and issues from finding a name for your company to developing strategy.
A variation on this theme is pictorial brainstorming. It is especially useful when the design of a new product concept is involved. For instance, if invited to add value to a 'Walkman' one can do it in a pictorial way and produce great ideas during the exercise. Participants are given a card and are asked to brainstorm pictorial images of a novel product or packaging. Every five minutes or so the card is passed on to the neighbor on the right who is invited to add some extra features or benefits to the drawing. After about six or seven such moves the results are explored in a plenary session and the various novel ideas explored.
Morphological analysis is an impressive name for a fairly simple method. Essentially it is a multi-dimensional matrix. Up to three dimensions can be shown graphically. If the number of dimensions exceeds three, it can only be shown in columns of items where all the various permutations can be then listed, and if necessary with the aid of a computer. The idea underlying this technique is to identify a number of dimensions that may have a significant relevance to the ultimate nature of the product or service that you want to develop.
Read on
Simon Majaro, The Creative Gap, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, 1987
Another simple but popular technique is called Mind mapping. Created by Tony Buzan, this is based on the simple idea that writing things down using different colors is preferable to using a single color. 'You only have to look at libraries all over the world to see that our places of learning are nothing short of giant public bedrooms, one big yawn,' says Buzan. It sounds childish and simple, but Buzan believes that Mind mapping makes meetings more effective and helps people make decisions more effectively. All that is needed is lots of paper and colored felt-tip pens. It is worth remembering that Einstein, da Vinci and Van Gogh were all first-rate doodlers.
