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The catalytic idea
Ideas, we all have them. In meetings; in bars; in the bath. Talking with friends. Networking for business.
The trouble is, not many of these ideas we have produce significant changes in our lives or businesses. They make incremental shifts if we are lucky.
I make a point of placing those little notepads you get in hotels all around my house, and in my car. To capture ideas. I’m clearly an analogue man at heart; otherwise I’d be keying them into some device or other.
The best ideas times for me are after exercise, or upon waking. The former may be attributable to enhanced blood flow in my cerebral cortex, the latter to the journeys I make while asleep. If I don’t note them down quickly they are gone. No amount of Ginseng or Fish Oil seems to alter that.
A great many of my ideas (and yours) are what we call isolic. They are smart ideas that raise a smile. If we get round to realising them, they result in actions that boost awareness of an issue or produce a short-term fix or improvement. They are important to have, but their effects are not long- lived.
They are not ideas that make people think strikingly new thoughts, or act is very different new ways. To be able to do that, they need what we call differentiation to make them stand out more. And they need to be relevant. They need to connect into everyday life and make themselves useful to people.
Innovation: small changes, that builds an overall perception
When we look at marketing, we realise that most marketing ideas are isolic. They produce gradual improvement, or sometimes even a slight downturn in performance. That’s why some marketing executives move company after two years; before the downturns occasioned by their decisions become noticeable.
Many companies inch forward by producing a high volume of such ideas. Anita Roddick who built the successful personal care chain The Body shop admitted to that: ‘What we needed an avalanche of ideas that kept us separate from the competition.’ There she was admitting that one aspect of her brand’s differentiation was constant innovation. Small changes, that built an overall perception.
Innovation as a word ranks high in the Marketer’s Lexicon. I run brand workshops all the time. The temptation to sneak the word ‘innovative’ into a description of brand character seems overwhelming.
Sadly, very few brands, and even fewer brand managers are truly innovative. They are at best active, and hope in good faith that this activity will produce results.
The present trend is for marketers and procurers (that may not be their official title, but I like it) to look for quantitive change. The better media deal. Agglomeration of business in fewer channels or larger Agencies or distributors. All well and good. But there’s little consideration here of qualitative change. The change that can be created by better, bigger ideas.
Fortunately there is another kind of idea. It’s a rarer animal altogether. It’s the kind of idea that produces a step change – in a business, in a market, in a civilisation. For that reason, we call it catalytic.
Let me give you a non-marketing example. In 1917 the German leadership was in despair. They had been fighting the Russians for three long years, marked by attrition and stalemate.
Then one of their number shared a suggestion with his colleagues. He believed he had discovered a weapon more powerful than any used before. A weapon that would strike well beyond the Russian front line, and even impact on their cities in the rear.
That weapon was not a bomb, it was an idea.
The idea existed in the mind of a Russian exile living in Germany. So the leaders invited him to Berlin. And then they put him on a train to Moscow.
Upon his arrival, the man began to spread the idea. Within months, the idea had spread to the Russian trenches, and caused two million soldiers to leave their posts. The war machine ground to a halt.
Then the idea spread and riots engulfed the cities. The government fell. The date was November 1917. The idea was communism, and the man on the train was Lenin.
Over the next few weeks let’s spend some time re-evaluating the impact of catalytic ideas on marketing and business.
Copyright Christopher James Harrison.
To comment on this article contact kiongozi@yrbrands.com. To find out more visit www.yrafrica.com
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