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Luke Sullivan, a copywriter, creative director (Fallon McElligott and The Martin Agency), and author of “Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads” (affiliate link), spoke about the critical importance of cultural tension to creative ideas at AAFKC.

Ironically, for a presentation all about creative ideas coming from drama, tension, and conflict, Luke Sullivan’s presentation (which he guaranteed wouldn’t suck) was titled, “Leveraging Cultural Tension to Improve Creativity.

Leveraging?

How much more boring, uncreative, and corporate jargony can you get? I tweeted beforehand that “Leveraging” should have been replaced with “Kicking the MF Ass of.” With Luke Sullivan’s in-your-face presentation style, that definitely would have been a better title.

Consider this post one big paraquote, i.e. it’s pulled from live tweets and pictures during the Luke Sullivan talk with some additional words to string them all together. That’s a paraquote post!

Creative Ideas, Drama, and Conflict

We are all interested in conflict. It’s human nature to be intrigued by conflicts, problems, and drama. When everything is okay, we’re not interested. If you want people to be interested in your advertising, you have to find the tension.

All drama is conflict. Everybody needs an enemy. Think about how much Star Wars would have sucked with just Luke.

Bad ass guys are interesting, and they make for a rocking story (Think Mayhem – although Mayhem may be more creatively than financially successful for Allstate). Everybody wants to be the bad guy. Don’t believe it? Kids go out for Halloween dressed as Michael Myers. Nobody dresses up like Jamie Lee Curtis for Halloween!

Figure out who is the enemy for your brand? Who the hell does your brand want to slap the crap out of?

Problems, Tension, and Creativity

Creativity happens in response to a problem. When it comes to advertising, finding the tension to spark creative can come from a variety of places: your brand vs. the other brand, cultural issues (i.e., we celebrate thin people as ideal but we also love crappy, fattening food), contrasting ideologies and themes, unseemly things in a product category.

If you bake tension into your creative strategy, you set the stage for ongoing story building. It’s imperative you address the tension, truth, and emotion of the situation authentically, though.

Negatives and Anticipation Get Attention

Problems are interesting. Solutions are boring. “Got milk?” works, but a campaign about “Have milk!” wouldn’t go anywhere. What’s interesting is what’s ABOUT to happen in your advertising. Negatives work. That’s why advertising people can be seen as so negative . . . because negative works!

Finding Tension for Creative Ideas

Where do you look for tension when you’re trying to create attention for a product or category that doesn’t have tension? You MAKE UP the tension!

Steps 1 and 2 in finding tension:

Also, look toward conflict. Want to find great sources of conflict ideas? Look back at “The Far Side” cartoons (affiliate link), since all of the Far Side revolved around conflict.

Translating Uncomfortable Tension into great Advertising

Great strategic creative briefs build in conflict. A bad strategic creative brief doesn’t tell you anything new. And if there’s nothing new, it’s simply a boring old rerun. If the creative winds up being bad, everyone in the room who has touched it is to blame. A big reason for bad creative is because a decision was made to throw everything into the advertising. Saying, “We got it all in there,” should always be uttered with a deep sense of shame.

Parting Shots from Luke Sullivan

True communication is what your listener takes away. And, the simpler something is, the less it ages. – Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact TheBrainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us atinfo@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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The June Fast Company features its list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2013. Last year, we used the issue as a point of departure to share ideas, tips, and thought starters inspired by each of the creative people on the list. Last year’s series of Brainzooming posts based on the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2012 has received great attention all year long, and for this year, we’re taking a bit of a twist.

Given interest in the recent Brainzooming post highlighting more than 200 strategic planning questions, we used the stories from the most creative people in business list to generate strategic thinking questions inspired by the varied creative successes represented in the issue.

As with last year’s Brainzooming recap, these questions AREN’T in the Fast Company issue. Instead, we applied our technique of taking a case study and imagining the questions that would inspire someone else to get to the same place as the person or business in the case study.

So to repeat: this is ALL NEW CONTENT you’ll be reading throughout our series of posts. Later in the week, I’ll explain WHY I’m being so emphatic about this being content you won’t see in Fast Company. Stay tuned for that!

Branding and Customer Experience Questions Inspired by the Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business 2013

Today’s list includes twenty-five strategic thinking questions on branding and customer experience. Later in the week, we’ll feature questions on creativity, content marketing, insights, and strategy.

Branding Questions

How can you change your brand experience to cause people to want to spend more time with the brand? (12. Liz Muller - DIRECTOR OF CONCEPT DESIGN, STARBUCKS)

How would an artist create a live art event starring your brand? (16. Ai Weiwei – ARTIST)

What could you do to grow a large enough audience and facilitate a way for them to want to talk about your brand more and longer? (19. Fred Graver - HEAD OF TV TEAM, TWITTER)

If “cute” is part of your brand personality, how can you make your brand experience more childlike to enhance its “cuteness”? (22. Phill Ryu and David Lanham - FOUNDERS, IMPENDING)

What do your customers love about your brand, and how do you respect what they love when you freshen your brand experience? (25. Jason Wilson - LEAD PRODUCT DESIGNER, PINTEREST)

What are the hidden aspects of your brand experience that hold new, untold, and intriguing stories? (63. Roman Mars - HOST, 99% INVISIBLE)

How can you start serving the cool part of a market that isn’t being served sufficiently? (68. Rosie O’Neill and Josh Resnick - COFOUNDERS, SUGARFINA)

Customer Experience Questions

If your product were completely interactive with a user’s touch, why would it be exciting for them to touch the product? (15. Ivan Poupyrev - SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, DISNEY RESEARCH)

What are you doing to add more personalization (that provides value) into your customer experience? (17. Michelle Peluso - CEO, GILT GROUPE)

How would fewer choices make things easier and better for your customers? (67. Aerin Lauder - FOUNDER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, AERIN)

How can you offer customers a smaller set of options, but give them more flexibility and higher performance as a trade-off? (30. Bob Mathews and Gary Chow - SENIOR RADIO FREQUENCY ENGINEERS, AT&T)

If you redesigned your business – even if it’s a stodgy business – around delivering “more fun for customers,” what would have to change about your customer experience? (35. Alli Webb - FOUNDER, DRYBAR)

How would your brand’s customer experience change if you designed it for the lowest common denominator technology instead of the newest technology? (4. Kirthiga Reddy - DIRECTOR OF ONLINE OPERATIONS, FACEBOOK INDIA)

What can you do to translate what you know about your customers into pleasant surprises for them? (46. Jackie Wilgar - EVP OF MARKETING, LIVE NATION)

What are new ways you can turn customer research efforts into customer design opportunities? (48. Tina Wells - FOUNDER, CEO, BUZZ MARKETING GROUP)

In what ways could you create opportunities for your customers to meet, talk, and bond? (56. Sarah Simmons – CHEF, CITY GRIT)

How can you make the online and offline experiences of your brand have the same feel? (64. Tare Lemmey - CEO, NET POWER & LIGHT)

If your customers don’t have a 100% success rate with your product or service, how can you make it more like something they can do/use with complete success? (66. Michael Buckwald and David Holz - COFOUNDERS, LEAP MOTION)

What can you do to feed information to customers about what other customers are thinking / choosing / doing right now? (70. Kevin Bruner - PRESIDENT, CTO, TELLTALE GAMES)

In what ways can you bring together people who wouldn’t otherwise meet but would find value in doing so? (71. Caroline Ghosn - FOUNDER, CEO, LEVO LEAGUE)

How could you turn a complicated process in your customer experience into a one-step process? (73. Katelyn Gleason - COFOUNDER, CEO, ELIGIBLE)

If your product requires training to use, what do you need to change about it so you can eliminate all training? (74. Aneel Bhusri - COFOUNDER, CO–CEO, WORKDAY)

What is pre-planned in your customer experience that would benefit from being spontaneous, and how can you make that happen? (75. Andy Cohen - TV HOST, EVP OF TALENT AND DEVELOPMENT, BRAVO)

How can you make it easier for potential customers to go from receiving a reminder about your brand to taking action (with telepathic communication as the end goal)? (85. Grace Woo - FOUNDER, PIXELS.IO)

If combining live events, social, and crowdsourcing is where it’s at, how do you use social to let the crowd, whether in-person or remotely, influence your event? (87. Bozoma Saint John - DIRECTOR OF CULTURAL BRANDING, MUSIC, AND ENTERTAINMENT, PEPSICO)

Mike Brown

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The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Productive strategic thinking exercises are at the heart of The Brainzooming Group methodology. Great brainstorming and strategic planning questions encourage and allow people to talk about what they know including factual information, personal perspectives, and their views of the future.

The Value of Strategic Thinking Exercises

I tell people who ask about how we developed The Brainzooming Group methodology that a big motivator was business people I worked with who didn’t know how to fill out strategic planning templates and worksheets.

They did, however, know a lot about the businesses, customers, and markets they served. We found we could ask them strategic planning questions and brainstorming questions to capture information to create strategic plans.

Since I could write the plan, knowing strategic planning questions to ask (within a fun, stimulating environment to answer them) was key to developing creative, quickly-prepared plans infused with strategic thinking.

And when you combine “creative,” “strategic thinking,” and “quickly-prepared,” you get Brainzooming!

Here is a sampling of more than 200 brainstorming questions and strategic planning questions that are part of the strategic thinking exercises we use with The Brainzooming Group. Yes, more than two hundred questions! Who could ask for more?

More than 200 Strategic Planning Questions for Strong Strategic Thinking

Creating Productive Questions

• Great Strategic Questions – A 3-Step Strategic Question Formula – 3 questions to make sure your questions elicit the best answers.

Strategic Thinking Questions for Developing Overall Strategy

• First Questions – 1 question that’s the granddaddy of all strategy questions within the Brainzooming methodology.
• Strategic Thinking Questions to Identify What Matters for a Brand – 10 questions for getting to the heart of what’s strategic for your brand.
• Identifying What Matters in Your Organization? – 7 questions to signal whether a topic or effort is strategic for a brand.
• Checking for Simplicity in Your Strategy – 3 questions to see if your strategy is simple enough to drive changes in strategic and tactical actions within your organization.
• Anticipating Non-Traditional Competitors – 4 questions for anticipating non-traditional competitors and strategic threats your organization may face that aren’t apparent currently.
• Do You Have What It Takes for a Marketing Plan? – 15 questions to ensure you have everything in place for a complete marketing plan.

Developing a Strategic Vision

• Strategic Planning Doesn’t Have to Kill Creativity – 5 questions to better identify and articulate your organizational vision statement.
• What Are We Trying to Say? – 7 questions to improve the understandability, emotion, and impact of your organizational vision statements.
• Look and Ask Around – 3 questions to assess where you or your organization provide the most and least value, along with where you should focus more effort to improve the value you deliver.
• Look Inside for Distinctive Talents – 5 questions to identify talents and capabilities that can set both organizations and individuals apart from the crowd.

Digital and Social Media Exploration

• Social Media Content Personality Audit – Is Your Brand Personality There? – 10 questions to gauge whether your social media content conveys your brand personality.
• See Me, Feel Me, Criticize Me – 8 questions to ask relative to the accuracy, ease, and user experience of your digital presence.

Creative Naming Questions

• Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – 8 Creative Thinking Questions – 8 questions to go beyond the typical bland names for new products that stand out from the crowd.
• Creative Job Titles – 8 Innovative Questions to Create Them – 8 questions to enliven the job titles you use throughout your organization – or to come up with your own new self-created title.

Innovation-Oriented Questions

• 11 Strategic Questions for Disruptive Innovation in Markets – 11 questions to help identify different types of innovation opportunities.
• A Spoonful of Unconventional Makes the Conventionalism Go Down – 4 questions to look for an unexpected innovation opportunity in your market.
• Innovation Opportunity – Knowing When New and Innovative Becomes Status Quo – 3 questions to figure out when it is time to innovate your previous innovation.
• 1 Great Way to Be More Creative Each Day – 8 questions (from Trait Transformation) to change the characteristics of your current situation into something new.
• Trying to Finish the Previously Unfinishable – 5 questions to identify ways to turn incomplete ideas into something salvageable.

Identifying Strategies and Assumptions

• Strategic Thinking Exercise – Resolving Contradictory Assumptions Easily – 2 questions to sort through assumptions which seem to point in opposite directions.
• Don’t Overthink It? 5 Key Questions for Quick Decisions – 5 questions to get through decisions more quickly.
• There’s No Accounting for Taste – 3 questions with more beneficial criteria (other than “I like it”) to determine if you creative work is on strategy.
• Ask and You Shall Receive with Great Strategic Questions – 5 questions to help someone expand on their ideas.

Extreme Creativity Questions

• 9 Extreme Creativity Questions from Peter’s Laws – 9 questions to push creative possibilities to reach extreme creativity levels.
• Extreme Creativity – 10 Brainstorming Questions from Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives - Guy Fieri visits crazy restaurants where they serve up incredible food and extreme creativity questions galore!

Strategic Marketing Questions

• 20 Innovative Strategic Planning Questions to Prepare for 2012 – 20 questions from a variety of marketing and strategy experts to tweak and improve a marketing effort through strategy, marketing communications, and content marketing.
• Nobody Cares About You!!! – 2 questions to test whether your communications efforts are audience-oriented.
• It’s the Most Memorable Time of the Year – 8 questions to look for ways to strengthen personal interest and better integrate emotional dimensions to increase memorability.

Sales and Business Development Questions

• You’re a Business Solutions Provider? If You Claim It, Prove It – 6 questions to test if your marketing and sales effort is really delivering the “solutions” you promise.
• Do You Want More Business? 10 Questions to Identify Sales Opportunities – 10 questions to ask prospective clients to identify new business development opportunities.

Questions to Perform More Effective Recaps

• It’s Great to Learn from Your Mistakes…Once! – 8 questions to dissect what didn’t go right so it never happens again.

There you go with more than 200 strategic planning questions. Do you have any questions? Let us know! – Mike Brown

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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A radio ad I used to hear all the time said, “The words you use matter.”

That is true for people, and it is especially true when you are figuring out how to brand a company. The brand language you strategically choose to describe what you do and how you do it sets the stage for both employees’ and customers’ expectations and satisfaction with your brand.

What types of brand language should you be using as you brand a company?

Seven Types of Brand Language You Should Use

As you develop (or refine) the brand language you are using, be on the lookout for each of these seven types of brand language to make sure you use words that are:

1. Simple

These are the easy to understand words that everyone knows and readily uses in your marketplace.

2. Emotional

The brand language that creates strong impact by tapping into an appropriate range of experience-based emotions.

3. Aspirational

Words that convey the hopes and dreams of employees, customers, and other stakeholders interacting with your company.

4. Unusual

Distinctive words whose less frequent use makes them stick out and become more memorable.

5. Connectable

These types of words readily pair up with other words, word parts, or phrases to create new and distinctive brand language.

6. Open

Brand language that brings depth to the brand because it can mean multiple things or apply in a variety of situations.

7. Twistable

Words you can use in varied ways and forms.

Pay Attention to Brand Language when Deciding How to Brand a Company

When devising your strategy for how to brand a company, don’t overlook the brand language. You can leave the selection of brand language to chance, accident, or time. Making solid brand strategy decisions on brand language, however, helps make sure the words you use not only matter, but also work as hard to benefit your brand as possible. - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Today’s Brainzooming blog guest post comes via @FlyingSpatula, a former Brainzooming guest blogger. He direct messaged me over the weekend to let me know about a blog post his uncle, Sheldon Rozansky, founder of Les Specialistes HCS Montreal, wrote about how big box brands can be indifferent to and even downright contemptuous of customers. While this sucks for customers, he uses shortcomings at big box brands to create a competitive advantage when price competition isn’t an option. Here’s his take on crappy customer service at big box brands and how smaller competitors can fight back for themselves and their customers:

Big Box Brands and Crappy Customer Service by Sheldon Rozansky

One of my clients, Mike, purchased a laptop from a Big Box Brand Chain Store. They also sold him the extended warranty for which he shelled out over $200.  I am not a big fan of the extended warranty, but I wasn’t with him when he purchased the laptop or the extended warranty, so I couldn’t advise against it.

Six months later Mike called me because the new laptop had stopped working.  I visited him and after looking at the laptop for about 5 minutes, told him the hard drive was dead.  He asked if there was anything I could do to recover the data. I told him, “No.”  It was a hard drive failure, and it needed to be replaced.  He mentioned the extended warranty and how Big Box Brand Chain Store’s “HELP SQUAD” would fix everything.  I told him the manufacturer’s warranty would replace the hard drive anyway in the first year, but since he paid for the warranty, he might as well get it checked.

He asked, “How much do I owe you Sheldon?”

“Nothing. I didn’t fix anything. All I did as tell you the bad news.”

He thanked me, and away I went.

A week passed, and he told me about bringing the laptop to the Big Box Brand Chain Store.  “Yeah, Sheldon, they said they are going to charge me if they are able to recover the data. It’s about $260, but if they can’t recover the data, they are only going to charge me $59.”

I replied, “I have the same software they use to recover data. If I were able to do it, I would have. It is a physical issue with the drive. They can easily tell whether they can recover the data by testing the drive – which they should do to see if the drive is the issue for the warranty.  The only way you are getting your data back is through a data recovery specialist, and they charge much more than $260.  If these guys are using specialty equipment to recover your data then $260 is a bargain; otherwise they are just ripping you off.”

A few weeks more passed and Mike called. The Big Box Brand Chain Store couldn’t recover his data (surprise, surprise), but the hard drive had been replaced. “It will only cost $59.”

I asked, “Why is it costing you anything?????? You bought a stupid extended warranty. Please call me when you get there.”

Hand Him the Phone

I always loved the old advertising line, “You have a friend in the diamond business,” because I have always felt, “I am your friend in the computer business.”  When my customers – my friends – are about to get screwed by the Big Box Brand Chain Store, I fight for them. I do this because it is the right and honest thing, not because I get paid for it.

Mike called from the store to say he was being charged $59.  I told him to pass the phone to the computer guy.  He later told me the guy had no idea why the phone was passed to him.

“I have a question for you,” I told the Big Box Brand Chain Store guy. “Why is Mike being charged $59 for work covered by his extended warranty? Oh, and by the way, I should tell you that I am a computer technician.”

“He’s being charged because of the time we spent recovering data. We worked on the hard drive for 2 days with special software,” he replied.

“Don’t lie to me. I know how recovery works. You didn’t recover any data. In fact if you had examined the hard drive you would have seen it was DEAD and needed to be replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty. You would have had to look at the hard drive anyway to send it to the manufacturer. If it took you 2 days to find out it was dead, you guys are the most incompetent people I have ever seen.”

“Umm, yes sir you’re right. We were able to see the drive was dead, and it was covered by the manufacturer’s warranty”

“So why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie to you.”

“You told me you were working on it for 48 hours, and you are charging my friend for all those unnecessary hours.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then why are you charging him $59?”

“No, I am not. He was mistaken. Since we didn’t recover anything and he has an extended warranty, we weren’t going to charge him anything.”

The phone was passed back to Mike, and I told him, “The guy says he wasn’t going to charge you for any of this.”

“He’s lying,” Mike said.

“Well, you’re getting back all your money for this non-job,” I replied.

Mike didn’t have to pay. He later told me, “These guys weren’t going to give back a dime if they didn’t speak to you.”

Competing Against Crappy Customer Service at Big Box Brands

What bothers me most about this is the dishonesty. Mike was sold an extended warranty. That is a contract between customer and vendor that if the product becomes defective, the vendor will honor the agreement to maintain the product. It shows the vendor is willing to stand behind its products.

I run my computer business by giving clients the best personalized service possible. Knowledge, skill set, and honesty are my advantage. I am honored when someone has faith and trust in the business I have built to understand I ALWAYS try to do the right thing. I have accepted that the Big Box Brand Chain Store can beat me to submission on price, but never on service.

The Big Box Brand Chain Store should realize an extended warranty is a sign the customer honors your beliefs, and you will do the right thing.  It is not an agreement that “the client was an idiot the first time when we sold him this useless extended warranty and now we know we can charge him for ANYTHING!!!!!” – Sheldon Rozansky

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We’re back with another Blogapalooza post from a student in Max Utsler’s Innovation in Marketing Communications class at the University of Kansas.

Today, Judi Reilly, a seasoned marketing professional, highlights reverse innovation as a way to not only bring new products to first world markets, but to power a March Madness team to victory with a strong contribution off the bench. Stumped for how those two connect? Read Judi’s post and see if you can solve the riddle before the closing seconds of her post! Here’s Judi:

Reverse Innovation – Winning March Madness from the Bench by Judi Reilly

If you are among the millions of rabid basketball fans intrigued by both March Madness and innovative business ideas, take note of something beyond the fast breaks, slam dunks, and buzzer beaters. Look for a dominant force sitting on the bench and leading teams in assists that also happens to be a successful outcome of reverse innovation.

Calling time out to better understand reverse innovation makes solving this riddle easier.

Vijay Govindarajan, considered a superstar on the subject, describes reverse innovation (sometimes called trickle-up innovation) as “any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world” and then introduced in industrial nations with consumer demand and a willingness to pay more for the product.

Successful Stars of the Reverse Innovation Game

There are a variety of successful reverse innovation products more likely to be advertisers than sitting on a March Madness bench that illustrate how developing ideas in the developing world can open up new first world markets:

• GE portable ECG machine – These machines, manufactured in India for $1,000, provide mobility in taking the hospital to the patient. GE subsequently introduced a similar product in the U.S. for use on ambulances.
• Mahindra tractors for small farmers – Mahindra first manufactured these tractors in India to assist poor farmers in tending crops and as a means of transportation. They came to the U.S. targeted at hobby farmers, opening up a new industry category.
• Solar-powered charging unit – Social-conscious entrepreneurs created these products as power stations for multiple cell phones in remote, energy-deprived areas of India. In the U.S., the power products thrilled the audience of tech-savvy, outdoor enthusiasts wanting to remotely charge cell phones and tablets.

A Winning Game Plan for Competitive Reverse Innovation

Previously, reverse innovation was the exception rather than the rule. The phenomenon has now started to capture the attention of multinational corporations seeking to be more competitive. C.K. Prahalad, author of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits,” (affiliate link) provided five early reasons for why developing nations can beat potential challenges to create reverse innovation layups.

1. Product pricing – People in developing countries reject high prices for products from Western markets. Innovation in developing countries requires affordable products to the masses.
2. Cutting to the chase – Developing countries don’t focused on trying to catch up with outdated 20th-century technologies. They embrace “leapfrog” technologies, such as mobile phones and solar energy that are brand new.
3. Service “ecosystems” – Collaboration flourishes more readily between entrepreneurs in developing countries, with start-ups realizing they need each other for survival.
4. Built to last – Third world environments lead to the development of gadgets that stand up to extreme conditions.
5. Don’t spend what you don’t have – With limited financial resources, people in developing countries creatively find alternative and new uses for existing products.

Spot the Omnipresent Reverse Innovation at March Madness Yet?

Now, back to March Madness. Have you spotted the reverse innovation winner on all the competitors’ benches yet?

Here’s one final hint: Rick Newman, a U.S. News.com blogger, says the innovation’s origin dates back to a home remedy mixture of water, sugar and a pinch of salt used in Bangladesh decades ago to battle complications from cholera.

You guessed it! I’m talking about sports drinks, such as category-leading Gatorade and Powerade. They contain a blend of water, carbohydrates, and electrolytes used to rehydrate athletes. In layman’s terms, sports drinks contain water, sugar and salt. Researchers brought the innovation to the U.S. because of consumer need, and it now represents a $4-billion industry.

Until next time, cheer your top pick to the Final Four while pointing out the product of reverse innovation on the sidelines. Score big points with your winning prognostication skills and knowledge of little-known sideline facts. - Judi Reilly 

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic creative thinking and ideas! For an organizational innovation success boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these benefits for you.

      (Affiliate Link)

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Here are three recent branding strategy situations I’ve come upon. Have you experienced any of these three branding situations? If so, how did you react? Or if not, what’s your reaction to them here?

FedEx Office and an Ingredient Branding Strategy

As a Kinko’s customer since grad school and watching FedEx grow its brand portfolio from the a competitor’s vantage point, it was understandable, but sad, when FedEx rolled over the beloved Kinko’s brand, turning it into FedEx Office after its acquisition. FedEx was notorious for a strong master brand strategy (i.e., all its transportation and logistics offerings were FedEx something or other), and the Kinko’s brand fell to its tightly implemented approach. WhileFedEx CHANGED the brand name, its master brand strategy wasn’t successful in getting customers to QUIT SAYING Kinko’s or some hybrid version of the old and new names.

Just this past week, I noticed FedEx Office has addressed the naming issue in the classic Intel way, going the ingredient branding strategy route. An ingredient branding strategy highlights a brand that lives inside another one even though it might not be visible to customers. In this instance, FedEx Office is once again acknowledging the Kinko’s brand as an ingredient of the overall brand experience by recognizing it is “Kinko’s Copying Inside.” It may be a late move (it’s not completely clear when the change first took place or if it’s happened uniformly), but it shows the importance of the willingness to change a brand strategy that’s not working as expected.

Southwest Airlines and Off Brand Advertising

I’m an unabashed Southwest Airlines fan and have written (and tweeted) about the brand several times on Brainzooming, including profiling the Southwest Airlines social media strategy. During the NCAA tournament this weekend, I saw the new Southwest Airlines brand advertising campaign.

In short, I guess you would describe it as an identity campaign trying to help us see how Southwest Airlines understands us or knows what its passengers are going through in their lives. You can watch the ad here and see what you make of it.

I tweeted immediately after seeing the new Southwest Airlines brand advertising campaign that it is off brand. The advertising isn’t fun, personal, or representative of any reasons I choose to fly Southwest Airlines. Perhaps as the brand has had to walk away from its peanut-loving, low-cost airline position it’s still looking for something else.

Interestingly, this was the first time Southwest Airlines has EVER responded to one of my tweets, as shown here.

@brainzooming Sorry it disappoints, Mike!  I’ll still spin plates and juggle fire for you, if you so desire! ^BT

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) March 23, 2013

My reply was it wasn’t really an issue of whether I was disappointed in the ad.

The point is this new Southwest Airlines brand advertising could have come from any other airline. When you look back at previous Southwest Airlines advertising, I cannot remember even once when that was the case. And that, my friends, is not the sign of a brand moving forward.

Making a Big Promise with Your Brand

Finally, how willing is your brand to feature a big brand promise right on your building (You’re Gonna Love This Place!) or in your name (Stellar Books)?

I’m not saying don’t put a big brand promise front and center to continually remind your customers you’re reaching for their highest expectations. But if you’re going to do it, you had better be ready to deliver on your big brand promise no matter what!

How Is Your Branding Strategy Doing?

If you’re new to the idea of branding or struggling to strengthen your brand, contact The Brainzooming Group. We can help you identify and take advantage of your best branding opportunities in new ways! - Mike Brown

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The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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