THE INNOVATIVE SKILL SET: WHY IS EXPERMINTATION IMPORTANT

THE INNOVATIVE SKILL SET: WHY IS EXPERIMENTATION IMPORTANT?

            In the social media era, creating new content is critical. To do this you have to be innovative. Experimentation creates new and innovative products and content.  To create new brands, sometimes you have to stop and approach something from a different direction. A working prototype is built to see if the rendition is workable.

            Examples of experimentation to create new products are the car industry. In 1908, Henry Ford had an idea that went against the grain from conventional thinking. There were many renditions of the automobile. The conventional wisdom was that the car would be powered by an electrical engine. This created great cost. The cost made it impossible for the average American to own a car.

            To coin a phrase, Ford had a better idea. Henry Ford understood that the car market had to revolve around an average buyer. To construct a car for the average American would be the key to success in the car business. Ford understood that the person who devised a car for working people would create the dominate brand in that space. Ford understood that the only way to create a car like this, a car “for the masses” would be to create a car with oil driven car. Oil was the new type of fuel. Most people in 1908 did not think that oil was a reliable for m of energy. How to change people’s minds? How to create a car brand that runs on oil? EXPERIMENT.

            Ford fought with his investors. Finally, he was able to get the funding he needed to create a prototype engine. The engine was experimented with, and a working model was created.  How to brand the car?

            In his early years, Henry Ford was a champion race car driver. Henry Ford entered his car in a race at Grosse Point, Michigan. It was an important race. He won that race. He demonstrated to everyone that an oil driven car was the means by which the automobile could be constructed for the average individual.

            Recently, Alan Mulally, the C.E.O. of Ford has repositioned the modern auto industry. Mr. Mulally understood better than other auto executives that social media is a central part of an average American’s life. He understood that an average American spends a great deal of their time in their cars. Most cars are not equipped for a driver to bring their social media devices and platforms into a car and interact and still safely drive their cars.  In talking with parents, and being one himself, Mr. Mulally understood that texting was a real problem. He tasked his engineers with finding a solution.

            Ford’s engineers started to experiment with texting and social media to find ways that devices can be plugged into a car’s operating system.  They invented a technology that allows a driver to come into a car, plug in their phones and speaking devices, and speak as they drive.  This is a texting technology. Instead of taking your eyes off the road, a driver texts into his device as they drive.

            Through experimentation, the modern automobile has been redefined from a transportation device into a social media device. Through experimentation, Mr. Mulally rebranded the car into something that has more relevance to the average American.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com  

INNIOVATION SKILL SET: WHAT IS OBSERVATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

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            An All-Pro NFL linebacker and a world class social media marketer have one thing in common. To be successful, both have to “read their keys”. In football, a linebacker will observe only certain players. That will tell him where the next play will be run. The same way is true in social media marketing.

            The “player” that a marketer keys on in this analogy is your customer and the “key” that you read in order to be successful is how a customer uses your product.  To be a successful marketer you have to be innovative. A major key in being innovative is your ability to observe your customer. Observation is best described by that immortal, Dr. Yogi Berra, “You can see an awful lot just by watching”. This is a prescient observation about what observation is. You watch to see how your customer uses your product. This will give you keen insights in how to improve or market your product.

            A marketer who has done this is Kelly Rowland, the singer.  As I write this article in August of 2011, Ms. Rowland is having great success. The reason why Ms. Rowland’s brand is so successful is because she observed her fans. She “keyed” on them. Her fans have given Ms. Rowland great insight into what they want. Ms. Rowland is a humble woman, but she is a keen marketer. How she has marketed her music is a benchmark to be followed in the marketing of any product.

            Ms. Rowland’s strategy started with a plan and a goal. Her goal was to become the top brand in R&B. She then observed and keyed on her fans to get an insight on how to do this. She observed what music they were buying and what artists lead her genre. She observed that the leading genre of R&B is dance music.

            Ms. Rowland’s observations of her fans made her realize that she had to redefine her brand.  Ms. Rowland’s observation made her become innovative. Ms. Rowland has had success in her career. She has won Grammy’s. Her success was in blues R&B and Gospel. After observing her fans, she realized that to become a player in music, she would have to be innovative.  She realized that she would have to become edgier in both music and in her stage appearance. She would have to become a “new Kelly”.  How to do this?

            Again, the principal is, first observation and then creating a brand through innovation. This is how Ms. Rowland innovated. She sang a duet with a well-known rapper known for edgy lyrics.  However, in the video, the rapper never appears with Ms. Rowland. The lines he sings in the song are very few. By doing it this way, the song “belonged to Kelly”. The video and the song took off.

            Ms. Rowland was innovative in her way of marketing the song. She used YouTube. This is a free sight. The song and video was stylish and edgy. The song took off. Social media is viral. Soon the people were taking the video and song and posting to their friends through social media sights.

            YouTube was an innovative choice for Ms. Rowland. The sight has a “comment” section. She could see first- hand how fans were reacting to the song. She could see how the fans responded to her. She then started giving interviews on video and putting them on YouTube next to the video.  She could answer fan questions in real time, and build a following.

This building of a following was important. The dance R&B is a crowded space. Through an innovative use of YouTube, Kelly observed just when the best time to release her album. When it was released it was No. 3 in the first week.

To create a great brand, first you observe your customers, and then you innovate.  Dr. Yogi Berra best describes the process of observation and innovation, “It ain’t over to till it’s over… and then it ain’t over”.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com

THE INNOVATOR'S SKILL SET; WHAT IS ASSOCIATION?

               Innovation is the ability to confront a new set of circumstances and to create a solution in real time. An example would be watching a football game on television. A team has spent an entire week preparing for a certain game. The opposing coach comes out with a new formation. Innovation occurs when the first team figures out a way to offset this new set of circumstances. Innovation is changing the game plan in real time and off-setting your opponents surprise. Innovation is a critical skill set to have in the era of social media. Social media creates scale. The ease of use that social media affords is both a great asset, but also a great liability. A marketer in the social media age needs great skills in branding, redefining, and repositioning products.

In social media, great amounts of content are being created overnight. This means that new products and new brands are constantly making their appearance in the market place. When a new brand appears, how does a conventional marketer create a branding strategy to off-set this new product?                        Association is the ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields. Association may also be described as the “Medici” effect. This refers to the creative explosion brought on by the Medici family in Florence, when the Medici’s brought together the creative energy of sculptors, painters, scientists, poet, philosophers, and architects. As these individuals connected, new ideas blossomed at the intersection of their respective fields, bringing on the Renaissance, one of the most inventive eras in World History.

            To understand how association works, you have to understand how the brain works.  The brain works more like a Google search engine, than it does a dictionary. Google search is about your conventional experience with a word. If you Google “Red Sox”,  you might get many hits concerning Fenway Park or the history of April of 1912. In contrast, if look up “Red Sox” in a dictionary, you would get a straight definition of what socks, and not sox,  is.The more diverse our experience and knowledge the more connections the brain can make. The more connections we can make, the more innovative we can be. This is why reading and being aware of the world around us is a critical thing for a social media marketer. Fresh inputs trigger new associations;  this leads to new, fresh and unusual ideas. As Steve Jobs has said, “creativity is connecting things”. The world’s most innovative companies prosper by capitalizing on the divergent associations of their founders.

            Associating is like a mental muscle that can grow stronger by exercising. Innovation is created by exercising our minds and our imaginations.  As innovators engage in these behaviors, they build their ability to generate ideas that can be recombined in new ways.  The more frequently people attempt to understand, categorize, and store new knowledge, the more easily their brains could naturally and consistently make, store, and combine associations.

            Innovation is critical as Africa attempts to create a middle class market economy. In an era of social media, of fast, easy to use telecom networks, entrepreneurs can come to Africa. By using innovation these entrepreneurs can quickly create content that has a strong market and create middle class jobs for Africans.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com