Innovation vs. Cooking

(Scott). Quickie post. I received my monthly copy of Cooking Light magazine yesterday. On the cover was a graphic that proudly exclaimed: "Cooking Light, Celebrating 20 Years of Innovation"

Really? I thought Cooking Light was about cooking? Is "Innovation" really an attribute they can own? I think the graphic should read something like, "Celebrating 20 Years of Good Taste and Great Health", or "20 Years of Intelligent Food" or "Light Mood, Light Food"... messages better aligned with their brand and more "ownable" for Cooking Light.

IMO, this is yet another example of Innovation abuse / dilution.

Brand Personification and Social Networks

(Scott) Had a neat discussion with some colleagues yesterday about how companies should be tapping into social networks (myspace, Facebook, etc.)

Becoming a part of an existing social network is a good way to create connections with your audience; but, what is the right way to represent the company? Should the "face" of the company be the product, the "spokesperson", the brand? What can the public best relate to or connect with?

There are examples everywhere... Burger King has "The King's Court" on myspace. And Will Ferrell's character from Talladega Nights, Ricky Bobby, has his own myspace page (both of whom have more than 100,000 friends). However, search for "Kraft" or "Macaroni and Cheese" and you come up empty. In which case, how should Kraft personify the Mac 'n Cheese brand? Which element of their brand footprint should dominate - the Mother who loves their child, speed and simplicity of meal prep, or the kid who loves extreme flavor?

I'm full of questions today... when should a company become part of a social network? How much do they need to control their presence? Should they shift control to their audience? And, how does one determine how to best personify the brand?

Fun fact of the day: If you want to hear some horrendous music and see some (beware, racy) photos, the most "befriended" profile on myspace is Tila Tequila. She has turned her myspace fame into a fashion line, record contract and modeling work. Amazing how social networks can be used to build a personal brand from the ground up.

The best of times, the worst of times

(Pam) As you know, I'm part of a new innovation department within a big company. It's been tough setting up, as not everyone's convinced of what we do or how valuable it is to the company. But we are making progress - it's almost 4 months since I started, and it's been exhausting, high pressured, challenging and scarey, as well as exhilarating, exciting, inspirational, packed with learning, glamorous, creative and successful.

We've just had the most hectic 2 weeks, and it's the second time this has happened - we do an incredible job on several projects, creating some great new ideas, impressing people and winning friends. But when that happens we invariably have another (smaller set of people) who feel left out, jealous or offended!

As a result our inboxes are crammed with congratulations and complaints! The best of times and the worst of times. I think the old cliche is true about not making omlettes without breaking eggs, but it's such a rollercoaster - from one hour to another - from high to low to high again.

I'm so pleased we have such a tight team as we can support each other through it all! NOw I just have to remember it's not possible to please everyone!

Greatest Innovations of All-Time

(Scott) What are the greatest innovations of all-time? Businessweek and the Doblin Group ventured to define the list... http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2007/id20070216_377845.htm

Believe it or not, no iPod, mini-skirts, polyester or Cheetos on the list. They're thinking much bigger. It's the kind of list that provokes a little banter. So, what do you think? What is on the list that does not fit? What is not on the list that should be there?

Here's the first few entries:

1. Weapons
2. Mathematics and the number zero
3. Money
4. Printing
5. Free markets and capital markets
6. Domesticated animals and agriculture
7. Property ownership
8. Limited liability
9. Participatory democracy
10. Anesthetics and surgery

A Cultural Movement? Don't believe the hype.

I just read this article on how marketing firm, Strawberry Frog, helped Microsoft create a "Cultural Movement" for its Accounting software.

They basically created a website www.ideawins.com (which I mentioned way back in 2006), and an accompanying campaign to solicit business ideas... the winner receiving a NY storefront and some monetary support.

More than one thousand ideas were submitted... but is this really a "Cultural Movement"? It's early here, so maybe I'm just cranky, but this strikes me as unbelievable BS. They created a website, TV ads, and posters. Does that constitute a "Cultural Movement"? To me, it just sounds more like "Marketing".

A "Cultural Movement" is something that fundamentally changes the behavior of large numbers of people; that impacts or changes lives; that alters the social landscape. Fact of the matter is that Strawberry Frog's ideawins campaign will fade away as do 99.9% of marketing campaigns... and that is not a movement.

To help Strawberry Frog comprehend their hyperbole, what are some examples of recent Cultural Movements? I'd start with portable music, blogging, open source... not a campaign for accounting software. This kind of hyperbole is bad for the innovation space.

Innovation Series on CNBC

Innovation is so darn buzz-y that CNBC has created an entire series on Innovation, with an accompanying website, and guru, Roger Schank.

Check out http://innovation.cnbc.com for videos, stories and all kinds of examples of "innovation"... and see if you think they've done the subject justice (contributed to the understanding of innovation) or simply jumped on the bandwagon.

Price = Value

There is a new coffee spot in my town called Terra Bites... with one very unique feature: no posted prices. You pay as much or as little as you like into a small, metal box.

I've talked to the manager, who figures they make about 80 cents on the dollar (of say, Starbucks prices).

Does this type of pricing policy make sense? Are people good at "valuing" the goods they consume?

And, would this kind of pricing approach work in the service business? Could a hotel ask that you pay whatever the stay was worth to you? Or, could a consulting company ask that you pay for the perceived value of their services? How would that change the way these businesses provide service to the customer? I think it would result in an even more intense customer-focus and more relevant results.

Hard truths of management

(Adam) I have been doing some work on developing my companies offer and looking at a range of sources, some academic, some from the real world and came across this:

http://www.f-laws.com/

Rusell Ackoff is a Wharton professor and outlines some simple truths/ laws that organisations often end up submitting to. It makes for interesting reading and i am sure that we will all see behaviours we have either experienced or been guilty of ourselves. There is a free short pdf that you can download and have a look through.

What's wrong with this De Bono picture?

(Pam) My team and I paid a small fee to attend an overview of De Bono techniques with an experienced De Bono trainer from the US. We had been told to expect a 3 hour workshop with these techniques, but what we got was a 1 hour formal powerpoint presentation giving the names of the techniques with no details whatsoever - a thinly disguised sales pitch that we paid to attend! What made it all the more galling were several details that totally compromised everything I've learned in the last years working in enhancing the creativity of groups.

The presenter/trainer/facilitators were wearing sharp, blue suits with ties, the "workshop" was a formal powerpoint presentation with no participation or interaction, set up like a lecture theatre. The presenter asked the audience for some creative responses at one point, then proceeded to say that most were wrong and one was correct! I believe that divergent thinking is one of the main principles of creativing good ideas...

Finally he ended his presentation by summing up the following "trends":
- technology is changing the way we work and making innovation happen faster
- people's lives are faster these days
- the population is getting older
If those count as trends then "consumers want value for money" is an insight!!!!

He also mentioned that it's relatively easy running workshops in an organisation - but harder to change the actual culture - without giving any points on how to change the culture. I felt so patronised at the end, and angry for wasting our time. To make matters worse, when I complained, in a polite yet strongly worded email, they responded by asking if their sales person could come and see us to discuss our needs! We don't have needs! We are already 7 years ahead of these people, if not more.

Anyhow - just a rant from me. And to give you the same test he gave us:

What's wrong with this picture (of a lightbulb moment).

Our answers:
It's a man
He's in a suit
He's alone
This is a powerpoint presentation
There are only white people on the slide (there were 3 pictures like this).

But he said no - what's wrong with this picture is that the lightbulb has no powersource (to an analogy of creativity needing a power source to feed it). We all know - all of those answers are right - and if he was clever enough, all of the answers would have proved his point as well.