ICSC European Retail Property School

Marketing Innovation

Alan Thornton

MadisonSoho. London

Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz Hotel Berlin, Germany

• An update on trends

• Why is innovation important… difficult…?

• Some case studies

• Some techniques to become more innovative

• Putting the theory into action

The plan for this afternoon…

• 3 cars…

What car does each one drive?

Trends…

In a world obsessed by ‘best practice’ rather than

‘different practice’, is it any wonder that products,

services and companies are all beginning to look

the same?

Why is innovation important?

Ad example

“A unique shopping experience!”

“Innovation and Creativity are vital to growth”

9 out of 10 people strongly agree

Why is innovation important?

“Do you know how to practice and inspire creativity in your

workplace?”

9 out of 10 people don’t know how

Why is innovation important?

Easy to talk about; hard to do

Seen as important, but usually not urgent

Creativity only becomes innovation when ideas become

useful

Putting innovation into practice

Creative v Analytical

Everyone can be creative

Let’s look at 5 techniques to help

Putting Innovation into practice

Don’t be afraid to

steal good ideas!

• You do the same things every day

• Same route to work, same radio station

• You hang out with people similar to you

• You’re so busy you settle for the first good solution to a

problem

• Your ideas are “incremental” rather than “revolutionary”

Does this sound familiar?

Is there anything in your marketing plan that a competitor

wouldn’t have come up with?

Examples?

What’s the opportunity?

R

Livre, Shopping Leblon, Rio

“Yorkdale is Me”

Yorkdale, USA

R

Presentation Structure

Prime Outlets

Pyjama queue

Fields Stiletto

Run

Digital innovation

Digital Innovation

• We’re all too busy

• No time to question

• Don’t want to upset anyone

• Same people, same skill base, same competitors, same

insights

Why is innovation difficult?

• 3 cars…

What car does each one drive?

The brain’s intuitive filing system seeks order based on

familiarity

The river gets deeper the more familiar we are with it.

How to break away from a “river of thinking”?

River Jumping

Example: Photocopiers

Problem – they get blocked

What else gets blocked?

• Noses

What else about noses?

• 2 nostrils

How about 2 photocopier feeds?

Important: the stimulus doesn’t give you the answer.

River Jumping

Quality of the stimulus has direct impact on the output

A wider source of input is needed: new perspectives,

different theories

“Go where your competitors can’t or won’t go.”

Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop

River Jumping

• Related Worlds

• Re-expression

• Revolution

• Random Links

• Realness

Techniques to River-Jump – The 5 R’s

“Where has my challenge been faced before”

1 - Related Worlds

Related Worlds

Related Worlds

Related Worlds

Related Worlds

Re-describing the situation puts it into a different river

For example…

Loyalty (repeat purchase, greater share…)

Or…

A marriage – courting, a ceremony, trust, public

commitment, legality, pain of divorce

2 - Re-Expression

Re-describe using other senses

For example…

draw the problem

What does the problem feel like?

Re-Expression

Re-express using someone else’s perspective

For example…

- a 5 year old

- an alien

Re-Expression

ELEMENTS – SOUNDWAVE PROJECT

How do you bring

‘eco-friendly’ to life?

How can you re-express

the idea of Christmas?

Totally unrelated ideas as a stimulus

For example…

- Fountain

- New York

3 - Random Links

Ask, “What if…”

• What if we did nothing?

• What if we made it for half the cost?

• What if people bought twice as much?

• What if we reversed the process?

• Exaggerated the issue?

4 - Revolution

What if we

didn’t build a

centre but

used freight

containers

instead?

What if we

made the ugly

building in the

middle of the

scheme the

centre of

attention?

What if we

brought

retail

display into

the mall?

Siam Mall

What if we made

empty shop

windows

something to talk

about?

What if we took the

shop windows out of

the centre?

Vitrine pantanal Shopping, Brazil

What if the poster

site was empty?

What if the ad

broke out of the

poster?

• Bring the idea to life

• Develop a prototype

• Don’t write a report

5 - Realness

Disney’s

Animal

Kingdom

nearly didn’t

get built.

Until…

Disney’s

Animal

Kingdom

nearly didn’t

get built.

Until…

Charlotte

Airport, USA

How to make

McDonald’s new

coffee offer more

real?

Fortnum &

Mason

Honey

Sophie Dahl Matthew Horne

Passion fruit smoothie Hotel Du Vin

Gourmet chicken wrap Mini Cooper

iPhone5

CREATING A BRAND PERSONALITY

Let’s look at some examples…

Ideas need time to take root. Which will grow into a flower

and which one is a weed?

New ideas don’t thrive in a business environment

Brainstorming is fine but he ideas need to be developed

and worked on to thrive.

Greenhousing

SUN - suspend judgement; understand; nurture

RAIN – react, assume, insist

Greenhousing techniques

• An update on trends

• Why is innovation important… difficult…?

• Some case studies

• Some techniques to become more innovative - the 5

R’s

• Putting the theory into action

The plan for this afternoon…

Alan Thornton

MadisonSoho

alan.thornton@madisonsoho.com

+44 7730 816996

Thank-you

Important: Video / Movies