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…
Important: Video / Movies