Monthly Archives: May 2016

0 Eight Questions to Help You Identify Innovation

Perhaps innovation is as much about people’s’ perceptions as it is something new in a product or service.  To what extent is innovation a product of brilliant marketing?  Sometimes it’s possible to promote something old in a new way.

Sometimes business owners have a good product or service but take time to understand its market.  They may find they have marketed to the wrong market.  So, they can market an innovation to the new market even though the offer has been around for a while.

If you remember the diagram from my last post, the innovation diffusion curve represents the market for the offer and not the whole world!  The model represents how the market for an innovation works for a relatively large market.  The market is not always huge but even a small market can support a small business so long as it is possible to contact the market.

Here are a few questions you can ask to help you work out what is innovatory about your offer:

Is it better than the status quo?

This question relates primarily to step 4 on the awareness ladder.  This is the stage where the potential customer is aware of your offer and you need to show how your offer is better than other offers addressing the same problem.

The status quo is the solutions to the problem that are already on the market.  You need to show why your innovation is superior, at least for some potential customers.  If it is better for some customers and not so much for others, this will help you target your market.

Occasionally the status quo is a problem your market believes has no solution.  You will be working at rung 1 of the awareness ladder or even rung 0 (where people are not aware of the problem).  Your marketing will need to establish the problem and then show there is a solution to it.

Will people perceive it as better?

People may have a fixed idea of what solves their problem.  If you offer a different solution, they may not perceive it as better.

If people do not perceive it as better, you have a problem.  You perceive it as better but potential customers do not.  This is essentially what an innovation is.  It is introducing a new product or service that changes expectations.  This is why sales can be frustrating, because people resist something new in the face of evidence that it will be better for them.

This is why you need to marshal evidence and understand your offer.  However, it is also important to understand the potential customer.  You need to listen to them and help them decide whether the offer is really for their benefit.

Does it fit with peoples’ past experience?

If it does, it probably isn’t an innovation.  Innovations challenge experience.  This is why the innovation diffusion curve begins with customers who enjoy trying out innovations.  The challenge for many businesses is finding these people in a small market.

Past experience forms the expectations of markets.  Markets do not look for new ways to tackle old problems, unless the old ways are inadequate.  If everyone is reasonably happy with the old ways, few will sacrifice reasonable happiness for delight!

Does it fit with peoples’ current needs?

When old ways are proved wanting, some people seek alternatives.  Sometimes people need a new approach because everything else they’ve tried does not solve their problem.  It can actually be difficult persuading people that there is a solution to their problem.

Or perhaps the problem is new and any solution worth a try!

Does it require a change in existing values?

This is exactly what many innovations offer, a new way of understanding an old problem.  So, organic gardening requires a change in values from the old ways, using chemical fertilizers and poisons.  The point about organic gardening is that people need details of techniques and approaches that substitute for their old approach.  The incentive to learn these new techniques is driven by a change in values.

A household seeking lower fuel bills might opt for solar panels and in so doing, value the environmental benefits.

Sometimes a change in values will drive sales and sometimes sales will drive a change in values.

How difficult is it to understand and apply?

Organic gardening may be a difficult idea to promote because it involves maybe dozens of changes to the way you garden.  However, someone who values organic gardening may be willing to learn and seeking help in various ways.

Something difficult might be perceived as challenging and therefore worthwhile because of the benefits it brings further down the road.  Don’t forget some prospects might value the challenge.

Don’t forget for online offers in particular, a monthly retainer for support can be a big incentive.

Can people “try it out” first?

There are two aspects to this.  Innovators and early adopters (see the innovation diffusion curve) may value an offer that provides benefits for being in at the start.  For early offers, it may be possible to offer a low fee and allow early customers to stay on that fee so long as they continue to support your scheme.

For majority customers, online offers often begin with an first offer of 30 or so days free service.  This enables them to try it out and decide whether they need it.  If the monthly rate includes support, upgrades, etc it can be attractive once the customer believes the product will benefit them.

If people adopt it, can the difference be discerned by others?

This makes a difference where there is a large market.  A visible presence helps make the breakthrough from early adopters to early majority.  If word gets around or the offer has some visible presence, this will enable the wider population to see its value.

Perhaps the most common difference is through word of mouth.  The benefit may be invisible but something people will tell their friends about.

These questions are not mine and I don’t know who first assembled them.  Do you find them helpful?  Are there other questions you might ask?

2 Online Spirituality

Over the last few weeks I’ve explored some aspects of online spirituality.  This is the final round-up and the temptation is to state the obvious.  Spirituality is about relationships and the Internet at its best supports relationships.

However, many people believe spirituality is about our relationships not so much with each other as with God.

We become aware of God’s presence when we pay attention, through our awareness of the world around us.  This is prayer and meditation’s essence.  As we pray, we become aware of what is happening and of how easily we  distract ourselves, allowing our minds to override experience.

There is probably nothing more distracting than the Internet.  Walk down any high street these days and you will encounter dozens of people whose attention is held by their mobile phone or some such device.  We speak to friends, text them, play games, listen or even watch recordings as we walk the streets (or many people do!)

The problem is not the Internet as such but screens.  This was first true of television.  Screens draw the eyes and where eyes focus, so too does attention.

Spiritual traditions have been aware of this for hundreds of years and spiritual techniques such as prayer or meditation, centre on controlling the senses, especially vision, to allow space for attention to focus on the world and not on distractions.

The paradox is spiritual techniques focus on awareness of the material world.  The problem is we often base our lives on how we think the world is, losing track of reality.  Indeed this has become so common it is dofficult to believe there is a reality to focus upon!

Our brains filter everything we perceive.  If our brains did not filter our perceptions, we would be overwhelmed but filtering means we do not always perceive everything around us.

We might call this passive filtering.  We have not made any conscious decisions about what we filter, it is just what happens.

Active filtering is where we adopt a worldview and filter everything to fit it.  Problems start when we equate our filtered world with reality.  This is common among religious people who believe they have the truth and so see everything that way.

This is a stage in faith development and most traditions recognise the need to let go of these prejudices as faith develops.  This progress from certainty to awareness is sometimes called formation.  The idea is you experience it through your chosen tradition.  As you go deeper into your chosen tradition, you find you are able to reach out to others with confidence because your faith is no longer threatened by reality.

The Internet provides us with a great deal of information but it does not give us the means to process it.  The screen itself compels us to consume information and disables our ability to process it.

Like a lot of things, the power of the screen is not so great once we become aware of it.

Techniques

There are things we can do to reduce the power of the screen.  It is not simply “don’t watch it”, that would mean many of us would be unable to run our businesses or take part in modern society.  But here are a few things you can try.  Some are more religious than others but none are specific to any particular tradition:

Screens can be tyrannical but they can be our friends if we use them properly.  They are a portal into the Internet.  Once we break the hold screens have on our minds, we can be more discerning about the content we view on them.

The aim is to be alert to the reality around us, using the Internet to inform and enhance our lives and work.  How do you do this?  How do you make sure you are not driven by the pressures of modern technology but use it to enhance life activity?

0 Hard Evidence

Evidence is wonderful stuff and hard evidence is the best!

When to Display Hard Evidence

The first thing to note is when to share evidence with a prospect.  It is not generally a good idea to introduce evidence too soon.  The early stages of conversation with a prospect is better spent listening to them and establishing what they need.

A website needs to establish its offer and the benefits to the visitor first.  Evidence at this stage should be minimal.  It might be worth displaying an award or trustmark early on a web page.  But at this stage, if you do it at all, point towards evidence but don’t actually supply it.

Why?  Well, there’s little point introducing a prospect to evidence until they are ready to hear or read it.  Evidence introduced too soon may be seen as a hard sell.  It could put the prospect on the defensive.

The best time to present evidence is at stage 4 on the awareness ladder, after you have introduced and explained your offer.  Evidence helps fill in gaps or answer the prospect’s questions.

How to Display Hard Evidence

If there is a lot of detailed information, it should be available to those who are interested.  However, it is usually best if it is available on request.  So, a key paragraph from a report can be quoted on your website, with a link to the full paper.

Most people will note the link but not follow it.  The fact the information is available is enough.  However, be sure the full report supports the details you quote.  There is nothing worse than providing information that contradicts your main account.

If you link to a web page on someone else’s site, keep an eye on it!  If they move the information, you will need to revise the link.

You can provide hard evidence in summary on your website and in your literature.  If you are going to do this, make it accessible.  So, use graphs, charts and diagrams.  You can use key quotes and of course Frequently Asked Questions.

What is Hard Evidence?

Hard evidence is backed by clearly sourced research.  Like everything else it is a matter of judgement.  So, an independent source is usually better than the results of your own research but selectively quoting independent evidence might devalue it, whilst well-designed personal research might carry real persuasive power.  If you are using independent source material, quote from it and offer a link to the original.

There may be other options. Evidence can be considered hard if it is well-researched and ideally independently generated.  It is not always available and so don’t worry if you can’t produce hard evidence, there is always soft evidence to consider.

Have you good examples of using hard evidence in marketing?