Many marketers and would-be innovators often make a fatal mistake. I call it the “it’s just” mistake. They look at their product category and see a dearth of innovation and little growth and they assume that there are no growth opportunities because people – consumers – don’t care much about those products. These products are, supposedly, commodities. Maybe we’re talking about paper clips. Or nails. Whatever.
This is a big mistake. One of my favorite quotes on the matter comes from a consultant / agency guy named George Carey at Just Kid Inc. George said to me “there’s no such thing as a low involvement category, there’s only bad marketing.” He gave the examples of Zoopals paper plates. They’re just paper plates! What could be more boring than that? But Zoopals turned them into a game of sorts. This is innovation.
Imagine if the guy who said “but it’s just silicone, who would care about that” was allowed to have the final word. Strip clubs and Hollywood would be so much more boring!
Think about products that are considered cool today. Fashion. Macs and iPhones… Well, there’s no law of nature that says clothing has to be cool. At it’s core, it is a functional product as much as paper. But people had the idea to turn clothing from a functional protection from the elements and the prying eyes of other people to a fashion item. Same with computers and the like. There’s no law of nature that says the thing you use to talk to other people must be cool. But they are. Why? Because there were marketers and innovators who had a vision. Who invested themselves into creating coolness around these products.
It is easy to look at product categories that are “high-involvement” today and imagine that ever was it so. But that is simply not the case. And if you work in a product category that is sleepy and boring, my advice to you is to simply refuse to accept that nonsense. Find a way to make it interesting. To add value.
How can you do that? Well, bring me on as your innovation consultant! But here are some thought-starters:
- Bring design into it. And I don’t (just) mean make it look cool or pretty. I mean think about how people use the product. Does it make sense? Can you streamline or make the experience dramatically better?
- Add benefits. Water is water right? Well can you add flavor? How about vitamins?
- Tie it to people’s values. Give a portion of your proceeds to a charity.
- Do some crazy shit. That’s a technical marketing term people. And I wouldn’t rely on this too much, but stunts can really help make your product interesting.
Alright, that’s enough for now. But please take away this message: you can find a way to make anything interesting and innovate in any area. If only you can dream it… [I really wanted to end on a cheesy saccharine note. Because I just felt like it.]
