My favourite quote about innovation probably pre-dates the internet.
“Innovation is the wrong person using the wrong product for the wrong purpose.”
I can’t attribute it to anybody because I can’t find it on Google. My memory tells me that I read it in Wired Magazine circa 1999 and it was said by Tom Peters or Peter Drucker, or someone like that.
I like this way of thinking about innovation, because sometimes it’s not brought about through an internal business process or an imaginative leader, it’s forced upon you by customers or users.
The other reason I like this innovation quote is that it reminds us of the importance of data. In order to innovate you need to understand who your real customers are and what they are doing with your product or service.
Who is your customer? Really?
Try typing ‘Meetup and Witches’ into a search. I’m fairly sure that when Meetup was created, Witches were not one of the target buyer personas.
There is still a tendency for Brand Managers and Product Managers to think about themselves when making decisions rather than going back to basics and focusing on a data driven buyer persona. There is also a tendency to imagine customers as being ‘cooler’ or more desirable than they really are.
While there is nothing wrong with marketing to the customers you want, rather than the customers you have, unless it is your written strategy, this behaviour can cost a lot of time and money.
Several years ago I worked with the ‘American Le Mans Series. The marketing folks believed that their fans, their customers, drove Ferraris, drank French wine and ate cheese on crackers at the racetrack. The reality, which could be seen by walking through the car-park or standing with the real fans by the side of the trace, is that they were more likely to drive a pick-up truck, drink American beer and eat burgers.
The brands that are winning are the ones that know who their customer is. They don’t have a gut feeling or an intuition or an aspirational idea about who their customer is. They have quantitative and qualitative data about what phones they have, who they follow on social media, where they live and how they feel.
What are your customers doing? Really?
Any politician will be able to tell you that there is a big difference between what someone says they will do or what they think versus what they actually do. So you need the data.
How do Netflix and Hula make decisions to cancel shows? They know what people are watching. They know how many episodes, they know if something is fast-forwarded or paused. They know that some people watch Fox News when they tell their friends that they watch CNN.
Retailers with Ecommerce sites know more about what customers are buying than retailers with offline offers only. Amazon is using this data to offer Amazon branded ‘White label’ versions of Best Sellers.
There are a lot of businesses who are using Instagram for Marketing because anecdotally, there are more people using Instagram than Facebook or other digital channels. Test it. Look at your analytics and get the facts. Don’t invest marketing budget in a channel that delivers the wrong customers or none.
Pro Tip – You don’t have to be a Netflix or an Amazon to use data to make good decisions. Test, using free tools or make an investment in trials to get you data.