Anchor your positioning through innovation
The sky is the limit.... One of those phrases that slightly gives me the creeps, but which at the same time I have certainly been guilty of at times. Especially in the days when I was still working on the creative side, before entering the research profession.
Creativity is a magical thing. It lifts you up and takes you to unprecedented heights. Sometimes so high that your initial goals turn into little dots and creativity becomes the end in itself. Similarly with innovation. Boundaries are often seen as barriers to innovation and creativity. Instead, I see boundaries as the way to give creativity the right platform to successfully innovate.
Delineating innovation, how do you do it?
Wouldn't it be easy if there were guidelines to delineate the latitude of innovation and steer creativity in the right direction? At Blauw, we found those guidelines in the principles of How Brands Grow.
According to the How Brands Grow principles, brand growth is the result of optimal physical and mental availability. This mental availability is created by claiming the right moments(category entry points: CEPs) and giving substance to them with recognizable brand elements(distinctive brand assets: DBAs).
As an example, consider 4 o'clock.... I would bet a lot that you are thinking about Cup a Soup right now. Try again, think of a yellow M.... Can you hear the kids in the back seat yelling McDonalds already? This is not a sample of mind reading, this is the result of two brands consistently handling moments and recognizable brand elements.
The principles of How Brands Grow are often applied to communications, but are of just as much value to Marketing & Innovation. Indeed, I believe that by innovating from moments and respecting recognizable brand elements, you further anchor brand positioning. Magnum is a great example of this.
The brand is portrayed as the ultimate guilty pleasure. Decadent and sexy. A delicious ice cream, but also one you don't eat every day. That stands in the way of brand growth. So work to do. From the classic ice cream on a stick, new moments have been claimed. For the moment when you need a little more adventure, there are the exciting flavors. For the moment when you don't just want to enjoy it together there is scoop ice cream and for the moments when you don't feel like ice cream there is chocolate. Consistent within all these products is the color and shape language of the brand: the golden circle, brown colors, crackling chocolate. I especially like the latter detail on the scoop ice cream. Each of these products anchors the brand positioning.
So when innovating, always ask yourself: is the moment I am capitalizing on relevant to my brand and is my brand sufficiently recognizable?
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Marketing Strategy
A strong and future-proof marketing strategy puts the consumer at the center. Increase your success from understanding consumer behavior and needs within your category
