Generating New Ideas

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Thinking creatively

The ability to be creative, and to think creatively, is an invaluable skill in today’s workplace. It can lead to the development of new products and services, and optimizing business processes. It can lead to marketing campaigns that stand out and really catch the customer’s attention. And, down the line, it can lead to business growth and increased revenues.

Anyone can be creative. However, it’s important to remember that creative thinking doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It’s a skill that needs to be consciously applied, honed, and practiced. When practiced successfully, it can reveal effective and innovative solutions to various types of problems, from marketing communications to operational roadblocks, and it can generate new ideas.

Creative thinking stages

Stage 1: Prepare

In this stage, you research whatever problem you are faced with. Say, for example, you are tasked with promoting a new product line, but aren’t sure what direction to take. Researching this problem might involve doing a factory tour, and reading as much as you can about the product, audience, market, and competitors.

Further your research by reviewing solutions to similar problems. These could be case studies, advertising tag lines, or campaigns. Try to learn and understand as much as you can about the audience, the product, or the problem you are trying to solve. Observe how and why a product is used or might be used. Ask, who are the people who might use it, what are their motivations for using it, why is it useful to them? Find out as much as you can. Immerse yourself in the details.

Stage 2: Incubate

In this stage, you incubate the findings of your research and let them simmer. Start by taking some time to write down exactly what you are trying to achieve and everything you discovered from your research. Read it, then leave it for a while. When you go back, try writing it another way. Then let go again, and let your mind wander: take a walk, take a bath, read, daydream. In short, do something else.

Stage 3: Illuminate

This is the ‘eureka’ stage when all the elements you’ve been mulling over in the previous stage connect together in your subconscious, and an idea forms in your conscious mind. Write your idea down. Remember the mantra, 'write it straight, then write it great'. Just concentrate on getting the idea down on paper so you don’t forget it. Once you’ve safely written it down, leave it alone.

Stage 4: Verify

At this stage, go back to your idea and sense check it against the original problem and verify that it is the correct approach. Critically assess whether it satisfies all elements of the problem you are solving. Ask, will it solve the problem in such a way to give me the result I need? For example, will this slogan drive awareness of my brand? Is the tone right for the audience or market? Will team operations work more efficiently if this solution is introduced? Ask, what are the various outcomes we could expect if we went ahead with this idea? How might the audience engage with the campaign or how would the team adopt this new process?

If, after asking yourself these types of questions, you find that your idea doesn’t solve the original problem, put it aside. Holding on to it could take you down the wrong path and stop you from finding other, possibly better, ideas. It’s better to work on your next idea instead.

Once you’ve settled on an idea, consider: you’ve written it straight, now it’s time to write it great. So take some time to craft and refine the idea, so it can be effectively understood and internalized by your stakeholders – or whoever has the final say on your idea.

Stage 5: Practice

This is where you practice generating ideas using the five-stage process. The more ideas you generate using this process, the faster you get at coming up with better solutions. This, in turn, can help you discount poor ideas early on and reduce the amount of time that’s wasted in following paths of enquiry that lead to dead ends, or are likely to drive less effective ideas. Practice also helps to focus the way you approach problems. As the process gets more familiar, it can help to naturalize creativity in your thinking.