Innovation is overused by marketers and often fails

[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”null”]Innovation is overused by marketers and often fails.[/inlinetweet] Your products and services must return to their core essence to reinvent these brands to grow revenue profitably. 

While consumers, customers, and the marketplace changed, most marketers—and most businesses—did not. Many companies still practice marketing the same way today as they did in the 1970s and 1980s, clinging to the old ways of working, seemingly not aware of—and definitely not attuned to—this new age of marketing that places a premium on business acumen, strategy, and communications. By doing so, they miss opportunities to drive profitable revenue and they set themselves up for less than optimum performance—if not outright failure.  Marketing in this new data-abundant, Internet-oriented world order requires more than a shallow or superficial understanding of the customer or consumer—and more than simply “getting on” the new technology.

Time to Reinvent Your Brand

Reinvention is the process by which a brand, its core essence, and its key attributes are examined, and through the rigorous application of market-based data (as well as applied findings and customer and consumer insights), the next phase or evolution of the brand that capitalizes on those qualities and optimizes profitable revenue is determined—all while staying true to the essential core nature of the product or service.

Reinvention begins with understanding just what a product or service is at its core.  Reinvention is not an art, nor is it a science—it’s both. Once the core essence of a brand, product, or service has been determined, it’s necessary to develop the foundation for creating and reinventing the brand.

Reinvention does a product or service no good if it’s not effectively and efficiently conveyed and shared with the key audience—the potential buyer or acquirer of that product or service.  Marketing must demonstrate leadership to ensure that reinvention is not only seen as contributing to the bottom line, but in fact does so successfully. Beyond that, it must continue to contribute time and time again over a long period with ever-increasing efficiency and effectiveness to drive profitable revenue growth.

The key difference between the old and new ways of marketing is that the new way recognizes that marketing must be applied strategically, in the context of today’s technology and data-centered world. The new way also more often than not requires marketers to reinvent their products and services.

“Companies sometimes try to build brand awareness before establishing a clear brand position.  Sell customers what they want to buy. According to Keller, “Companies often promote attributes that consumers don’t care about.” Find unique points of differentiation and focus your marketing on those that others can’t easily copy. “  Find unique points of differentiation and focus your marketing on those that others can’t easily copy.  Never underestimate the power of your essence. Stick to it, no matter what the competition does.

A brand’s core essence is the underpinning for reinvention. All reinvention is based on consumer and customer insights. Reinvention helps uncover dormant and hidden demands and creates products to meet those needs. (Or, saying it more directly, reinvention can “steal” ideas from consumers to successfully exploit existing behavior for commercial gain.) Reinvention can result in sustainable competitive advantages. Most important, reinvention creates profits—at considerably lower risk and less expense than a strategy that is solely innovation driven.