Who invented the mountain bike? A big bike company? No, it was invented by a group of bicycle users (consumers) that were frustrated with the existing road bikes. Charles Leadbetter speaks about how ordinary people, rather than large companies can innovate in this video.
Mr. Leadbetter mentioned that often consumers are ahead of the producers in developing innovations because: 1) There is much uncertainty that exists when radical innovations affect many people. There is a greater need for innovation for this uncertainty, and consumers/users are quicker and more adept to identify and find methods to deal with this uncertainty. 2) Users are the source of big disruptive innovations. Large companies rely too much on past success. I had posted earlier, this will create the downfall for many big companies. His example of rap music clearly illustrates that form of music would have been difficult as an invention by large companies. 3) Many of the users are passionate about their product/service and are willing to work on developing new innovative product/service during their leisure time and completing this to a high standard. These people possibly feel bored at work, and focus their energy on their passion.
As I had posted earlier here and here, there is a battle between open-source innovation (usually crowd-sourced, grassroots) versus closed-source innovation (traditionally large companies). Many of the large companies have tried to stifle the open-source innovators that engage in interactive and collaborative activities. Mr. Leadbetter thinks that an emerging trend will dissolve the differences between closed-source and open-source innovation, as it will no longer be clearly defined. For example, as I had posted earlier about the use of developer tools on existing websites such as Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, where the users are able to develop their own tools and widgets with resources and platforms such as a developers’ kits (API) that are provided from these sites.
This video corroborates the findings in my posting about the eight emerging trends for businesses. Crowdsourcing and collaboration are all future trends in innovation. It turns users into producers, and consumers into designers. Being able to have a mix between the traditional and emerging sources of innovation enables a structure to be in place, but also dynamic in identifying and designing products/services to improve the lives of the consumer.
In an earlier post, I had written about ten traits of creative people. The author of that list, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, had written a book on the psychology of Flow, that is, when one is faced with a task/project, he/she is able to draw from his/her highest level of skills to tackle this difficult challenge. When people are in the state of flow, time almost disappears, this is when the mind is working and one becomes “in the zone.” Or as he is quoted as, “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.“
More from Dr Csikszentmihalyi,
“For instance, the fact that you were completely immersed in what you were doing, that the concentration was very high, that you knew what you had to do moment by moment, that you had very quick and precise feedback as to how well you were doing, and that you felt that your abilities were stretched but not overwhelmed by the opportunities for action. In other words, the challenges were in balance with the skills. And when those conditions were present, you began to forget all the things that bothered you in everyday life, forget the self as an entity separate from what was going on—you felt you were a part of something greater and you were just moving along with the logic of the activity.
Everyone said that it was like being carried by a current, spontaneous, effortless like a flow. You also forget time and are not afraid of being out of control.“
This article discusses the feeling of being in the state of flow, as well as how to get into the state of “flow.” Daily mundane activities as well as a fear of others’ opinions can stifle one’s ability to be in the state of flow.
When students experience procrastination, they experience the state of flow far less than those that did not. In a study conducted by Eunju Lee, a research from South Korea, found the following:
“Lee summarized his findings like this, “The more students procrastinate in doing their academic work, the less likely they are to experience flow state in the learning processes . . . students who did not have clear goals, did not concentrate on the task at hand and had high self-consciousness showed high procrastination tendencies” (p. 12). Lee then laid out the potential implications of these results for educators in helping students define clear goals, concentrate and not be excessively self-conscious.
Finally, Lee focused on the subscale that he found related most highly to procrastination, namely self-consciousness. “High procrastinators were more likely to be concerned with what others may been thinking of them, how they were presenting themselves, and about their performance during the learning process” (p. 13).“
Do you all get into the state of flow on occasion?
For me, I need to be exposed and be involved in novel experiences. There needs to be sufficient challenge, and the feedback needs to be positive, whether it involves learning or doing a physical activity. In the case of learning, it could be learning a new concept, and it simply clicks in one’s mind, and all connections and tangential ideas all make sense, consequently, the concept of time disappears.
Up into this point, I have written mainly about business topics. Today, I will comment on a sociological issue with the adolescence in America. This morning I came across an interesting article from the New Yorker magazine about teenage pregnancies. The article quotes a bunch of statistics that seem to indicate that the red states have a higher percentage for teen pregnancies, divorces, and STDs. I think the danger of statistics is that it can be easily manipulated to favor one point of view over another. The article does make some very good points from some sociologists for this phenomenon.
Many social conservatives advocate abstinence until marriage, and they do not believe in teaching contraception and the transmission of STDs. Social liberals on the other hand, mostly believe in education about prevention and providing enough information for children to make an informed decision.
Apparently many social conservatives do not attend church regularly, and the temptation to practice abstinence becomes more difficult. Part of the reasons for the higher incidence of teen pregnancies for social conservatives is because of the lower usage of birth control and abortion. Since many social conservatives tend to marry younger, financial problems is usually the center of many marital disputes, and thus, the divorce rate is higher.
Abstinence pledges seem to work if there is less than 30% of the peer group has pledged. If the percentage of pledged is greater, abstinence no longer becomes special for the teen.
Here is a quote from the article that mentions that in addition to the differences between social conservatives and liberals, socioeconomic status also plays a role, too.
“Some of these differences in sexual behavior come down to class and education. Regnerus and Carbone and Cahn all see a new and distinct “middle-class morality” taking shape among economically and socially advantaged families who are not social conservatives. In Regnerus’s survey, the teen-agers who espouse this new morality are tolerant of premarital sex (and of contraception and abortion) but are themselves cautious about pursuing it. Regnerus writes, “They are interested in remaining free from the burden of teenage pregnancy and the sorrows and embarrassments of sexually transmitted diseases. They perceive a bright future for themselves, one with college, advanced degrees, a career, and a family. Simply put, too much seems at stake. Sexual intercourse is not worth the risks.” These are the kids who tend to score high on measures of “strategic orientation”—how analytical, methodical, and fact-seeking they are when making decisions. Because these teen-agers see abstinence as unrealistic, they are not opposed in principle to sex before marriage—just careful about it.”
As I had mentioned earlier, there is the danger of statistics, but the article presents some persuasive arguments in sexual education for teens. I think presenting a multitude of view points as well as information for these adolescents can only enable them to make a better decision.
Noted researcher for design for Nokia Phones, Jan Chipchase, has traveled around the world using various research methods such as focus groups and ethnography to observe how people use their mobile phones. I had posted in earlier posts here and here regarding the demographics, psychographics and some design issues of the mobile phone as well as its prominence as the next big media, and in so displacing the internet. However, all my earlier postings related to mobile phone use in North America.
In one of Mr. Chipchase’s trips, he visited Uganda, and the usage of the mobile phones is quite different than in North America. As Uganda can be considered as a third-world country, its banking infrastructure is quite rudimentary compared to North America. Since banks and ATMs are sparsely scattered, obtaining money is a cumbersome process. Through grassroots innovation, a connection between the exchange of telephone cards with cash was forged. Suppose one wanted to send some money from a major center like Kampala to a someone living in a village. That person would buy a telephone card, call a person in the village that has a mobile phone (who acts as both a phone operator and a bank in some instances), and exchanges the telephone card number. Of course, by obtaining the telephone card number, the person with the mobile phone can make more telephone calls. This person would take 10-20% commission as an intermediary, and give the remaining cash (from bartering the telephone card number) to the intended person.
It is certainly interesting how the mobile phone can be used differently than here in North America. In the end, universally, the mobile phone transcends space and time. It transcends space by the ability for the user to make a telephone call, and it transcends time by the ability of the user to receive/send text/voice messages at their convenience.
In my opinion, with the emergence of the mobile phone as the next medium, as well as the emergence of grassroots innovation, the possibilities to bring about positive change in people and their communities is endless.
During the past few years, Apple has transformed itself from the days of the Apple II to being a hip, cool, and design-friendly brand. Part of this success was predicated from their strong branding messaging as shown with the iPod advertising campaigns.
This article by prominent blogger, Eric Karjaluoto, discusses the flaw in Apple’s latest advertising strategy. Mr. Karjaluoto had made reference about Apple once being and acting like the brand challenger (especially during the iPod advertising campaigns), and because it has grown significantly, it is maybe a stretch to still view Apple as a brand challenger. Microsoft due to its ineffectual ads has been criticized for not being able to relate to its customers. It is a brand leader and certainly acts like one due to its slow reactions to market trends.
In the book “Eating the Big Fish” by Adam Morgan, it discusses how brands need to think and act like the challenger brand. Symptomatic of the brand leader mantra, brands become complacent. The latest Mac vs PC ads from Apple seem to reflect Apple acting like the brand leader, and not playing to its strengths, and Microsoft is able to capitalize on this mistake and act as a Brand Challenger to combat this. Mr. Karjaluoto’s article showed several examples of Apple and Microsoft ads.
I agree with the analysis of the article that Apple’s advertising strategy should focus on their brand strength – its sleek designs and user friendly interface. Here is an example of an ad I think is effective for Apple:
Is it possible that musical artists get paid to drop advertisers’ names in their song lyrics? Well, according to this article from Wired.com, it is possible. There are numerous instances of songs that name-drop brands. For example, Black Eyed Peas has a song called “My Humps” and Fergie, the lead singer, mentions the brands, “Dolce and Gabana,” “Fendi,” and “Donna Karan.”
The agency that is promoting this is also involved with product placement in music videos, which is quite common. Like music videos, in movies, product placement is quite rampant. For example, in the movie “Castaway”, starring Tom Hanks there were numerous mentions of Fed-Ex.
As the possibilities of media placement increase, advertisers/marketers feel the need to venture into a new medium. I feel there is a balance that borders between awareness and intrusiveness. Consumers are bombarded on a daily basis with numerous ads from numerous mediums. In my opinion, inserting brands into song lyrics or in movie scripts is quite intrusive. Although it is not nearly as horrible as subjecting school children to advertising in schools. Often people that enjoy a certain movie or song, may remember the lyrics or a particular line, and I feel that brand dropping is rather irritating in those instances. For product placement in movies or music videos, it is becoming the norm. However, again, there needs to be a delicate balance in showing the product.
What do you all think? Where should the line be drawn? Is placing brand names in songs or even movie scripts intrusive?
I’ve been writing on this blog since August of this year, and the raison d’etre for this blog was for me to learn and understand the current and upcoming trends in advertising as well as to explore some of my other interests in psychology, anthropology, sociology, management and operational issues in business.
I’m in the midst of changing my career from from product management/forecasting/pricing to advertising. I’m trying to learn as much as possible about the profession of Account Planning.
In addition to contributing to this blog regularly, I’m reading several books about advertising. Here are ones I have already read:
Does anyone have any other recommended readings? Do you all think this is the best way to learn more about Account Planning? For those who have been following my blog, which stories or articles resonate with you?
As this is the election season, both those words can be loaded. Social liberals are stereotypically casted as people that like to embrace new experiences, changes, and are open to new ideas. Social conservatives are stereotypically people that like to keep traditions.
Psychologist Jonathan Haight, from the University of Virginia, explores the psychology behind these two groups. In his research, he examines five moral areas: fairness/reciprocity; harm/care; in-group/loyalty; authority/respect; and purity/sanctity.
Fairness is about ensuring people all of all backgrounds have fair justice opportune to them. Harm is ensuring the weak and oppressed are protected. Loyalty is ensuring that no matter the conditions, there is utmost loyalty among groups. Authority ensures there is societal semblance to societal norms and that deviant behaviors are discouraged. Finally, for purity, it is to ensure that society maintains a certain level of decency.
People that were socially liberal generally had high care and fairness moral scores, and these two scores were even higher than the socially conservatives. Despite the slightly lower care and fairness scores, the socially conservatives placed a very high emphasis on the authority, loyalty and purity moral scores, and placed these values significantly higher than social liberals.
Looking at cross countries and cultures, this is true for most around the world. In the Eastern Asian cultures, there is less variance in the authority, loyalty and purity moral scores among socially liberal and conservatives versus North American and European scores.
Certainly this explains the voting patterns among socially liberals and socially conservatives and the differences in ideologies for the various political parties and their supporters. I was hoping a third group would be studied, the Libertarians. There seems to be a rise in this third group, as evidenced by the strong Ron Paul supporters.
In the 1980s there was a shift to globalization, in which a Western or Japanese firm would go to a low cost center (e.g. China, Malaysia, Brazil, etc.) that had inexpensive labor rates, set-up operations, and have these businesses export goods to their home countries. This was the modus operandi that was pervasive throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. However, there is a shift from globalization to globality, which firms from developing countries compete with the Western and Japanese firms in the global markets, according to an interview conducted by Knowledge at Wharton of Hal Sirkin, senior partner and Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group.
For every threat, there is an opportunity. These firms will challenge everyone from everywhere for everything. Everything refers to not just products/services but also raw materials, intellectual captal and human talent. The Western firms need to adapt and compete by the different rules. This rise in globality is attributable to different regions of the world having different capabilities and costs. An example of globality was when Lenovo, a Chinese multinational bought IBM in order to compete more effectively in the developed world, and to acquire new capabilities including intellectual capital and human talent.
For companies that operate in low costs centers such as China and India, these firms need to observe and learn how the world’s best function. These multinational firms from the West and Japan may eventually compete in their local markets. This is also a reality in Western countries and Japan, companies that compete locally need to be cognizant of the emerging multinational as discussed in the previous example of Lenovo. A realization is needed that the old business model of one-way street competition (globalization) has transformed to the two-way street competition (globality) model.
Between China and India, there are already 2.5 billion people. In addition to the sheer size of the market, the economies of both countries are expanding at a rapid pace. People that were in abject poverty are moving into the consumer market. As a result, in the next 20 years, there will be a billion new people that will enter into the consumer market.
Of course to understand the behaviors and the motivations of the consumer, it is a necessity to set up operations in those locations. This extends to both the Western and Emerging multinationals. Each one now has similar challenges in understanding their local markets respectively. Rather than using a U.S. or China centric approach, blend both approaches together and take the best from each.
Here is a quote from the interview regarding the blending of both approaches:
“They’re blending the best of the East and the West and saying, “I’m okay being a high-cost competitor in some places because it’s worth it. I can charge the right price and learn the right skills. I don’t have to be just a low-cost competitor.” And they’ve done an excellent job of blending who they are.“
I think that it was only a matter of time that firms that were principally based in emerging low cost centers would eventually expand their capabilities to compete internationally. When globalization occurred, as Western multinationals set-up businesses in these locales, some of their capabilities were being mimicked by local businesses. Once perfected, they competed internationally. First it was the Japanese, then it was the Koreans and now it is the Chinese. In the future, it would be the Indians, Brazilians and others. In my opinion, there won’t be any borders that separate businesses, as both Western and Emerging firms purchase other firms in various places around the world, it has changed the environment of business in both developed and developing countries.
The web has been in existence for less than 5000 days according to this video is from Kevin Kelly, executive editor at Wired Magazine. He posed a rhetorical question that if people were to look introspectively 10 years ago, whether anyone would have predicted the emergence and pervasiveness of the internet. Therefore, the first lesson of the web is people “Have to get better in believing the impossible.”
With the emergence of convergence in technologies (IPTV, Mobile phones, etc.), he likens all these devices to be one giant machine that uses 5% of the world’s electricity with no downtime. The complexity of this giant machine is similar to the human brain, except every two years, the brain does not double its power. In the next 5000 days. this machine will go through change in its embodiment, restructuring and codependency. As posted in an earlier posts here, here,here and here mobile phones and other devices with screens are on the cusp of convergence. Many computer applications that were exclusively in the realm of the computer hard drive now have presence on the web. More can be read about this in an earlier post. Mr. Kelly predicts everything will become web-based. Products such as shoes (e.g. Nike ID+) already come embedded with computer chips, where data can be transferred to/from the product to the internet. Combining all the various devices and the reliance on the web, this machine now becomes the embodiment of the human. It now has the eyes, ears, speech and touch like the human.
In the beginning, the web was linked from machine to machine through packets of shared data. Today, the web is linked from page to page. People link to/from various pages constantly. To navigate around the web involves clicking on various links from one page to another. Currently, this system is currently undergoing change, and the web will become linked by data (idea to idea). An example of this change is there are a plethora of social networking sites, and for each new site the user wishes to join, he/she needs to identify his/her group of friends. Wouldn’t be better that whenever the user goes anywhere on the web, there is no need to ask for his/her friends again? This new trend of the web being restructured and linked by data is being implemented. Artificial intelligence like the Google search engine is becoming increasingly sophisticated and smarter, which facilitates this movement towards this technology. For additional reading, I had posted about this earlier.
Total personalization in this world will require total transparency. Due to content on demand, and the a search-based web, finding information or content that fits the users’ interests and needs, will require the user to divulge more personal information. Examples include: http://www.last.fm which plays music that is personalized to the taste of the user. I had posted about this phenomenon in earlier posts here and here.
As mankind has been dependent on the alphabet, the web will only be next. Mr. Kelly gave an example that sometimes, he does not need to remember information, he simply uses google to search it. As increasingly more applications are being web-based (web is now being more ubiquitous), the tendency to be co-dependent on this will occur.
Mr. Kelly espouses the idea that every object in the world will be somehow linked to the web. This will occur not in the next 5000 days, but at a much later time. Imagine sitting on a plane, and the physical book that you are reading is linked to the web. Other items can include: your seatbelt, seat, pillow, blanket, magazines, tray, TV set all are linked to the web.
This giant machine that is the sum of all things in the world and its operating system is the web, will influence people’s daily lives constantly. With the changes in the embodiment, restructuring and codependency of the web, people will become part of this giant machine.
I can see this trend happening as information that was once proprietary and had a monetary value attached to it is now free and easily searchable. Imagine having an all-encompassing worldwide library with no borders bounded by state or federal lines, and all of the world’s combined books, journals and other materials were easily accessible? The web has become this worldwide library. In the past, if someone moved to a new environment, it was difficult to meet new people and make new friends, right? Now, people can easily use the internet to search for special interests groups that fit their lifestyle and interests. They can join this groups and meet these new people.
