The art of creative thinking - turning brilliance into reality

Do you think that you are not creative? Do you think that only artists and designers are creative? The fact is that we all start out being creative - does anyone know a 5 year old that's not creative and doesn't have a great imagination. Sadly we lose it along the way, it's deadened by well intentioned parents who fear that we'll be dreamers and by a society that discourages people from asking too many questions.

For most people (and companies), creativity remains an abstract notion: Yes they'd like to have more of it, but they're not sure how to get it, or what to do with it once they have it. Well step right this way, we're going to get creative.

What is Creativity? It's simply the art of making people think in a different way. How simple is that.

Brilliant marketing is about creating momentum, giving people a sense of change, at the most basic level it changes the minds of your customers. Does your website have the power to change the minds of your customers?

Brilliant Tip: Always listen to your inner voice - trust it and believe in it

Why is Creativity Important? Because it is there to facilitate and drive change and is vital if you want to market brilliantly:

* Get noticed
* Change opinion
* Strengthen opinion
* Provoke action

How can you get in the creative zone?

1. Creative identity - think about how you introduce yourself the safe way or the dramatic way. Which one is best?(....and it's not the first one). Does your website have the WOW factor immediately?

2. Choose creativity -Think about a product, any product, it could be your product or a product that you really like. On a pad write down as many different marketing ideas that might increase sales on the web, be really wacky, totally mad and do not think about the outcome. Then spend some time picking the best ones, that you think have promise. This exercise is designed to get your creative juices flowing not to produce a great marketing campaign. It's designed to answer the question "Can you create stuff?" - bet the answers yes, it doesn't matter if it's not great stuff yet, it's just stuff for now - greatness comes later and the more you produce ideas - in general - the better they will get.

3. Fast forward creativity - This is maybe the most creative thing you can do. Get a series of people together, not just people - your consumers, people who would use your product or you would like to use your products. Have a conversation with them, maybe over a beer or a glass of wine, find out all about them, find out what they like, now they think, why would they buy your product, why wouldn't they buy your product, what would make them buy more of it?

Brilliant Tip: You will never be brilliant at marketing unless you really get to know your consumers. It's about what they want, not about what you want.

Example of being creative - Planting the seeds of success:

THE PROBLEM: OM Scott, a retailer of seeds and lawn care products wanted to sell more. Sadly their products although good were no better than their competitors. So they needed to differentiate themselves.

THE STRATEGY: They went to their customer and asked them what problems did they have with lawn care. The main problem was customers being able to plant seeds in a controlled way and spread the seeds around for better coverage. Scott decided they needed to help their customers solve this problem.

They came up with the Scott Spreader a device that spread seeds equally along the ground and could be adjusted to control the flow of seeds.

THE OUTCOME: OM Scott made millions and the company became the market leader in their field.

THE LESSON: They did this by looking at what they wanted to achieve (more sales) but then shifted their view to that of their customer. By solving their customers problem they also solved their own. They were creative and looked outside the box.

Image what would have happened had they not spoken to their customers to find out the problems they wanted solving - win customers by solving their problems, if you do this on their first visit to your website they will be engaged and come back for more.

Ask yourself these questions:

Have I considered what my customers need on my website?
Have I asked them what they would like to see on my website?
Do I know what their concerns are, can I address these concerns through my website?
What problems do they have in relation to my business?
Can I help them solve these problems, how can I make things easier for them?

How to be Creative:

Be aware of your customers problems.
Focus on how these can be solved.
Brainstorm lots of possible solutions.
Consider how these can relate to your business.

Other examples of being creative:

Prius put solar panels in their car roofs. Why? Because they found out that a lot of their owners liked to have a snooze in their car at lunchtime and wanted the air-con on but didn't want to leave their engine running. Brilliant.

Pret a Porter at the Berkley Hotel discovered that ladies who lunched wanted to stay and have tea but cucumber sandwiches were soooo not it. So they created designer fashion biscuits, inviting designers to contribute to the shape and colour of their own range. Brilliant.

M&S realised that the really big problem with men's trousers was that their change always fell out of their pocket, so they came up with a range of 'coin catcher' trousers which have pockets that are designed to stop your change from falling out. Brilliant.

Let me know how you get on being creative and brilliant, I'd love to hear from you or just post a comment.

Next time:

Have you got the right stuff to be a brilliant marketer?

Strengths that you need to have.
Right/Left brain - which side are you on?
Feel the buzz.
How to be outstanding and how to put it all together.
What do David Bowie and Madonna have in common?
Brainstorming - how to do it properly.