Innovative marketing  on the other hand,  is about creative ideas and strategies for  winning customers.  It is about positioning your firm with strategic advantage to increase your market share.  It explores what makes your products, services, sales team, management and company different.  Innovative marketing  addresses the needs of customers and provide the  special service or solutions that the customers value more than others. 

I believe innovative marketing cannot be taught from a textbook.  A lot of innovative strategies have to come from experience and an in-depth understanding of your products, services, customers, competitors, customers and the industry as a whole.  Innovative marketing can only happen if one has the patience and determination to observe, analyse and capitalise on untapped opportunities in the market place.  From my many years of marketing experience in the business world, I would therefore like to share some of my insights on innovative marketing  that has proven to bring positive results in terms of increased sales and market share.  The following are 7 innovative marketing insights  that I trust can also help you improved the  performance  in your marketing effort.
 

1. Understand The Unique Needs Of Your Customers

Understanding your normal customer needs does not win you the attention and interest of your customers more than your competitors.  To have the edge, you need to move up the next level of  competition where you are seen by your customers in understanding their unique needs which others fail to see or meet.  For example one human resource manager I met  recently, needs more than just a weekend training seminar for his management team.  He needs a holiday destination along with some proposed leisure activities for his team of people.  After spending sometime with him discussing more on the plans  and providing some creative suggestions and recommendations for his company’s planned vacation, he finally without much prior indication, agreed to  utilise  one of  my company’s in-house training programmes. 

2. Find Out What Your  Customers  Value Most

One of the greatest blindspots in marketing is the assumption of what our customers value most.  Very often, we make our own assumptions on what delight the customers. Thus we have marketing programmes that provide discounts, freebies or vouchers to attract customers.   The best way is to ask your customers outright what they value most of the products or services that they are currently purchasing or intend to purchase.    To some, time is of the essence while others it is convenience.  Most customers will choose those products or services that provide that meet those attributes that they value most if they have to make a trade off.  For example, most customers want better quality, lower price, convenience and faster delivery.  However, by understanding what attributes of the products or services that they value most and positioning your products or services to meet them will provide you the edge if they have to made a trade off between these attributes.

3. Help Your Customers Reduce The Risk Of Buying Your Products/Services

Nobody likes to make mistakes.  In fact, in many large organisations, people are afraid to take risks. The way to make it easy for people to choose your product or services is to make it less risky for people to do so.   Providing endorsements of existing customers who are satisfied with your products or services is one way.  Providing guarantees and assurance of your products or services is a sure way to reduce the risk of buying.   Another way is provide good after sales support.  Offering  good training and information of using your products to ensure proper usage is another way to reduce the risk of buying. 

4. Help Your Customers  Achieve His or Her Goals

There are three  levels of customers, namely;  the users, the decision influencers and the decision makers.  It is important to understand the goals of these various levels of customers.  An effective way to attract customers to buy your products is to help the various level of customers achieve their goals.  Each of these individuals have many goals.  If you could just identify one of the goals of your customers and help them achieve them, they will certainly  be glad to help you achieve yours.  For example, if your can convince buying your products and using your products will help your customers look good and win merit points in his organisation, he will certainly be more responsive and interested in  your products than those than just merely serve the interest of the organisation alone.

5. Understand The Total Needs Of  Yours Customers

Customers being humans do not behave or think in a  discrete manner.   They do not live their lives in clear and distinguishable compartments.   Whatever problems they face in one  area  affects  them  in others wherever they are or whatever they are doing.  To just understand your customer on his product needs is falling short  of understanding your customer.  Customers made decisions against the background of all the needs they have.  Innovative marketing is linking your products or services to address his other needs besides his immediate needs of the products.  By finding ways to address his other needs, even just one of them will put you on a higher pedestal in terms of competitors who  ignore this.

6. Differentiate Your Products/Services In A Superior Fashion

In an environment of cut throat competition, the  marketing wisdom of the day is: Differentiate or Deteriorate.  Differentiation here does not merely mean just being different.  The significance of differentiation lies in having a unique product features, attributes or service that competitors do not have and that customers value.  The best way to achieve maximum result from differentiation is to understand the needs of your customers thoroughly and try to match the unique attributes of your products or services to the needs of your customers.  Product differentiation are of no use if customers do not value these unique attributes of features of your products.

7. Increase Your Total Selling Ability

When a customer buys your products, he  is buying  more than just that.  He is buying you credibility, your personality,  your track record, your company’s background, your after sale support team and a host other factors which he deems important.  Increasing one’s total selling ability will thus encircle a wider influence on the customer to make a purchase decision of your products or services.  It is therefore important to remember that if you cannot compete with your competitors on some features or attributes of your products, you can always highlight your other facets which the potential customer is also assessing prior to making his purchase decision.

With increasing  competition in the market place, companies need to continuously come up with innovative marketing ideas and strategies to increase their market share.  The way for companies to win the competition in  the future is to invest in resources that will provide them  a long-term sustaining competitive edge.  And the way to do this is to invest more in spending time and resources in gaining  more in-depth understanding of customers.  Companies need to listen to customers more intensively and frequently.  They need to conduct more frequent surveys to capture the views of their customers They need to ask more often what their customers think of their products or services. They need  to spend more time at the customers’ workplace to understand their unique needs, problems and challenges better. And they need to constantly ask themselves, what else can they provide and how else can they do it better to improve customer service and achieve customer satisfaction.   In conclusion, I would like to quote the well-known marketing guru, Philip Kotler who has this valuable marketing wisdom to share with us:  “Companies pay too much attention to the cost of doing something.  They should worry more about the cost of not doing it”   I believe it is time, companies invest in innovative marketing as this is the key to gaining better insights on the needs of customers which will lead to higher market share for companies.
 

Ms Jane Bee is the Marketing Director of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group.  She can be contacted at 012-2685212 or 603-90741129 / 90742219