Do you ever get the feeling that brand is something that is tacked on at the end of innovation efforts? Like the wrapping on a present, brand is perceived as just the way things are presented and sold. In my experience, this undermines your innovation. It keeps a business’s relationship with its customers transactional, and therefore replaceable, instead of part of a holistic experience.
In our previous post, we talked about incorporating customer pain points and leveraging operational capabilities as part of your innovation efforts. Brand is the third side of this triangle, and should be as much a part of your innovation methodology as the other two.
Your brand should be defined by the experience that you deliver to your customer, and the feeling that experience invokes. For example, Disney’s brand is, “The happiest place on earth,” and visitors certainly feel that as they walk around Disney theme parks. Any ideas that your team creates need to invoke that brand feeling to play in your innovation sandbox.
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Rather than starting from scratch, an established business grounds their innovation efforts in their sandbox, giving them a leg up on newcomers in their industry. The sandbox is defined by your organization’s assets including strength of operation, established customers and brand, so innovating here is where you’re most likely to succeed.
I am assuming you have decided to make your innovation efforts customer centered (read here for how to do that). The good news is that your customer discovery process can evoke emotions and responses that kick the tires of the brand message. What does your brand mean to your customer? Thinking about the task they are trying to achieve using your solutions, what is their journey to success? Does that journey fulfill on your brand promise or is it filled with bumps and potholes?
The bottom line is that the best innovations for you to invest in will strengthen your brand. If not, you should reconsider whether it is the right investment decision. It could be that it is time to change your brand or it could be that this innovation will dilute your brand and is therefore not worth the investment. Let your customer be your guide – if your innovation is making an emotional connection with them and stays within your innovation sandbox, you can’t go wrong.