Purple Sheep & Fuzzy Innovation
Fuzzy as we have to explore, be open to new ideas, and always strive to be doing things in new and better ways. Fuzzy is not straight, defined, or boxed in.
Innovation as we have to have purpose. Innovation is not just a word that when added to a mission statement automatically makes a cause, organisation or product better. Innovation is an emotion, its a verb, and it is a path that never reaches perfection.
Fuzzy innovation is about building things of real value that will benefit the lives of human beings.
It may be one human (you) or it could be six billion. Fuzzy innovation is a journry of anticipated discovery with some nice surprises along the way. Fuzzy Innovation is about understanding people and creating the things that will make them hapy. If it is done right, happy to part with cash in return for your creation.
Below you will find links to all of Steven Parsons rants about innovation
On this page...
Purple Sheep?
(Purple cow was taken)
Purple sheep get noticed, where as white sheep just eat and poo.To create a purple sheep requires a specific effort. Purple sheep don't just happen by themselves you know.
But why create a purple sheep in the 1st place? Not because you can, but because it will enhance lives. Because a purple sheeps adds interest, humour and spreads joy.
purple sheep are leaders not sheep walkers.
So why do we need purple sheep?
Modern consumers now have almost everything they need.
The choice of products, services and brands is overwhelming so it has never been more difficult to make your product stand out.
Television advertising, billboard and other mass media is ineffective and fades into the background, It is just noise that people try to ignore.
To attract consumers now requires an extra push. But we are now in an era where consumers are flooded with choice and switched off to advertising.
The way to reach the post-consumption consumer is not to take an ordinary product and slap advertising on it.
Consumers now have to be reached by innovation.
People love to discuss new things and be the first. There is an element of pride in recommending the latest thing and being seen as a leader.
Consumers now switch off when they feel they are being marketed to. A celebrity in an advertisement says, 'I'm trying to sell this product, and I'm using someone else's fame as the product does not stand on its own merits.'
New marketing is about innovation
-Innovation in the product
-Innovation in the way we market the product
It's about the stories we tell and how we tell them. It's also about whom we tell them to. And who spreads the word on our behalf.
One blog entry today is now potentially as powerful as an entire advertising campaign.
Consumers will, and do, look for opinions about products and services before they commit their hard earned funds.
Negative comments on a blog site can be fatal to a products reputation.
So what makes people talk? We have to give them something to talk about.
This is where Purple Sheep come in and help your business become magnetic.
Know Your Audience.
Before you create just ask who?
It's amazing how many products fail, and how much money is wasted in the product development and marketing of unintelligent objects. There is no excuse for products and / or services failing in the market place. All that is required is to ensure that before your journey begins you really think about what to create in the 1st place.Successful products sometimes happen by accident, but they always happen by design!
What makes one product stand out from the rest is great innovative design. Design is an easy to follow process that begins and ends with people. If you really understand people, and always review your creation throughout the development journey, continuing to question, Who wants this? How will this enhance her lifestyle?
You are far more likely to win. Making winning products is guaranteed if you set out to make something that is going to make somebody happy.
Niche Ain't Enough!
Even a purple sheep needs a purpose.
We are now going on a journey.Imagine you are in a South Pacific Paradise
The last country on earth to be discovered,
The scenery is beautiful
The land is pure and green
The rivers and lakes are crystal clear
And the mountains snow-capped
Native bush, untouched by man
Unique plants
Delicious fruits
A land of strange and mythical creatures
And sheep
Lots and lots of sheep
At first the sheep seem beautiful, the white fluffy icon symbolising man and nature working in perfect harmony. Everywhere you look there are sheep.
After a while you stop noticing the sheep. All the sheep start to look alike. The novelty has worn off.
What if there was a purple sheep. A purple sheep would get noticed. A purple sheep would be worth talking about.
The marketing of the product, the story that gets told is right there built into the product, and it gets noticed, it's worth talking about, as it is unique.
But that is not enough!
What is the market for purple wool?
There is no point making a unique product that people talk about if they are saying, don't buy purple sheep, they have no purpose.
The story needs to be about the benefits of purple sheep. We need people talking about how by investing in purple sheep their lives have been enhanced.
As always it comes back to making things that people will love.
What Drives Modern Consumers?
We can't pull the wool over their eyes.
The world is getting smallerConsumers are now driven internationally by similar experiences
People are travelling more than ever before in human history
People are concerned about security.
The Credit Crunch is fairly difficult to ignore!
Environmental Concerns are growing
Ethical concerns. People want to know who made their products and that they were paid fairly.
We now live in a time that people are yearning for security, comfort. People are looking to reconnect with the past, with family and with nature.
The electronic age wired the world and information is now more accessible than ever before. Researching if not purchasing on-line is a normal part of the buying experience.
So the world is moving faster
Consumers are better informed
Being Environmentally responsible is now just good business practice.
So consumers are now looking for...
Fair-trading, Sustainability, Quality, Comfort. Consumers are looking for carpets that deliver all the benefits of soft flooring, but also with no environmental impact.
We will see a growth in consumers looking for authentic and integrated stories. The demand for truly sustainable products will grow. Consumers are purchasing on values.
Green washing will not pull the Purple wool over thier eyes
I.D. Magazine
You need this magazine.
You need this mag!!!
PURPLE SHEEP PROJECT
More truth about sheep, innovation and general fluffy stuff.
The world is getting smarter and deserves to know the truth about woolWe won't have the wool pulled over our eyes any longer :)
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Purple Sheep Project - Business As Unusual
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The business models that created iconic brands of the past are now guaranteed models of business failure. Incredibly we still see major businesses and even governments, in fact even the European Union embracing thinking that is almost certain to deli...
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Purple Sheep Project - The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing
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New Marketing is not rocket science, never was. It isn't getting harder or more difficult, but it is changing, always will. The world has changed, attention spans are shorter, digital media has shifted power from advertising executives to consumers....
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Purple Sheep Project - The Ten Commandments of Innovation
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Products don't have to fail but many companies think that me-too or second-to-market products will work. This safe and boring approach to business simply won't be good enough anymore. If your product doesn't excite the early adoptors, then the masses...
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Purple Sheep Project - Design Thinking
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The ongoing success of organisations lies in the embracement of Design Thinking not just in the product development department but throughout the organisation. Great design extends beyond making things look good. Great design means creating things t...
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Purple Sheep Project - Innovation Workplace
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Business success is not luck. Great companies have great products and great service not by chance but by design. To create a business that has delivers a great experience is a relatively simple formula and its all about creating the right environment...
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The Death of Retail
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Here is a short story about an everyday experience. If you want your company to vainsh be like these guys... It is bizarre how many companies out there are blaming the economic downturn for their downfall. Companies can grow now if they get smart!...
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Purple Sheep Project - Return to Sensibility
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This year is officialy the International Year of Natural Fibres. The World Trade Organisation will be taking this opportunity to remind people how important natural fibres are to the well being of society. When you think it about the world went nuts...
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Purple Sheep Project - Being Market Led
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Innovation in product development, design and marketing has never been more crucial. A fundamental part of design is to create products and services with an end use / human being in mind. Innovation only happens by design when we focus on an end use...
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Purple Sheep Project - We are all Doomed!
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What is your business doing to anticipte market shifts? The world is changing at an ever increasing pace, yet many companies keep doing what they have always done. It is critical to the survival of organisations that they anticipate market shifts a...
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Sustainable Brands
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Increasingly people (customers) are looking for stories. The story of how your product got to market. The story they can tell their friends about the discovery they made. Right now people are more critical than ever before about spending on things w...
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Purple Sheep Project - Guide To Commercial Suicide
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Many organisations promise a lot but then deliver less. It is tempting when income streams dry up to cut a few corners, downgrade on the specification, buy cheaper parts, and hope the end user does not notice. They notice and they leave! If your...
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Purple Sheep Project - The Big Picture
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Often we focus on a small part of business to ensure we do "our job" really well. If we are too focussed on key objectves do we risk loosing sight of the main target? It is worth taking a step back and looking at the big picture every once in a whil...
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Purple Sheep Project - Magnetic Business
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Stop thinking like a bean counter and start connecting with your audience to provide things that people absolutely must have. Is your product something that consumers are lining up for? Or is your product just one option in an overcrowded market?...
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Purple Sheep's Traffic Hits Guide
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The best way to get more traffic is to get more links out there.. But remember its not clicks that count.. You want targeted traffic that will stay and read what you have to say, maybe even visitors that are looking for information and will be tempte...
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Steven Parsons & The Purple Sheep Project
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After several years as a designer in the wool carpet industry I decided it was time to share some of what I have learnt to date. The problem is the more you get into the world and start really listening the more you realise there is just so much to l...
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Purple Sheep's Traffic Hits Guide
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The best way to get more traffic is to get more links out there.. But remember its not clicks that count.. You want targeted traffic that will stay and read what you have to say, maybe even visitors that are looking for information and will be tempte...
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How to be Fantastic & Purple
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This is me. Steven is my name. So What?! Why should you listen to me? I have something to tell you, something you may already know, but I'm telling it differently and with the most noble intentions. I want to help you to be Fantastic. You will fin...
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Synthetics are EVIL
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In the 1950s evil petrol corporations started duplicating some of the benefits that could be found in natural fibres like wool. By boiling and extruding chemicals into fake fibres like poly-amide and polyester, garments and carpets were made and marke...
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Ministry of Sheep
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Wisdom gathered over centuries has been consolidated, refined and then sprinkled with the most modern and remarkable new thinking to bring you... THE MINISTRY OF SHEEP Enter the realm of all things sheep and rediscover what man has forgotten. Be f...
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Origin Washing
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Consumers in the United Kingdom are currently being encouraged to buy products made in the third world, but with a union jack attached to make them feel better about it or actually to mislead consumers about the supply chain.. Are the consumers savv...
Amazon
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Dont be the next victim of the status quo, read this book and change the way you run your compnay.. The alternative is to dissapear.
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
This book has fantastic insights into why we should all innovate, and why it is so critical to lead the market. Its a book of common sense that you didn't know you had.
Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World
Some useful insights and examples of how crportaions need to change the way they market and share information if they are to stay relevant. Some great historical references that show how history is repeating... again
Give Me your feedback
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Reply
- purplesheep purplesheep May 3, 2009 @ 9:25 am
- Thanks for the comments..
Dave's Blog
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Reply
- samuilgr8 samuilgr8 Feb 24, 2009 @ 11:23 pm
- Good Lens, Nice information........!!
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Reply
- Gale10 Gale10 Feb 12, 2009 @ 10:28 am
- Very interesting lens. I love purple. I like the idea of something being obviously a bit different being attractive to marketers, and customers too!
I did like the: "We can't pull the wool over their eyes" I do love a play on words.
Best wishes,
Ruth
http://www.squidoo.com/WealthyAffiliateMemberSecretsRevealed
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Reply
- mistyblue75605 mistyblue75605 Feb 9, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
- Welcome to Squidoo!! Cute lens! 5*'s
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Reply
- henzy henzy Feb 9, 2009 @ 11:49 am
- that was definately some great thinking outside the box, good tips
- Load More
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