Purple Sheep Project - The Ten Commandments of Innovation

People will and do pay big money for things they value or even desire. The products and services that really work are not stumbled upon by chance. Really wonderful products have been designed to excite human beings.

The 1st rule of Innovation has to be Know Your Audience

Walk a mile in your customer's shoes. Observe and truly understand what makes people tick?
Find out what frustrates people about using a given item then eliminate it.

Have you spent a week, or even an hour observing your product at retail, or in the hospital, or the office, or the school.

When you truly understand the who and the how you can begin to build products that will be objects of desire.

This sounds obvious, but so many companies are fighting for market share and banging their industries into recession as they fight price battles. The issue with battles is nobody ever wins the war. There are always casualties on both sides.

Spend the effort on designing something entirely new and different. Get back to rule number 1, understand the customers and solve the problem from another angle.

You will need a bit of lateral thinking, you may have to hire a designer, but having the only product in your market is far more rewarding than having another product in your market.

This will make your customer happy, your staff proud and loyal and you rich

Mass-market products tend to get average mass market prices. If you want to play the volume game that's great. It certainly works for IKEA, or it has up until now!

Decide where you want to be in the market and focus entirely on that segment.
The higher end will mean attracting early adopters with disposable income. It also means your product has to be massively impressive and not like anything else.

Focus on your core business and get rid of anything that doesn't fit. If you are worried about volume to run the factory, sell the factory, as it is too big for your niche. There are plenty of quiet factories that will make your product, focus on the customers and design the perfect product for them.

You can't please all the people all the time. Excite some of the people now!

Get feedback from the market, before you launch. You have listened to the market, observed people using your product, understood the sociology and anticipated what customers in your chosen niche will need in the future. Now actively engage this demographic in the prototype stage.

This pays dividends...

It identifies opportunities for enhancements before you commit to the expense of manufacturing.

It creates a group of people who feel they own the product, who will certainly buy it and then start telling their friends and colleagues about it. Choose this group carefully, you find these people in places like Squidoo.

After launch, keep the discussion going, you need this feedback for your next masterstroke.

When you have created the perfect product, and you are ready to launch, just wait a bit longer and consider what else you can do.

If is is a new cell phone - does your website have free applications, technical forum and ringtones? Do you put something unexpected in the box, maybe a voucher for headphones form a partner company.. This doesn't have to cost you anything more than the effort, but it can create happy customers - who write blogs and reviews.

Maybe it's a roll of wool carpet? Did you send the customer a follow up letter after the installation, a link to a website with maintenance advice? A carpet cleaning kit?

It is those little unexpected extras that make people grin and get people telling the right stories.. You can't buy that kind of promotion, you build it in.

Its all about getting people talking for the right reasons

example... I recently placed an ad on Monster.co.uk to hire the right person. The website had its issues, but I managed my way through. But a few day after the ad went live I received a call from a local technician, who spoke English, asking if I needed any help and giving me some useful suggestions, for free. I will use Monster again, and I'm now telling you.

Antonio Gaudi was contraversial in his time. He was passionate and fiercly original.
But he had a small niche of wealthy supporters who loved what he and only he could do. Gaudi did not fail to Excite his audience.

If you get to Barcelona go and see his Architecture! Then apply the same passion and innovation to what you do.

Not to be confused with Niche. Consider how exclusive your offering should be.
If you got this far you already giving the mass-market a miss. Ten points for that!

What will you do to make your customers feel special?

If you get the right people using your product they will tell, and the masses will begin to aspire to it. Maybe you will release a later version for the masses, or maybe you will leave this for the mass-marketers' to squabble about

Don't spend money on TV advertising. This works for brand awareness, but you don't need that. Besides you spent the money at the design stage. Tell the right people via blogs, events, stunts, whatever.

Get the word out, but do it smart. Remember you are targeting a specific niche. The same considerations need to enter into building an innovative promotion.

Start with a Squidoo lens. Invite people to interact, especially influential people like journalist. Send me a new gadget and I'll do it for you!

In the book 'Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom' Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta give explanations as to how on-line social networking has changed the way we talk to our Audience.. see LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS below.

Remember why you are doing this in the first place. If you are not enjoying your project, stop doing it and delegate it to someone who will love it.

You have to have passion about what you are doing. This will inspire both your tribe (team) and your customers. It will leech into everything you touch.

Do you know what will turn consumer on in ten years? You should! Start thinking about this and build it into the innovation process. If you follow the market you will always be stuck taking the second best price.

Leadership is the only way to run a business. This means getting ahead by anticipating market trends. If you followed step one correctly this won't be an issue.

You know what people really want, so give it to them, Not the others guys product at a cheaper price, but your own original marvellous creation that we all love and tell stories about.

PIctured here is the very 1st SHEEP coloured with nano-particles of pure gold. You can not have it. There is only one in the world. It is not for sale.. You want one? I can get one but it will cost you dearly....

Well done you have the best product, at high prices and a healthy margin. And people are queuing for it.
(Don't make them do that by the way - refer step 4.)

You have gotten the attention of your target niche. The catch is, so has the factory down the road, and they will steal your idea and make a cheaper, faster, version.

Start Design Thinking the next marvellous creation DO IT NOW!