INNOVATION AND MARKETING- THE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONS

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business." – Peter Drucker


We are living in an ever changing and ever evolving world. Only those organisations survive, that have continuously adapted themselves to this change and have consistently reinvented themselves to be in vogue with the times.

This is possible through a process of innovation that leads to disruptive products, services and processes.

 There was a time when we used to communicate through post  and travel in animal pulled carts.

"Electricity and Internet, products of some of the greatest innovative minds, are two earthshaking inventions that have changed the life of human beings on this planet earth".

Today, we communicate through instant mails, video chats on mobile devices and travel in high speed motored vehicles.

Whatever happened to the ubiquitous Ambassador car and the once favorite Bajaj Scooter on the Indian roads?!

           

                          

The never changing design of the ambassador car & Premier Padmini has led to the downfall of once an undisputed market leader the Hindustan Motors & Premier, while companies like Maruti, Tata Motors, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai continuously innovated and came out with new products to stay with the times and continue on their growth path.

                                       

     Maruthi Suzuki - in 1980s                                                               Maruthi Suzuki- 2012

While there are many examples of continuous innovations that could be given, the continuous evolution of a classic brand has led to its  survival and continuous growth over the years, despite strong competition that has marked its domain.Successful organisations have continuous stream of new products with old products continuously phased out to give way to the new ones.

Intel, Microsoft, Samsung and Apple are famous examples of organizations that consistently come out with superior products through innovation and replace the old products with newer products and newer versions.

New Products provide the Lifeline for the organisations and Innovation provides the Oxygen..

New Product development is not the only area in Marketing that is affected by innovation.
While Google encourages every employee to think about new ideas one day every week, Starbuck's CEO pushed all his key managers to come out with new ideas to recreate customer experience. Steve Jobs, the immortal ex- CEO of Apple Inc known as the most innovative technologist on the planet  commissioned , 'The Crazy Ones' a video that features Einstein, Edison, Branson  who changed the world with their thoughts, to commission his 'Think Different Campaign'.
3M is one of the most innovation driven companies in the world that inspired a number of successful companies to monitor the contribution of new products and services to the annual sales. Successful organizations continuously look for opportunities to cannibalise old and outdated products, replacing them with far superior products in line with the customers' changing tastes or sometimes, even lead the change.
Innovation can dramatically effect every aspect of marketing .

For example:

Digital Marketing has allowed tremendous innovation in targeting customers leading to amazing increase in the productivity of marketing budgets.

Market research is conducted by Media, agencies and organizations themselves by using mobile  applications, sms forms and interactive TV and web based services unlike person to person interviews earlier.

Product and service level innovations have led to customized products and services based on individual tastes. Dell allows its customers to configure their computers while textile companies allow their companies to choose their designs and fittings based on individual tastes.

Pricing innovations have allowed the companies to offer tailor made pricing, bid their prices,

Innovation in advertising systems has allowed advertisers to choose their target audience, daily budgets and bidding rates while publicity can be done by directly updating the media through web.

Innovation in supply chain coupled with collection methods from customers for products has allowed extensive use of direct to home delivery and a rapid growth of e-commerce business in India.

Innovation in packaging has helped in longer shelf lives of perishable goods and flexible product propositions to customers.
Innovations in creating new stories, music, production techniques, use of multimedia technology, 3D technology etc. have kept the cinema audience continuously entertained and growing a trillion dollar  industry across the globe. Bollywood and the rest of Indian cinema industry creates hundreds of movies and thousands of unique songs that drive the Indian public to the cinema theatres resulting in an ever-growing entertainment industry in India.

It is imperative for today’s marketers to keep their product propositions attractive, interesting and continuously relevant to the ever changing tastes and profiles of target audience through innovation in their marketing, strategies and tactics.


According to Tom Post, Forbes Magazine ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/tompost/2011/07/20/the-most-innovative-companies-today-and-tomorrow/ ), 

'Anyone can change his behavior to improve creative impact and to weave the code for innovation into his or her company.

We call them the five skills of disruptive innovators:

• Questioning allows innovators to challenge the status quo and consider new possibilities;
• Observing helps innovators detect small details—in the activities of customers, suppliers and other companies—that suggest new ways of doing things
• Networking permits innovators to gain radically different perspectives from individuals with diverse backgrounds;
• Experimenting prompts innovators to relentlessly try out new experiences, take things apart and test new ideas;
• Associational thinking—drawing connections among questions, problems or ideas from unrelated fields—is triggered by questioning, observing, networking and experimenting and is the catalyst for creative ideas.'

Behind every organization’s success is an outstanding culture of innovation and a great marketing effort. Such Organizations will continuously stay ahead of their competition and will keep growing forever.