Only the greatest can reach for marketing innovations? Contrary to appearances, no! You could say that innovative marketing is a state of mind, and the resources you have for such a campaign are a secondary issue.
According to the 2018 Digital Transformation Index, IT, marketing and customer service departments are the best to adapt to technological changes. It is the worst in the legal, HR and production departments. This shows that marketing innovations are the driving force in many industries, but also that it is easier to implement them in marketing than to change some of the other corporate structures. Below, more about what exactly they are and how to implement them.
What is innovative marketing?
Marketing innovations are simply the implementation of new methods and activities previously unknown in a given company. The process of their implementation may include the need to acquire new knowledge or equipment.
As a result of marketing innovation, the following may arise:
- new communication strategies,
- new communication channels,
- new PR strategies,
- new products and services,
- innovations in customer service,
- new packaging,
- new promotion techniques,
- new distribution channels,
- new pricing mechanisms for products and services.
As you can see, this scope is very broad and can affect the entire corporate strategy. Bogna Pilarczyk in the work "Innovations in Marketing Communication" enumerates that the research conducted among Polish companies shows that the most frequently implemented innovations are:
- process - 88.5% (new, improved technological processes, software, new way of providing services),
- product - 75.7% (e.g. new improved products, services),
- organizational - 67,3% (e.g. new methods of organizing business activity, methods of work organization or building external relations).
- marketing - 56.3%.
Is it worth using marketing innovations?
The biggest problem may be placing marketing innovations in the context of a long-term business strategy. In research conducted by PwC's Innovation Benchmark, 54 percent. of respondents admitted that this is the main problem in their company when it comes to implementing new solutions. First, a business strategy, and then an idea for innovation - but how to include it in the company's development plan, if it requires turning the whole marketing strategy? It is for this reason that implementing marketing innovations sometimes requires the transition to the agile marketing model. This allows you to correct assumptions that have ceased to work on an ongoing basis.
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However, assuming that the innovations can be placed in the context of the already existing business environment, there is no doubt that it is worth implementing. All marketing is based on innovation from the very beginning. The masters' biographies are stories of breakthroughs and new discoveries. In the world of new technologies, the industry has gained dynamism. Marketing innovations are most effectively implemented on the Internet.
Marketing innovations: examples from the e-commerce industry
An intriguing example can be the clothing industry. For many brands, own online store is still the future. Selling clothes on Facebook sounds like an abstraction. For several years, however, the most progressive companies have been selling live video on this platform. This is what the owners of individual boutiques do, reaching their bored customers during the quarantine. Direct sales companies, such as LulaRoe in the USA or Avon in Poland, have followed this path. An example of a marketing innovation in the e-commerce industry may also be cooperation with an influencer and enabling shopping directly through his photos or videos. In turn, in the food industry, some stores focus on Facebook groups. Fresh vegetables and fruit - for a long time it seemed that these two things could not be sold over the Internet. Some stores advertise themselves daily in local groups, for vegetarians or people with environmental interests. They collect orders via Facebook and then deliver the food on the same day.
Tools for use in innovative marketing
Recently, a lot has been said about the so-called agile marketing. It's all about reaction agility. agile- agile), but the term better explains the volatility, maneuverability, or dexterity of action. In short, the idea is to monitor the progress in the implementation of the marketing strategy on an ongoing basis, e.g. through the daily stand-up meetings. Thanks to this, it is possible to make a turn and react when the situation suddenly changes, and this favors the rapid implementation of innovations. It is also worth planning activities based on the real strengths of the company. For the introduction of innovative marketing, it may be useful, for example, to analyze Porter's forces or another tool (e.g. SWOT analysis).
According to Grzegorz Szymański, author of the work "Marketing innovations in the e-commerce sector", the main sources of ideas for innovations are customers and employees. Stimulating creativity among employees is mentioned there as the cheapest way to acquire concepts for marketing innovations. Others include brainstorming, building work teams, employee rotation between departments and internships, coaching and other training, as well as financial and non-financial motivation.
How are marketing innovations applied in practice?
The largest companies introduce innovative marketing based on the latest technological achievements, but also those in the field of advertising psychology. Scientists today know much more than before about the influence of colors, emotions or impressions on purchasing decisions. Forbes wrote in 2014 that Facebook manipulated the accounts of 689,003 users to better understand their emotions and use it for its marketing purposes. Meanwhile, Google has hosts of psychologists analyzing the latest science and wondering how to apply them to their goals.
These are extreme examples, but they show that using the achievements of psychology in marketing innovation is a common practice. Would you like to learn from these patterns and use the latest science in your marketing strategy? Please contact usand!