Bear with me on this one.
My 9 year old daughter is an excellent soccer player. From a very young age, she understood the game. Maybe not the rules, but definitely the game. She plays the field and looks for space, not just the other team. She plays where the ball is going to be, not where it is.
I’ve been thinking about how this idea applies to branding and innovation. Do you understand the rules or the game?
So many companies are playing by the rules. Extending brands and platforms along expected lines. Playing the competition. Understanding narrow consumer needs defined by their categories and “innovating” accordingly.
An example: S.C. Johnson understands the rules. Procter & Gamble understands the game.
SCJ has owned the air freshener category for eons with Glade. The brand has extended in a thoughtful manner to new forms…developed platforms and then expanded on these technologies…contemporized their products each decade or so in expected ways. They played the category.
Procter & Gamble stepped in with Febreze and reshaped the category, taking a big bite out of SCJ along the way. They understood what consumers want, not what they have (or say they need). They invented new categories of solutions…designed packaging and products that entice and intrigue. A newcomer to a mature category, Febreze became the new definition of fresh.
Does your company develop against its brands or the empty spaces? Do you play your competition or the field? Do you use traditional narrow research tools to understand the category you’re in, or do you use expansive tools to understand your consumers in all their complex glory? Do measure your brand’s performance over time or the way people live and how that changes over time? Do you look at dayparts and categories or lives and lifestyles? Category or culture?
Innovation requires seeing what’s not there. You’ve got to take your attention away from the category and the competition and focus on people and how they live. Where is the ball going to be?
