Innovate: One Minute Marketing Tip

Today’s One Minute Marketing topic is Innovate… a crisis recovery tip

I once heard a keynote from Gordon Mackensie, a creativity expert at Hallmark Cards. He said companies can be like tanker trucks. They have baffles which keep the liquid inside from sloshing about and making the truck unstable. He argued that baffles are great in tanker trucks but organizations have baffles that keep them from unleashing creativity and innovation. 

Your Organization is Innovative

Over the last two months, everyone has had to be creative, innovative and just plain flexible. Many baffles were removed from organizations so they could keep operating during the pandemic. 

How can you continue this level of innovation? Necessity is the mother of invention. Can recovery be the mother of innovation? 

Take an Indepth Debrief

Here are a few steps to consider how your marketing, or other parts of your organization can continue to innovate after the crisis. Consider an in-depth debrief to look at and utilize the learning from the crisis.

  1. Operations – what processes existing or new (due to the crisis) resulted in innovation? In doing things differently? Can those processes remain in place? Be built upon to deliver more or better for your customers…
  2. Mindset – the crisis changed how we work physically. How did it change us mentally? What new ways of thinking about our organization, our work, our communication can we continue? 
  3. Customers – how has the market shifted due to the crisis? What did we deliver differently during the crisis for our customers? Do they need something different as they work to recover and continue life after the crisis? 

Recovery with a New Focus

By focusing on the innovations made during the crisis and considering how to maintain or further develop that innovative spirit, your organization can build something new and different that meets the needs of the very different world that will exist post pandemic. 

Now is the time to see what the creativity and flexibility of your staff and your market could mean for the future of your marketing and your organization. 

If you would like to discuss your crisis communications plan or your recovery marketing plan, we would love to help. In fact, you can send us a question and we’ll provide our best advice – no cost, no obligation.

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