Strategy. Innovation. Brand.
RIM’s new ads say, “We’re dead”
When an established vendor dismisses an upstart’s product as a “toy”, it’s time to run for the exits. So I was surprised to see RIM’s new Blackberry ads in New York City. Earnest looking young men stare out from billboards under the headline, “We need tools, not toys”. Similarly, a business woman says, “I’m about action. Not distraction”. The ads deliver a clear message, “Our Blackberries are hard to use and completely out of touch with what consumers want today.” RIM to NY: “We’ve dropped dead”.
Clayton Christensen laid out the dynamic of the disruptive innovation more than a dozen years ago. A company establishes itself as a market leader by delivering more and more of what customers have always wanted. (Let’s call this WCHAW). For wireline phone companies, for instance, the WCHAW was voice quality. Customers had always wanted it and wireline companies assumed that they would always want more. Sooner or later, however, customers decide that they have enough WCHAW. It’s good enough, thank you very much. Customers don’t need more and they won’t pay for it either.
When customers reach this point, they start searching for something else — what customers want now (WCWN). This often involves products that are more convenient, easier to use, and less costly. When mobile phones challenged the wireline vendors, they were dismissed as “toys”. After all mobile phones delivered worse voice quality and voice quality was WCHAW. What the wireline vendors didn’t detect was that voice quality was good enough and that mobile phones delivered a new WCWN — mobility and general ease-of-use. When customer sentiment shifted, it did so quickly and forever.
RIM is now dismissing the new breed of smart phones as toys. It’s a self-defeating strategy. They’re saying, quite bluntly, that they can’t deliver what customers want now but they can happily deliver what customers have always wanted. They’re shooting themselves in both feet and doing it quite efficiently.
The odd thing is that RIM has an ace in the hole and they’re not playing it. RIM’s private network is much more secure than the public Internet. And customers have always wanted — and still want — more security. RIM should be talking about what makes them different rather than what makes them old and out-of-touch.
You can learn more about disruptive innovations in the video.
Speak to my channel
I’m a visual learner. When I understand something, I might say, “Oh, I see”. If you’re a smart communicator, you’ll pick up on that cue and incorporate visual images into your messaging. You might say things like, “let me draw you a picture” or “our vision of the future is….” These phrases speak to my visual channel, establish a bond with me, and help you communicate more effectively. But what if I’m an auditory learner? Or a kinesthetic learner? You’ll need to change your phrasing to connect effectively with me. And what if you’re speaking to a large audience? Which channel do you emphasize? Find out in the video.
Priming Your Audience
What happens when you think about words like “old”, “bald”, “wrinkled”, “retired”, and “Florida”? These are all words associated with old age. When you think about words like these, you start to behave like an older person. Indeed, you even walk more slowly than you would if you had thought about “young” words instead.
It’s an important concept called priming. Your audience is probably thinking about something before you communicate to them. What they’re thinking has a considerable influence on how your message is received.
So what can you do about it? First, you should know what’s on your audience’s mind before you begin, If the audience is positively primed, you may not need to do much more. If they’re negatively primed, however, you’ll need to take a second step and re-prime them. You can do this be carefully choosing the words and images you evoke as you set the stage. Learn more in the video.
Ideas, Order and Innovation
You have three ideas for compelling innovations. You present them to your staff meeting and ask your colleagues to discuss them and select the idea that they think will have the greatest impact. Which idea will they most likely select? The one you present first. If you want a fair and balanced discussion of all three ideas, you need to use innovative techniques to present your innovations. Watch the video to learn how.
How much praise is enough?
Ask a husband what percentage of the household chores he contributes. Write the number down. Now ask the wife what percentage she contributes. Write the number down. Now add the two numbers together. The sum will almost certainly be more than 100%. Now do the same exercise for a project team at the office. It’s a simple question: how much of the value of the project did you contribute? If you sum up all the answers, the total is likely to be greater than 200%. How can this be? Our memories work in funny ways. To manage a team effectively — and to stimulate innovation — you need to praise based on memory rather than reality. Learn more in the video.
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