18 Year Old Marketing Genius
Phil Ryu is a marketing genius. No matter what your company makes, you would do well to copy Phil’s idea.
His idea is simple: Get people to make a fake version of your next product. Phil ran a contest to get people to design fake screen shots on the next OS/X.
The contest became a brilliant way to collect and rank great ideas. I think that Phil Ryu has invented Product Design 2.0.
You can see the design ideas here.
A few days ago, I remember hearing about the challenges that Chrysler is facing coming up with a replacement for the PT Cruiser. Copying Phil Ryu’s idea would be a brilliant way for Chrysler to build major brand buzz and cheaply generate the buzz they needed for their next product.
Start with a Contest for the best sketches. Pick 8 finalists. Get the people to refine their designs, and just like America’s Idol or Britain’s Pop Idol, start to kick out designs. Finally, the last 3 designers get to work with a professional Chrysler design team to make a real Concept Car. Get everyone to vote on their favourite, and then put the new hit car into production.
I think your post is bang on and we are only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of this type of innovation. Guy Kawasaki did the same thing for the cover of his book “the art of the start”, and we all know Guy likes to be ahead of the curve.
I have been waiting for someone to develop a ebay-like system for exactly this. “sellers” post what they are looking for help/ideas with and what they will give as payment/reward for the best idea (doesn’t have to be money). People can browse the site and pitch in where they can.
All you need is a couple little mashups and you have an ultimate 2.0 idea generator.
Hi Rod,
I just read your post and you are right contests are a great way to collect new ideas. Speaking of Chrysler, our company, Idea Crossing, runs several online idea competitions…one of them is called the Innovation Challenge which is in its 4th year and attracts hundreds of participants from the Top 100 universities in over 20 countries. Daimler-Chrysler is participating this year and will pose a challenge question to the most innovative teams of students….what’s the question? Unfortunately, I can’t disclose that right now.
However, if you’re interested in becoming a judge and being exposed to pressing business challenges and possible solutions, please let me know. The Innovation Challenge launch is weeks away.
We are in the process of launching other online idea competitions for a wide variety of companies and organizations as we have built an automated system to handle all the processes.
For those willing to get a theorical background on user-driven innovation and read a very challenging book, a full version of Eric von Hippel’s book “Democratizing Innovation” can be downloaded at http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ.htm
You can also check what Prahalad wrote about the co-creation logic.
Customer driven innovation deserves more attention.
Most companies do a poor job of this. It is especially good for continuous improvement, and it has important “listening culture” spin offs in terms of brand loyalty if done correctly.
Technology offers a great way to harvest and analyse this input. Lowering the cost of ideas dramtically, and giving you tremedous insight into improvements in your current product line.
It is not without risks.
As Henry Ford said,
If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have asked for a faster horse.”
I guess the real challenge is to know when to ignore your customers. Big break throughs tend not be by committee or by vote.
Disruptive innovation must be encouraged too, and this often alienates the very users you court with participative innovation.
No-one ever said this was easy!