Is this provocative to ask? Well, yes. No. Depends on. Of course everyone has his ups and downs. Yet there’s more to it. Because nobody has the skills to be creative in every field. Or is there a sculptor in your band who is perfect in weaving tapestries, writing scripts for plays at the Old Vic, and at the same time artfully handling his stock shares himself and piling up his riches at the Caimans?
So why do I ask?
I’m not talking about finding a strategy or business model here. It is the very basic that comes first: ideas. Sounds simple, but be prepared for hard efforts. You know for yourself that ideas just won’t pop up when handy.
Ideas are the most elemental components of DIY marketing. A typical, though simplified process might look like this:
- generating & collecting ideas
- defining your aims
- analysing current conditions and settings
- connecting ideas to become concepts
- adopting concepts to strategies based upon aims
- finding partners to implement your strategies
In the real world it’s not at all that serial.
You’re in need of ideas. Regardless of whether you are planning to promote a new release, a gig, or a tour. No matter if it’s ideas in fundraising, how to cope with a company that is called just like your band. Be creative.
The whole process starts with ideas. You always can add new ones during the process of finding a strategy. It simply is inspiring and motivating. Also, it helps to generate future concepts and strategies too. Yet, if you can’t come up with ideas – it’s anything but motivating. It’s pure frustration.
So ideas are the key. Now how can you help yourself to find some? Is there some magic trick to be creative in marketing? Not really, but there are techniques to help you overcome mental logjams. Here’s the teaser. I’m going to introduce you to each one and explain them in detail during the next days:
- Brainstorming– group based finding associations.
- Synectics– grow a distance between you and your problem.
- Collective-Notebook (CNB)– distributed brainstorming.
- Mind mapping– visualisation of ideas, concepts, and underlying structures.
- Bisociation– generating ideas based upon “apparently incompatible frames of thought” (Wikipedia).
- Coincidence – take any word to spark thinking. Pick an arbitrary one from a catalogue or lexicon, from magazines or TV, from strolling through the city.
There are several ways and methods to approach this task – and there’s something to serve everybody. Some of them you are familiar with or you might think you are. It’s pretty useful to try and check them all. Collect all of your ideas in one place. Just like you keep track of your ideas for new songs.
I selected those I thought appropriate for our purpose. There are more of course – for instance, to innovate new products or to solve problems. These might be helpful in another context. If you’re in need of advice simply skype me or email me.
General advice:
- Don’t stick to one ore two ideas. The more the better.
- Think big. Think crazy. Think the impossible.
- Try anything – you might be surprised.
Don’t want to spoil your party… though it definitely will help you to develop new ideas it surely is no guarantee for success. There are songs, and there are hits.
