Here’s a statement you can take to the bank! Powerful marketing builds confidence and invites a purchase. But, most agree, powerful marketing demands creativity.
   So what is marketing creativity?
   My dictionary defines creativity as, “The ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things, especially in an artistic context.” So, creativity starts with imagination, the part of the mind where ideas, thoughts, and images are formed.
   Most agree that using your imagination, being creative, stems from knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the more creative you can be.

   Creativity when applied to the arts has the sole purpose of inspiring human enjoyment. Think of the artist, dancer, writer, musician or poet you find most enjoyable.
   Creativity in marketing also has one purpose: generate continuing profitable sales. So marketing creativity may be less esoteric, easier to understand. It fulfills its purpose by providing consumers with either a problem resolution or fulfillment of an aspiration.
   But beware the Genius! You know, the guy who cries out, “I’ve got a great idea! No time for research! We’ll lose the opportunity!” Without the foundation of a solid, compelling consumer oriented strategy, 98% will fail!
Gather Knowledge
   Gathering market knowledge is a never-ending quest! It’s a constant search for the right questions to ask and then asking them.
   Stay with this thought. The more you know about your customer, the more likely it is you clearly understand their problems and aspirations. As a result you’ll offer the right product, at the right time, at the right place with the right price.
   All too frequently it’s the constant business pressures that consume a marketer’s day. Even so, many are confident they do have most of the right answers. But, inevitably, they lose an intimate “touch” with their market. Certainly, market research numbers may fill some of the gap but creativity is diminished.
   It’s easy to regain your intimate “touch” with a technique called Probing. It stimulates your creativity and compliments market research. You gain an insight to customer problems, a glimpse of aspirations.
   To start, prepare a few carefully written open-ended questions that focus upon building your knowledge. Select 20 to 25 consumers at random, meet individually. Use your questions to create a conversation, a dialogue – not a “typical” Q&A survey. Stimulate the conversational flow. Listen carefully. Make notes. Think creatively.
   Let's use Olay as an example. I'd start our conversation by determining which Olay products you use. Let's say they're Age Defying Anti-Wrinkle products. Have Olay Age Defying Anti-Wrinkle products met your expectations? Then, to stimulate the conversational flow: Is there more you'd care to share with me?
Then I'd ask: Do your friends share your feelings about the products? Is there more you'd care to share with me? 
   All the while, listen carefully. Make notes. Think creatively.
   Olay, by the way, is my favorite creative marketing story: “Olay began in the home laboratory of chemist Graham Wulff in the early 1950s” its website says. “He dreamt of creating a new beauty product for women that not only made them look and feel beautiful but that also embodied the essence of beauty itself.”
   Today, Olay is P&G’s carefully crafted line of women’s skin care products with global sales over $1 billion. For the whole story, click on olay.com/discoverolay/past.jsp.
Love Your Skin
   Olay’s promise is: “Love the skin you’re in! Take the guesswork out of skin care.”
   That’s a powerful promise – and a resolution of a significant problem carefully integrated with fulfillment of personal aspirations. It reveals an intimate, creative marketing touch, a promise that women understand and easily accept.
   Both Graham Wulff and P&G’s people share a creative marketing “secret” that can also be yours: “Combine products that fit a woman's lifestyle with leading-edge technology and a deep understanding of her changing needs, and you have a potent formula for success.”
   My suggestion…It's up to you to listen, to observe and to make connections that lead to innovation and creativity
Find new ideas and marketing guidelines in Jack G Hardy's IDEA Vault.

Jack G Hardy