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July 06, 2006
Get out to find great ideas
Stuck in the summer doldrums? Feel like your job is the very definition of insanity, because you keep doing things the same way and hoping for a different result?
You need to climb out of that box, break out of your cubicle/office, and get the heck out of corporate headquarters. It’s the only way you’ll be able to shake up your thinking and get new ideas that will help you reach and engage employees.
Call it research, call it brainstorming, call it a sick day—whatever it takes, just do it. Here are five places to find great ideas:
Visit a mall, a supermarket or a big box store (like Target, Lowes, Bed Bath & Beyond). The whole idea of these establishments is to get you to buy. So they’re masters at creating messages, using visuals, and even positioning merchandise so you’ll pick up that product and put it in your cart. Observe not only the store’s techniques, but what customers do in response. For example, the other day I noticed that the kid-friendly fruity snacks were located at a five-year-old’s eye level. And a five-year-old was picking up a package and saying, “Mommy? Can I have this?” Coincidence? I think not. Ask yourself: “Could I apply some of these practices in my environment?”
Talk to young people aged 10 to 18. Better yet, text-message them. This generation is absolutely growing up on new media and cool gadgets; chances are, they’re using a cell phone right now to do things you’ve never even imagined. Ask them what they watch on TV, what they read (yeah, right!), what they do for fun. Think about how their preferences relate to how your organization’s young workers want to be communicated with.
Browse a newsstand and look at magazines you’d ordinarily never read (or some you would but never admit it). Notice particularly how the following categories of publications handle visuals and copy:
- Celebrity (Us Weekly, People, Star)
- Teen (Seventeen, CosmoGIRL!, Teen People)
- Sports (Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Sporting News)
- Shopping (Lucky, Shop, Domino)
See how dominant photographs and visual images have become? How little copy is being used? How dynamic and fast-paced the editorial is? Consider how to use these techniques in your own print publications.
Go to Times Square in New York City or The Strip in Las Vegas. (I’m sure your boss will understand; it’s on-the-job research.) Notice how video has hit the streets. In Times Square, guys who used to don sandwich-board signs now wear video monitors advertising everything from soft drinks to cruises. See how stores (Macy’s) and casino hotels (Tropicana) are using giant flat screens to play commercials to catch pedestrians’ attention as they pass by. Think about how you could use video in your lobbies, elevators or cafeterias.
Board a plane (You need to get home from Las Vegas or New York, anyway). Watch how people spend their time in flight or waiting in the airport. A few might be reading Anna Karenina, but most are probably doing something a little less intellectual: Listening to an iPod, watching a movie on a laptop, playing video solitaire, flipping through a magazine, talking on a cell phone. Consider how people’s pass-the-time preferences relate (or don’t relate) to the ways your organization communicates.
There are lots of other places you could visit for inspiration, including an amusement park (which lines are longest?), an electronics store (what’s the hot product?), or an ethnic neighborhood (how are the signs and products different?). You get the point: Inspiration is rarely found in the carpeted halls of headquarters; you need to get out to find it.
See you at the mall.
Posted by Alison Davis at July 6, 2006 10:22 AM