There is nothing new under the sun. However, it is through the combination of non-new things that new breakthroughs occur.
Many of the greatest inventions and business ideas are really just combinations of other products, practices, and concepts.
- Combine a phonograph with a laser and you get the CD player.
- Combine a copy machine and a telephone, and presto!…fax machine.
- Most importantly, combine rich chocolate with delicious peanut butter and you get a scrumptious treat and a multi-million dollar candy business.
Combinations are not just used for inventing nifty new products. By examining another industry and applying some of their concepts to your work, you can also make major advancements.
Real Life Combination Breakthroughs
Combination is how Federal Express revolutionized shipping. Mike Basch, an original founder of Fed Ex, saw how the banking industry processed checks overnight. He used the same “central location” concept for shipping packages.
Boxers and martial artists have been shadow boxing (punching and/or kicking in mid-air) for centuries to sharpen their skills and to stay in shape. Billy Blanks put this practice to music, called it Tae Bo, made some infommercials, and started a multi-million dollar fitness fad.
At the beginning of the internet revolution in the early 90’s, America Online was way behind its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy. Rather than do the “expected” and just advertise on the television and radio the way the two larger companies did, AOL opted to make their fortune on the backend.
So, they gave their software and trial memberships away for FREE wherever computers and software were sold, as well as in the mail, and even with pizza deliveries. Computer owners had no excuse not to try it. By the time the free trial was over, users were already hooked on AOL. It made no since to them to uninstall AOL and then pay to install software from a different company they’ve never even tried. Thus, America Online became one of the biggest successes in the internet age.
Whether they knew it or not, America Online had marketed their service exactly the same way drug dealers have for decades. In other words: give a client a free first sample; get them hooked; and they’ll come back to you for more.
First, Break All the Rules
In order to find new and innovative ways to use the power of combination to your advertising and marketing advantage, you have to break your pre-conceived notions of the way you think marketing SHOULD be done.
After all, if you do what you’ve always done, then you will get what you’ve always gotten.
If you only do what every one else is doing, then you can only hope to reach their level of success at best.
If your print ad or commercial looks and sounds like all the others, it will get lost in the shuffle.
You have to stand out. You have to innovate. You have to create. The easiest way is to combine.
Maybe an episode of The Simpsons will help demonstrate the invisible barriers in our minds that may be holding you back from your breakthrough potential.
“D’OH!”
In the episode, they are spoofing famous fairy tales with The Simpsons “cast” playing different characters from the books. At one point Bart and Lisa (the Simpson children, for the uninitiated) are lost in the woods where they stumble upon the home of the three bears of Goldilocks fame.
Bart is hungry and he spies the table with the infamous three bowls of porridge. He tastes the largest bowl and says that it’s too hot. He tries the next, medium-size bowl and announces that it’s too cold. Finally, he looks at the third, smallest bowl and proclaims, “Well, this doesn’t take a genius”.
What does he do?
Bart proceeds to grab the second bowl that was too cold, pours it into the large bowl that was too hot, mixes them together and proceeds to gulp it down! He ignores the small bowl all together!
You’re wrong, Bart Simpson! That kind of thinking does take a genius!
If you’re like me, when it came to the question of what Bart was going to do, you would have thought, “He eats the third bowl.” Why would we think that way? Perhaps it is because we’ve been conditioned through years of repetition of the original Goldilocks story. After all, choosing the third bowl is the way it has always been done.
However, by breaking the conditioned response and using a fresh perspective, Bart Simpson came away with a lot more porridge. You can, too.
Combination is the Key.
If you are still skeptical about how you can use the power of combination to take your marketing in new and exciting directions, then try this next creativity exercise we used in radio:
- Take a piece of paper and cut it into ten equal pieces.
- On five of those pieces, write down a different sound effect like a duck quacking or thunder or something.
- On the other five pieces write down one client on each piece (or general client like “auto dealer”, “insurance company”, or “plumber”)
- Ball up each of the sound effects and put them in your left hand.
- Do the same with the other five pieces and put them in your right hand.
- Shuffle them around like you’re rolling two sets of dice.
- Drop one from the left and one from the right onto your desk so that you have a random sound effect with a random client.
- Open them up to see what they are and use your imagination to create a commercial (or even a campaign) using that sound with that client.
How could you use the sound of a duck quacking for an insurance company? Just ask AFLAC.
As you can see, you don’t have to be a creative genius to create genius marketing for yourself or your clients. The simple power of combination can break you through to a marketing breakthrough of your own.
Actually, I believe there is nothing new under the sun. Everything has already been thought of or done before. It is through the combination of these things that new breakthroughs occur. You can see that in the examples I’ve already given you.
Even in my jewelry store scenario, I just combined a movie theater experience with a jeweler to come up with ten ideas. Nothing in that scenario or those ideas was inherently new. The romantic movie, the reaction of the female audience, ticket giveaways, top 10 lists, on-site contests… what’s creative there? Nothing. However, combination creates.
If I can do it, you can too!
The following is a perfect illustration of how even a simple cartoon can lead to a melon tweaking experience.
“D’OH!”
Ever watch the animated television show, The Simpsons? An incident in one of the episodes epitomizes the “tweak your melon” idea that I’m trying to convey in this chapter.
In the episode, they are spoofing famous fairy tales with The Simpsons “cast” playing different characters from the books. At one point Bart and Lisa (the Simpson children, for the uninitiated) are lost in the woods where they stumble upon the home of the three bears of Goldilocks fame.
Bart is hungry and he spies the table with the infamous three bowls of porridge. He tastes the largest bowl and says that it’s too hot. He tries the next, medium-size bowl and announces that it’s too cold. Finally, he looks at the third, smallest bowl and proclaims, “Well, this doesn’t take a genius”.
What does he do?
Bart proceeds to grab the second bowl that was too cold, pours it into the large bowl that was too hot, mixes them together and proceeds to gulp it down! He ignores the small bowl all together!
You’re wrong, Bart Simpson! That kind of thinking does take a genius!
If you’re like me, when it came to the question of what Bart was going to do, you would have thought, “He eats the third bowl.” Why would we think that way? Perhaps it is because we’ve been conditioned through years of repitition of the original Goldilocks story. After all, choosing the third bowl is the way it has always been done.
However, by breaking the conditioned response and using a fresh perspective, Bart Simpson came away with a lot more porridge. You can, too.
Combination is the Key.
In the story, Bart combined the two largest bowls to solve his dilemma. Ironically, combination is the key to most breakthroughs. Think about it. Most of the truly great inventions and business ideas came through combinations of other products, practices, and concepts.
- Combine a phonograph with a laser and you get the compact disc player.
- Combine a copy machine and a telephone, and presto!…fax machine.
- Most importantly, combine rich chocolate with delicious peanut butter and you get a scrumptious treat and a multi-million dollar candy business.
Combinations are not just used for inventing nifty new products. By examining another industry and applying some of their concepts to your work, you can also make major advancements.
That’s what happened with the aforementioned Federal Express. Mike Basch, an original founder of Fed Ex, saw how the banking industry processed checks overnight. He used the same “central location” concept for shipping packages.
Boxers and martial artists have been shadow boxing (punching and/or kicking in mid-air) for centuries to sharpen their skills and to stay in shape. Billy Blanks put this practice to music, called it Tae Bo, made some infommercials, and started a multi-million dollar fitness fad.
At the beginning of the internet revolution in the early 90’s, America Online was way behind its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy. Rather than do the “expected” and just advertise on the television and radio the way the two larger companies did, AOL opted to make their fortune on the backend.
So, they gave their software and trial memberships away for FREE wherever computers and software were sold, as well as in the mail, and even with pizza deliveries. Computer owners had no excuse not to try it. By the time the free trial was over, users were already hooked on AOL. It made no since to them to uninstall AOL and then pay to install software from a different company they’ve never even tried. Thus, America Online became one of the biggest successes in the internet age.
Whether they knew it or not, America Online had marketed their service exactly the same way drug dealers have for decades. In other words: give a client a free first sample; get them hooked; and they’ll come back to you for more.
At the end of this chapter is a list of activities you can do to keep “your melon tweaked” so that you will continue to create, grow, and prosper. However, I will give you one quick exercise right now that will demonstrate how combination can give you the creativity you may not know that you already possess.
Take a piece of paper and cut it into ten equal pieces. On five of those pieces, write down a different sound effect like a duck quacking or thunder or something. On the other five pieces write down one client on each piece (or general client like “auto dealer”, “insurance company”, or “plumber”) Ball up each of the sound effects and put them in your left hand. Do the same with the other five pieces and put them in your right hand. Shuffle them around like you’re rolling two sets of dice.
Drop one from the left and one from the right onto your desk so that you have a random sound effect with a random client. Open them up to see what they are and use your imagination to create a radio commercial (or even a campaign) using that sound with that client.
How could you use the sound of a duck quacking for an insurance company? Just ask AFLAC.
As you can see, you don’t have to be a creative genius to create genius campaigns for your client. The simple power of combination can make you look like a creative genius in front of your clients and employers. It can help you find those shorter distances between two points.
