Brand Innovation and the Art of Design Thinking
"Design Thinking" may seem like just another new buzzword in the lexicon of innovation, but many companies are using the approach to change their culture. Leadership is listening, learning, and deploying; cross-functional teams are cracking vexing problems across its business landscape; and visualization, prototyping, and iteration are facilitating communication with customers like never before. Here's a look inside one of the most intriguing change management efforts going on in Corporate America today.
Design Thinking Facilitation exists in every function at TBG such as strategic planning, digital interaction, experiential practice, as well as brand and product design. "We want people to use these techniques daily in their work—using broad insights; learning faster; failing faster. Design thinking can be applied everywhere, every day, with all consumers" says Antonio Patric Buchanan, CEO of TBG.
This attitude signifies an extreme shift from traditional advertising agencies or brand consultancies.
REFRAMING IS THE KEY
"Once business leaders see they can use brand innovation and design thinking to reframe problems, they are transformed," says Buchanan. "The analytical process typically used to identify problems and alternatives, to develop several ideas and do a final external check with the customer—gets flipped. Instead, design thinking methods prevail by using a broader consumer context to inform the opportunity, brainstorm a large quantity of fresh ideas and co-create and iterate using low-resolution prototypes with that consumer" says APB.
In his new book about to be released, Creating Controlled Chaos: Consumers Leading Innovation One Experience at a Time, Buchanan explains the difference between the two methods: "Market research firms and ad agencies tend to focus on inductive thinking (based on directly observable facts) and deductive thinking (logic and analysis, typically based on past evidence)," he says. "Design schools emphasize abductive thinking—imagining what could be possible. This new thinking approach helps us challenge assumed constraints and add to ideas, versus discouraging them."
“Digital tools such as our digital-DNA and Noiz-E platforms allow for users to innovate and inform on their own terms," says Jay Myers, CIO at TBG. "This is not traditional market research — asking customers what they want. This is identifying what your most advanced users are already doing and understanding what their innovations mean for the future of brand engagement." Something big is happening here. Technology is allowing people to be heard globally and design their own experiences. Companies should be in the business of listening to these “creative consumers.” Today, people are critiquing only ads for companies; tomorrow, they will develop entire services. This is one cool trend we need to follow.
"We see this as an exciting progression, a next step in which we engage people even more intensively," says Paris Buchanan, President of TBG.
She continues, "For instance with TBG’s Multiple Encounter Approach, various stakeholders will be involved at a number of different points in the creation process, and much earlier than before. Through research, home visits, online conversations and experience testing, an ongoing dialogue is established that generates deeper insights resulting in designing more meaningful and measurable Brand engagement opportunities.”
It also means that propositions and concepts are much more aligned with what people like, because they themselves have been involved in developing them.
TBG preaches a lot about user-led innovation - letting consumers get more and more involved in the design and execution of advertising, experiences, new products and services. TBG has used this technique effectively for Lucent Technologies, American Express and AT&T.
