Automotive innovation. It (or the lack of it) effects us all. Concept cars, like the CarGo above, designed by Adam Schacter, always tickle The Innovative Brain. But the reality is that most automotive innovation is...
incremental in nature. It's difficult to gain competitive advantage in the auto sector via materials science, unique engineering, or streamlined manufacturing because secrets in these areas are hard to keep. Since any car company can do these things, there is absolutely no barrier to entry. If a new polymer is invented that makes for a great bumper or quarter panel, you can bet that every manufacturer will have access to it in a year or two if they want. If Ford's experiment with aluminum frames works out in the F-150 truck, we'll see it elsewhere rapidly. Collision avoidance systems are primarily being developed by vendors to car companies - not the companies themselves - and that technology is available to anyone who wants to pay for it.
And the thinking processes that drive innovation are freely available to anyone who wants to be trained in them.
Tata, for example, repeated what Volkswagen did in 1934 to create the Tata Nano. The creative thinking process each used to develop their car can be described as SCAMPER, a cognitive method available to anyone. Don't get us wrong. Innovation is happening in automotive. Lots of it. But it tends toward incremental rather than breakthrough. My generation all grew up thinking we'd be in flying cars by now, and are soar-ly disappointed!
At the moment, it seems that some of the most interesting innovation in the automotive sector has to do with the way marketing is being tackled. Our friends at TE Connectivity (recent recipient - 4th year in a row - of the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators Award) found a fun way to demonstrate just how many automotive innovations are fueled by their creative engineers and products.
As you'll see in the fun and edgy videos we're sharing, building brand loyalty is about telling the STORY of innovation as much as it's about the actual creativity showing up in the product.
Below you'll be able to watch three provocative videos. There's a bit of "two-step innovation" in all of them. Each, in some way, builds off of another company's ad. After watching the first, you'll see how an ad from one company creates the opportunity for the ad from another. Is it copycat? We don't think so. All innovation builds from creativity that existed previously. They're "edgy" because there will be some small segment of the population that might find them offensive. But on social media, people usually share what they LIKE rather than waste time on what they don't.
We invite you to have a little irreverent fun watching these, and then ask yourself: What might be all of the ways these videos can stimulate creative ideas in my area of passion?
The first one might best be called "Little Blue Pill" or "Mouse Trap." Target market? Men.
The second, we'll call "Patriot" or "Oversized Plate of Meat and Potatoes." Target market? Wealthy Conservatives.
The third, (our favorite) we'll call "Granola" or "Recycle." Heck, even the video is a recycle! Target market? Green Consumers.
Love them or hate them, each is an example of the human creative spirit. That, we'll always applaud!
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