The theory behind marketing ideas

"New ideas can come from a company's own sales or production staff, middlemen, competitors, consumer surveys, or other sources such as trade associations, advertising agencies or government agencies."

"By analysing new and different views of the company's markets and studying present consumer behaviour, a marketing manager can spot opportunities that have not yet occurred to competitors - or even to potential customers. For example, ideas for new service concepts may come directly from analysis of consumer complaints."

"But finding new product ideas can't be left to chance. Companies do need a continuous flow so they can spot an opportunity early - while there's still time to do something about it. Although later steps eliminate many ideas, a company must have some that succeed."

Sounds like good advice but where does it come from? The reader may be surprised at the source of such insightful comment. They are taken from Basic Marketing - A Global-Managerial Approach, William D. Perreault, Jr. & E. Jerome McCarthy (pg 324-325), one of the prescribed books for courses run by IMM.

This is the theory that most people learn for exams and then forget. It is advice that could easily have come out of a book written by a self-made entrepreneur with less of an academic lilt to the language style and then it would have been chanted mantra style in the media.

The bottom line with ideas is that if they aren't being generated there will be no mega success stories. Not every idea succeeds, in fact most don't, but even bad ones can in turn stimulate thinking along lines that could generate something special.

Can any company afford laziness or complacency? Unfortunately most do until their competition catches up and bursts ahead. Different industries and markets have different lag times and catch up time can vary from hours to years and even decades.

The principle remains the same in any example though, and companies should be constantly alert to options that could make them more efficient, productive, competitive or just more user friendly.

Ideas differ across industries and increased speed of service can be just as beneficial to one company as the roll out of a much improved product can be to another.

Speed is essential in moving with a good idea but speed is also critical when it comes to killing the idea that isn't working. Bad and ill-timed ideas can be just as exponential as good ones.