Synopses & Reviews
We all know the tale of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree and supposedly getting hit on the head with a falling apple… consequently coming up with the revolutionary concept of gravity. Most of us think of groundbreaking business ideas in the same way: a matter of happy inspiration over which we have no real control. But it’s time to stop thinking like that, and start taking control….
Written by marketing experts Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance—who’ve been on the ground floor of some of today’s most astounding big-idea successes—Breakthrough! reveals that there are actually systematic initiatives you and your company can implement to create, nurture, and develop unique and powerful ideas. These are the kinds of ideas that drive profitable new processes, products, and services that capture the public’s imagination and dramatically grow businesses.
Consider some famous cases of out-of-the-box thinking that turned conventional wisdom on its head, and transformed what people imagined was even possible:
• Everyone said “Dolls are for girls,” until Hasbro realized a whole new world of play with macho, military-inspired “action figures”—a toy called GI JOE.
• E*TRADE was a backroom processing application until their chairman realized the digital revolution meant the company could go directly to consumers and create a new industry called “online trading.”
• Everyone assumed baking soda began and ended with one spoonful at a time for baking. And then ARM & HAMMER busted that paradigm and suggested using an entire box to freshen the fridge…along with a hundred other new uses.
A winning idea can revolutionize a business! (Or at least dramatically improve a bottom line.) And Breakthrough! lays out for you an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for big-idea development, refinement, targeting, marketing, and marketplace execution. Packed with entertaining explanations of the practical procedures that can lead you to breakout hits, Breakthrough! gives you the inspiration and guidance you need to leverage this idea methodology; encourage free-thinking; nurture good ideas; and bring revolutionary, revenue-generating new concepts to market.
In seven simple steps you’ll discover the best practices you need to put in place to arrive at and launch new ideas that can become cultural and business phenomena. Filled with fascinating and illuminating examples, including Swiffer, Southwest Airlines, and Home Depot – plus a whole lot more – Breakthrough! supplies you with the techniques and procedures wildly successful companies use to consistently arrive at and launch the kind of industry-changing ideas that make consumers sit up and take notice.
Paul Kurnit is a well-known marketing expert and marketing professor at Pace University whose achievements at agencies such as Benton and Bowles, Ogilvy, and DDB’s Griffin Bacal include campaigns for Crest, American Express, and Transformers.
Steve Lance is a thirty-year veteran of advertising and marketing and an award-winning copywriter and creative director. He is coauthor of The Little Blue Book of Advertising.
Together, Paul and Steve are the authors of The Little Blue Book of Marketing.
Synopsis
Consider some big ideas that have become business and cultural phenomena: how Starbucks transformed a declining coffee market by combining an experience destination with a premium product. Or how the established notion that “dolls are for girls” was shattered by a toy line called G.I. Joe.
Most people mistakenly think breakthrough ideas are a matter of divine inspiration and luck. This book reveals a step-by-step methodology individuals and organizations can use to develop, create, and nurture the kinds of new products and services that capture the public’s imagination. Loaded with examples—and packed with straightforward explanations of the processes that can lead to breakout hits—this book shows readers how to create an idea methodology, encourage free-thinking, keep good ideas, and bring revolutionary, revenue-generating new concepts to market.
Synopsis
Companies need new ideas the way people need food. It’s the energy that grows and sustains them. But where do they come from? And when was the last time you or your company came up with a breakthrough idea, product, or service that not only made it to the marketplace, but transformed traditional expectations and captured the public’s imagination?
Take Target, for example. Conventional wisdom had it that Big Box discounters were all about price…until they decided that value could include style and convenience, as well. Or 3M, a company known for making adhesives that stuck well, until one of their scientists came up with an adhesive that stuck poorly…but would always re-stick. Some organizations would have ignored the possibilities when a secretary started using them all over the office to post notes for people….
From Twitter, to Pringles, to iPhones, to Miller Lite (who’d have thought beer-drinking men were interested in cutting calories?), Breakthrough! distills the powerful techniques that successful companies have used to arrive at revolutionary new concepts, revealing a proven, repeatable process you can use at your own organization to systematically generate and develop your next great idea.
In seven clear and practical steps, Breakthrough! helps you develop the next ahead-of-the-curve idea that will capture the attention of your customers, broaden your market, and send sales into the stratosphere.
Many people think breakthrough ideas are a matter of luck. But this book reveals how many of the best ones are the result of careful planning and execution. With tons of real-life examples, this book rewrites the idea development rule book—giving you systematic techniques for getting business buy-in, designating a paradigm-busting task force in your company, knowing how to spot the “big idea” when you see it, developing an innovation plan, process, and milestones, and piloting the launch of your product or service.
Is the pursuit of Big Ideas standard operating procedure for your business? Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an executive, Breakthrough! arms you with the tools you need to ensure that your company is consistently generating and following through on the kind of blockbuster ideas that can change the playing field for your business and your entire market.
About the Author
PAUL KURNIT is a well-known marketing expert and marketing professor at Pace University whose achievements at agencies such as Benton and Bowles, Ogilvy and DDB’s Griffin Bacal include campaigns for Crest, American Express, and Transformers. STEVE LANCE is a thirty-year veteran of advertising and marketing and an award-winning copywriter and creative director. He is coauthor of The Little Blue Book of Advertising. Together, they are the authors of The Little Blue Book of Marketing.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Overview: What’s a Big Idea?
Step 1: Put an End to Business as Usual
1 How Ya Doin’?
2 Why Rules Are Traps
3 The New Rules
Step 2: Get Business Buy-In
4 Build the Sale
5 Make It Stick
Step 3: Organize the Team and Process
6 True Believers, Consensus Builders, and Odd Ducks
7 Fire Up the Engines
8 Parameters and Process
Step 4: Land on the Big Idea
9 What Are You Selling?
10 What Are You Looking For?
11 The Competitive Landscape
12 Coming Up with the Big Idea
13 Give Every Idea a Chance to Live
14 Sifting and Winnowing
Step 5: Build Momentum for the Idea
15 Determine the Dimensions of the Idea
16 Research
17 Due Diligence
18 Budgets
19 Management Buy-In
Step 6: Develop the Plan
20 What Should the Plan Look Like?
21 Sell in the Plan
22 Who Ya Gonna Call?
Step 7: The Launch
23 Let’s Do Launch
24 Implement a Readable Test
25 Read, Roll, or Kill
26 Celebrate!
27 The End—And the Beginning
Index
About the Authors