How do you apply creativity? Many businesses improve their product or a service, so they somewhat stand out compared to their competition. These mild innovations sometimes work, but there is an area you might want to consider expanding your creative efforts into, that will reap major benefits.
The importance of creativity
People love novelty. Focus is stronger, attention is better, and interest swells like an air mattress attached to a high-tech pump.
All the big brands know this. Apple used calligraphy for their fonts and presented their products in a hero narrative. Virgin was the first to introduce on-board massage sessions during their flights. Coca-Cola’s reach was built on creative ads and recruitment of imaginative storytellers.
Notice though the theme flowing through all of these examples: there was a deliberate creative effort in the service of a product.
Stand out at any cost is a terrible advice
The new businesses typically receive the following advice: make sure your product stands out from the competition.
The problem with this advice, though, is that it applies to a minor portion of the market. What if a company produces tissues, or vacuum cleaners? How much can you improve either of them and make them unique?
Granted, every product can be at least somewhat modified. However, the list is exhaustive by default and usually informed by customer remarks (typically complaints).
Occasionally, a revolutionary within a niche will come along and turn the entire global market upside-down, but, once the dust settles, the rest of the ensuing companies will be dealing with the minutia, improvement-wise. A screw less here or there, more resistant and stretchy material, earphones without cables to be tangled.
We need to look at the internal part of the company and how to make it external.
Service vs. Structure
Aside from improving a product, successful brands re-define how they interact with their clients. We went a long way from “I give you this, you give me that” to “You are important and valued and have the right to choose for your money”.
With the globalization process at full throttle, businesses have to start thinking in communal terms. The next creative frontier is in the domain of a company’s community ties.
We are already seeing this in reviews, stars, views and subscriptions. Brands are no longer valued based on self-proclaimed prestige, but on community-attested value they provide.
This is where Little Miss Creativity steps in as a CEO – and takes over business models.
As a small or medium sized business, you want to start therefore redefining your marketing and HR models. Make those brain cells work and make your company more communal and engaging.
How do you do that?
One of the options is the untapped field of scholarships.
Scholarships have the tendency to naturally and organically build communities, if leveraged correctly.
They can contribute to hiring processes, spreading the good word about companies and their products, and build a long-lasting bond between the two sides: the scholarship provider/employer/company on one hand, and student/intern/employee/community on the other.
This way, companies craft a wide reach that can spur the marketing growth and provide much more value than the usual marketing channels.
The upside? It is more affordable to go down the scholarship route than those channels. Just remember that Coca-Cola used to invest 50% of its revenue in marketing.
As a small-or-medium-sized business, your size actually works for you. You have a unique opportunity to leverage it through scholarships and build a much more efficient business model.
Scholarships are vastly underestimated and untapped resource that can turn your business around in a creative and engaging way.
If you want to learn more about scholarship business model and all the benefits it provides, click here. After that, go over to our website so we can craft together a unique creative scholarship and discuss what it can do for you.
