getFreshMinds.com | Ideas so fresh--they should be slapped!

A new way of looking at dessert

I used to work in a restaurant where we were always pressured to sell desserts to guests.

Problem was... after a big meal, not many people had room for dessert.  Especially not the huge desserts that my restaurant carried - that were too way rich for just one person to eat.

Don't get me wrong; the desserts were amazing and I highly recommended them. 

But it's hard to convince someone to spend $4-5 on an extra treat when they're already full.

So, I really love the new desserts at Applebee's.  They're small, shot-glass sized versions of their regular desserts.

Here's why it's brilliant:

The small size makes it seem like a treat, not an indulgence.
Dessert is not a waistline-ruining decision, it's a fun way to end the meal.

They're only $1.99 instead of $4. 
That's much easier to justify.  Plus, it's an easy way to sample desserts without the risk of getting one you don't like.

No more arguing over which dessert to buy.
If he wants death by chocolate and she wants the strawberry cheesecake... not a problem!

The mini desserts are just cute! 
Look at them!  Don't you want one?  I do.

I bet Applebee's sells a lot more desserts this way than they did before.  Definitely a good idea!

Lush's fresh way of engaging their newsletter subscribers.

A lot of big retail companies struggle to engage their communities.  They collect emails, and then usually find themselves at a loss about what to do next. 

Most do it wrong.  They either completely forget about sending timely emails or they turn into prolific, horribly annoying spammers that don't allow people to unsubscribe.  <cough> <American Airlines> <cough>

Lush, however, does it right.

I've written about Lush before as a company that takes a very bold approach to coming up with new products.  (They come up with over 100 new soaps every year!) 

Now they're taking a fresh approach to introducing their community to their new website.

Right now, Lush is running an online scavenger hunt for a $1000 gift certificate to their store. 

Every day, a new riddle is posted on the Lush website, and Lush fans are invited to find the website page that the riddle is referring to. 

Then all they have to do is paste the page's url into the entry form and submit.  For extra entries, they can refer friends to the scavenger hunt.

It takes about 30 seconds to enter and the page is usually really easy to find. 

(Enter here, if you're interested. And, if you're nice, put katiekonrath@gmail.com as your referrer.)

This contest is a great idea from Lush.

It gets people to come to their website everyday, it challenges them to explore the website beyond the front page, and it gently pushes them to send their friends there as well.

Plus, it's written in a fun, friendly tone that completely supports their brand.

There's a lot business and innovators can learn from Lush's fresh approach. Instead of viewing email lists as an advertising medium, it's time to start thinking about ways to engage people and get them to dive deeper into our websites/material/etc.

I'm already thinking about how I can build off this idea for getFreshMinds.com!

Anyone interested in doing a scavenger hunt for creativity books?

Tom Friedman tells off the automakers for not innovating.

GREAT article in the NY Times yesterday by Thomas Friedman.  He really slams the car companies for failing to innovate.  And check out his interview on Hardball:

Based on his statements in the article (below), I'd say he read the same USA Today article that made me so mad:

It wasn’t a bailout, [Bob Nardelli, CEO of Chrysler] said. It was a way to enable the car companies to retool for innovation. I could not help but shout back at the TV screen: “We have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business were you people in other than innovation?” If we give you another $25 billion, will you also do accounting?

... How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it.

...The result was an industry that became brain dead.

... somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.

Obviously he doesn't advocate destroying Detroit: which would be devastating.  But he does give a big dressing down to the car companies for sticking their heads in the sand for so long.

It's fun to read.  Check it out.

After reading his column, I was so happy that someone was finally standing up to the automakers that I immediately bought his new book on Amazon.  If you like what Thomas Friedman has to say, you should buy it too... it's on the need for green innovation and should be fabulous!

Keeping up with the latest innovation posts.

Guy Kawasaki and Alltop just came out with a very cool widget that shows all the latest posts in the selected categories.

It looks like this:

I just added a slimmer version into the sidebar of getFreshMinds.com, so be sure to take a glance over there when you're finished reading here.

<sigh> It would be perfect if it only it came in green...

Conversational Capital

When people talk about creativity and ideas, they normally talk about "what" and "how".

"This laptop has new features A, B, and C - which is why it's special." 

"That car get better gas millage through it's XYZ special process."

"This idea is so fantastic because we combined the expertise of AB with YZ... and look at the amazing combination that we came up with!"

A lot of times, it seems that we get so caught up in the fancy features of our ideas that we forget a pretty important part of innovation... getting people to actually want it!

For that reason, I'm definitely a fan of a new book called Conversational Capital because instead of just talking about how to get an idea, Conversational Capital focuses on how to make a new idea something people want to talk about.

As much as I'd love to believe amazing ideas will become instant successes all on their own, I know that's not true. 

Great ideas fail all the time, in fact.  And, mediocre or down-right-ridiculous ideas succeed all the time.

Often, the determining factor is that the not-so-amazing idea got people talking about it... and the amazing idea didn't.

So, I love how Conversational Capital talks about designing a new product or service with marketing in mind.  I think this makes a lot of sense: there's no point in investing a lot of time/money in a new idea - only to have to slap some marketing polish on it afterward and hope for good results.

The part that really makes this book helpful is that the authors don't leave us hanging in the dark about how to  make conversations happen.  They share 8 different ways to make an experience extraordinary so that customers want to talk about it.

My three favorites are:

Continuity - Making an effort to be exactly who you say you are.  (So if you saw your airline gives the best flying experience, you do!)  This seems like a "duh" point, but so many companies make empty claims that the companies who actually do what they say stand out.

Tribalism - This is about building passionate communities.  Think Apple, or Harley-Davidson.  Those people really care about a brand, and become proud ambassadors for it.

Relevant Sensory Oddity - About presenting the senses (not just the eyes) with such a unique experience that people want to talk about it.  Like the Volkswagen Beetles' unique shape, or Abercrombie & Fitch's loud, dimly-lit stores.

Not all the conversation-starting suggestions will work for all ideas, but even incorporating one or two of them into your new product or service will make it stand out. 

I like this book because it challenges people to change how they think when they're coming up with ideas.  Most creativity books focus on the idea process, while most marketing books focus only on marketing a new product or service.

Conversational Capital does a good job combining the two.  For that, it's definitely worth reading!

Buy it now on Amazon.

US Elections 2008 - Today's the day!

What are you reading blog posts for?  Get off the computer and go vote!

Find your polling place here.