Creative Marketing: a New Management Philosophy: The Pathway to Market Supremacy

By Robin Luke

Creative Marketing lifts marketing theory and practice to a higher order,-a third level above Operational and Strategic Marketing. It provides a new mapping structure, rationale, market research methodology and a new unifying philosophical basis. It involves a new and highly proactive approach to superior market value creation. A secondary objective of the text is to draw marketing back into the province of general management, acknowledging that it has for too long been divorced from its roots and thereby become dominated by an academic perspective.

The author argues that the discipline is currently unable to provide any definitive set of strategies that offer some prospect of guaranteed success under all possible market conditions. This is because traditional marketing has been predicated on the basis that incremental improvements in a companys marketing mix is the only way to build and defend some sort of competitive market advantage. In practice, this advantage is often easily and quickly eroded by the actions of competitors. Contrary to this common (organizational development) wisdom, long-term empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that it is the companies that dominate their particular industry,-that in fact own the industry standard, that enjoy the highest profit margins and enjoy the longest periods of largely uncontested market supremacy.

Creative Marketing as described in this book offers a means whereby any company can, given sufficient creative imagination, come to dominate its industry, irrespective of its present market status. This is because the processes involved are not contingent upon some sort of technological superiority or extensive financial or other resources. The text provides the methodology for realizing the long-sought envelope curve path of corporate growth and profitability, that means never having to complete an industry life cycle,-perhaps the Holy Grail of Marketing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Nov 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452526461

Robin Luke

Robin Luke spent more than 30 years in a number of middle and senior marketing/management roles prior to taking up teaching Marketing and Management subjects at various universities in Melbourne since 2002. He is currently undertaking research for his doctorate, at the ripe old age of 69.

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Copyright © 2014 Robin Luke.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-2645-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-2646-1 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 11/18/2014

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DEDICATION

This text is dedicated to two intellectual giants of the past,

Joseph Schumpeter (1883 - 1950) (Economics) and Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005) (Management)

(Two thirds of ‘The Austrian School’)

Their profound ideas provided both the foundation and the inspiration for this text.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The kind efforts of Felix Mavondo, Professor of Marketing and Director of Higher Degrees by Research, Monash University and Bryan Lukas, Professor of Marketing, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia, in reviewing the draft of this text and providing many useful suggestions, is gratefully acknowledged. Their support and encouragement over the last few years has been very much appreciated. Any errors or omissions are however, the responsibility of the author.

• The photos of the Hanse Colani Rotor House (Case Study 1) are included in this text with the kind permission of Hanse Haus of Germany ([e-mail])

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

List Of Figures

Foreword

Preface

Introduction: Thinking Creatively

The Creative Chain

Adjacent Possibilities

Complexity

Where Do Ideas Come From?

Purposeful Creativity: The Envelope Curve

Chapter 1 Creative Marketing & Other Creative Techniques,

Marketing Concepts & Strategies

Creative Marketing: What Is It?

Strategic Marketing

Co-Creation Of Value

The Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Economy

Strategic Foresight

Social Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Chapter 2 The Attributes Of Creative Marketing

General Attributes

Comparative Marketing Attributes

Comparative Marketing Focuses

Check List Of Major Attributes

Chapter 3 Methodology: Processes Of Value Creation

Methodology: Processes Of Value Creation

Mission Audits

Multi-Level Marketing

Chapter 4 Creative Marketing: Values & Opportunities For Value Capture

Valuing System.

Tracking Value Migration.

Value Capture

Resurrecting & Transforming Past Innovations.

Changing Business Models To Access New Market

Opportunities And Countering New Market Threats.

New Consumerism

Chapter 5 When Does Creative Marketing Become Pre-Eminent?

When Does It Happen?

Why Does It Happen?

When Is It Too Late?

Chapter 6 Creative Marketing’s Applicability In

The Latter Stages Of The Industry Life Cycle

Industry And Market Structures Across The Industry Life Cycle

The Importance And Opportunities Of The Dormancy Phase

Marketing In The Twilight Zone

Chapter 7 Spiral Dynamics & Creative Marketing

Spiral Dynamics

Exchange

Value

Choice

The Role Of Creative Marketing?

Chapter 8 Marketing As A Management Philosophy

Marketing In Antiquity

The Separation Of Marketing From Management: The Consequences

What Does Creative Marketing Offer?

How Might The Re-Unification

Of Management & Marketing

Be Brought About?

CONCLUSION

List Of References

Glossary & Extended Notes

Case Studies In Creative Marketing

Case Study #1: Colani Rotor Home

Case Study #2: Body Pampering System

Case Study #3: New Aircraft (747) Configuration

Infrastructure Service Supply Changes

Literature Reviews & Critiques

1. "Creative Marketing: An Extended Metaphor For

Marketing In A New Age" By Ian Fillis And Ruth

Rentschler. (Pub.) Palgrave Macmillan Uk, 2006)

2. Andrews, J.a. & Smith, D.s. "In Search Of The

Marketing Imagination: Factors Affection The Creativity

Of Marketing Programs For Mature Products" Journal Of

Marketing Research (Jmr) May 96 Vol. 33, Issue 2 Pp174 To 195

3. Alexander, M. "Creative Marketing &

Innovative Consumer Product Design - Some Case Studies"

Design Studies, Vol. 6 No.1 Pp41-50, Jan. 1985 (Manchester Polytechnic)

4. Kotler, P. & De Bes, F.t. Lateral Marketing

Pub: John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, U.s.a. 2003.

Teaching Materials

Learning Outcomes

What Is Creative Marketing?

Creative Marketing &

Other Creative Techniques

Relationship To Strategic Marketing

A Brief Outline Of Creative Marketing

LIST of FIGURES

Text

0.1. Bridge Building Model of Innovation.

0.2. Envelope Curve.

1.1. Different Levels of Marketing.

1.2. New Product & Services Development Processes.

1.3. Marketing Vectors

1.4. Innovation: Opportunity Matrix

1.5. AIDA &ADIA Models of Promotion

2.1 Comparative Marketing Attributes.

2.2 Comparative Marketing Focuses.

3.1 Rings of Customer Delight.

3.2 Missions/Needs Structure (Conceptual).

3.3 Conceptual Model: Alternative Mission Structures.

3.4 Missions Audit Processes Chart.

3.5 Multi-Function Bathroom Appliance.

4.1 Creative Marketing: A New Paradigm.

4.2 Migration Planning/Value Migration

4.3 Spiral Dynamics & Creative Marketing.

5.1 Discretionary Household Expenditure Hierarchy.

7.1 Evolution of Marketing Best Practice.

Case Studies

1.1 Hanse Colani Rotor House Exterior View.

1.2 Interior Views of Rotor House.

2.1 Multi-Function Bathroom Appliance (3D Rendering).

3.1 Proposed New Aircraft Configuration (Boeing 747).

FOREWORD

It is my pleasure to provide a foreword for Creative Marketing. This is a book that proffers a new lens of looking at marketing problems. The book brings together many years of enquiry and practical experience and a keen observation of the evolution of marketing and some issues not currently addressed in the discipline. Creative Marketing moves beyond traditional marketing by being futuristic in its perspective of customer needs. In many ways it moves marketing into an integrated strategic approach. I believe it represents an entirely new approach to marketing, as it encompasses a new mapping structure, rationale and methodology. It seeks to be proactive and anticipates future developments in product and service configurations.

The text is original and represents over 40 years of study, practice, reflection, and observation. The ideas are novel and challenging and readers will find the approach refreshing. The text has a potential of adding to our knowledge and presenting new challenges and insights not elsewhere addressed by the marketing discipline.

Felix T. Mavondo, PhD, Professor of Marketing, Director of Higher Degrees by Research, Dept. of Marketing. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

PREFACE

I first heard the term ‘Creative Marketing’ in May 1983 at a lecture delivered by Professor Sidney J. Levy from the K.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University of Chicago, while he was visiting the Melbourne University Graduate School in Australia.

The bulk of the two sessions delivered by Professor Levy were concerned with a range of strategies these days referred to as Strategic Marketing. In the last 10 minutes of the last session however, he related a marketing program undertaken by Proctor & Gamble some years before. This program effectively eliminated P&G’s competitors in a particular field (fabric softeners) for a period of 5 to 6 years.

After a short discussion with him, I realised I had intuitively been practising this form of marketing for 10 years and have continued to do so from time to time, up to the present. (Two early formative examples of a Creative Marketing program undertaken on behalf of two consultancy clients are included at the end of this text).

The foundations for this text started to evolve while conducting a series of seminars and workshops for senior business executives on the subject between 2004 and 2006 at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

The final form was progressively realised over the following years while teaching Management and Marketing at Monash College, Monash University and again at Swinburne University in Melbourne.

It was during this time that I became aware of a very small number of fellow intuitive practitioners, mainly in Europe, using this approach under a range of titles, or none at all, apparently without the benefit of any formalised structure or methodology. The purpose of this text is to provide such a structure and methodology, so that this new (?) approach to marketing can be made accessible to a much larger pool of would-be practitioners.

INTRODUCTION:

THINKING CREATIVELY

The Creative Marketing value chain process is totally reliant on a highly structured and focused application of a fertile imagination, that is, the ability to conceive mental pictures of ‘things’ that do not yet exist and experiences not yet had.

Imagination results from a simultaneous combination of analytical and intuitive thought. It requires both intellect and artistic sensibilities. To exercise one’s imagination is by definition, to be creative, but it must be a creativity that is positive, purposeful and honest. A creative imagination is not an attribute limited to a very select few, but is rather inherent, though it often remains latent in most of us. Bringing it forth is essentially a skill learned through practice. As a skill, it can be taught, understood and eventually applied, like any other.

The Creative Chain

Many of man’s most important innovations are more than likely the outcome of serendipitous actions, like 500,000 years ago rubbing two sticks together to create friction and thus heat or striking two flint stones together to create a spark and thus fire, - independently of a lighting strike! It is also likely that some caveman (or woman) one day carved a stone or bone into a circle, perhaps as part of some tribal ritual. Perhaps later, he or she found that by punching a hole in the centre, to hang it around her neck, they had something that looked like a wheel! These were innovations that probably identified a set of needs that had hitherto not existed, to cook food, to transport goods or to transform metals into ‘tools’. This type of value chain is generally referred to as the Bridge Building Model of Innovation. (Fig.0.1)

Bridge Building Model of Innovation

Bridge%20Building%20Mode.tif

Fig. 0.1

rather than the more traditional cascading sequential model of innovation, or the rarer parallel innovation process.

Adjacent Possibilities

In the past and perhaps to a lesser extent the present, many new ideas and innovations have failed to gain any acceptance by societies or markets because they were either ‘ahead of their time’ or were consciously or otherwise seeking to ‘leapfrog’ existing realities. Foremost among individual generators of new ideas is possibility the most creative genius the world has ever known, Leonardo da Vinci.¹ Leonardo’s list of technical achievements and innovations far exceeds those of any other inventor in history, including the likes of Thomas Edison. da Vinci’s ideas for a helicopter (Folio 83) (c 1480’s) pre-dated Raul Peteras Pessara’s prototype that actually flew, by more than 400 years (1920), while his ideas for powered flight (Folios 73, 74, 83, 276 & 302) (1490’s ?) had to wait for a similar number of years until the Wright brothers came along (1903).

His ideas, contained in a mountain of largely undated and coded folios, stretch from ball bearings as a means of reducing friction (Folio 58) (1497, but not patented until 1794 ) to a telescope (Folio 25) (1508/9, versus Lipperhey/Galileo’s telescope of 1590) and perhaps photography in the early 1500’s. (Leonardo is believed by some to have produced the ‘Shroud of Turin’ as a hoax against the Roman Catholic Church, which he despised, because they condemned homosexuals like himself and because of the Inquisition which haunted him for most of his life. Louis Daguerre is generally credited as the discoverer of photography in 1839.)

Other da Vinci innovations well ahead of their time included deep sea diving equipment (Folios 25 & 386) (1490’s?), multiple pullies & tackles (Folio 396) (1480’s?), differential transmissions (Folio 296) (1480’s?) for a powered vehicle (the first ‘horseless carriage’ ?), power transmission chains (Folio 357) (1470’s?) almost identical to those found on bicycles today, as well as bifocal glasses (Folios 6 & 83) and perhaps even contact lenses (Folio 337?) (late 1400’s? versus F.A. Muller’s lenses of 1887 ), among many other devices.

Hardly any of these inventions ever made it to the working prototype stage, let alone into ‘production’. This was despite the fact that Leonardo had access to some of the best skilled woodwork and metals casting craftsmen of his time. Given that the Italian ‘states’ and the various Popes were often waring against each other, many of his devices might well have been able to capture sizable markets, if only he had had the opportunities (money) to convert his ideas into reality. For example, Chinese ‘black powder’ was already widely used. All that would have been required to make bombs able to be dropped from above, (from a hang glider of his design) were metal castings and fuses. In combination with an (armoured) man powered vehicle, these two devices alone would have had the ability to capture any city or win any war. The great problem with many of his inventions, was that they went beyond the ‘adjacent possibilities’², that is, beyond the capabilities of existing technologies, materials and manufacturing skills, to actually convert his ideas into ‘hardware’. In many instances, the necessary resources/technologies did not eventuate for another 400 years. His ideas were simply that, ideas, mostly beyond the boundaries that at that time set the limits to what was immediately possible. That is …good ideas are constrained by the parts and skills that surround them³, effectively …doors that cannot yet be unlocked⁴. Leonardo however, continually sought to push