22 May Innovate? How?
As a marketing and product innovation firm, we often get asked about the latter half of our label—more specifically, how does a marketing firm innovate? It’s a good question, and it’s one we hear practically every time we speak at, host, or sponsor a product management or development conference. The truth is, there are myriad ways that marketing firms innovate on a daily basis—from content generation to campaign ideation to even the ways in which we accelerate sales. And while all of that is certainly true at Axiom, we take it a step further. Yes, we actually innovate by creating products.
In 1993, Axiom was co-founded by Mike Reiber and Rob Beachy. Rob, a mechanical engineer by trade, wanted to bring his passion for product development to the new firm. Countless patents later, we discovered that we had something truly unique. But, as you probably know, a team of engineers can only handle a finite number of projects. Eventually, clients start wanting to teach their own departments how to innovate better, and from a profitability standpoint, that makes sense.
That’s why we started offering our innovation brainstorming sessions, and also why we’re not surprised to see a recent report from Forrester detailing the lack of internal innovation capabilities. For Forrester, the researchers focused largely on advertising/marketing innovation—but we’re concerned with something even more tangible: products. Through our creation sessions, we are able to work with companies, employees, and product ideation teams to develop better ways to innovate. Doing so has allowed us to expand our portfolio, but more importantly, it has increased our ability to help companies all over the globe. It’s also taught us a valuable lesson: companies struggle to innovate.
Think about it. Have you ever been doing something inane and been struck with a brilliant idea? Perhaps you thought of a great idea for a novel while you were driving? But then once you got home and sat at a computer, how’d it go? Tough, right? It’s hard to generate ideas when your main goal is to…well, generate ideas. Sometimes the problem is your environment, sometimes it’s motivation, or heck, sometimes the idea just isn’t good enough to actually turn into something palpable.
That happens all of the time in corporate innovation teams. But much like writer’s block, it’s not permanent. There are methods and strategies for overcoming it, and at Axiom, we pride ourselves on knowing what those strategies are, and then tailoring them to fit your company’s needs. You might even say our approach is quite…innovative.
Questions about product development in your company? Shoot Rob Beachy an email at rbeachy@axiomcom.com.
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