SYDNEY: When it comes to developing an effective innovation culture, using psychological techniques to spur creativity and new ideas can have a big impact on a project’s future success, according to an expert in effective innovation.

According to Dr Amantha Imber, founder and CEO of Australia’s leading innovation consultancy Inventium, marketers frequently look in the wrong direction, focusing on new products or services rather than on fixing customer pain points.

Read more about how companies can innovate effectively here: The science behind effective innovation strategies.

“We need to keep this in mind because quite often we forget people are not buying products or services, but simply buying solutions to the problems that they have,” Imber told the recent Mumbrella MSIX conference .

“This is where innovation has to start. It has to start with things that frustrate people, that are (annoying them). This is the stuff that they will pay more money for if we can solve their frustrations.”

According to Imber, moving innovation past buzzwords and good intentions means committing to a consistent and sustainable approach. But for many companies, this is easier said than done.

She warned against putting out an all-company plea for ideas, noting that these initiatives rarely generate the type of transformative ideas required and merely generate vanity metrics that make little difference in the long run.

Eventually, the process fizzles into nothing. Imber reminded marketers to keep their customers in mind to avoid this trap.

“Your number one job as marketers when it comes to innovation is actually thinking about the problems that our customers have that don’t currently have adequate solutions, as opposed to ‘what's a really cool idea that I'm really excited about’.

“It’s not about you; it’s about them,” she said.

Sourced from WARC