Branding Strategy Insider

Brand Research: Generating Good Ideas From The Bad

Qualitative research is especially well suited to discovering something creative, such as a new name or positioning for a product. One focus group technique that helps uncover the best new ideas is, paradoxically, to ask respondents for bad ideas – the worst ones that come to mind.

This approach may sound strange, but it is firmly rooted in clinical psychology and research, as are many other qualitative methods. Psychotherapists have long used so-called paradoxical interventions, whereby they instruct patients to think or act the opposite of how they need to improve.

As explained in Fay Allen’s book, “Making Things Better, By Making Things Worse,” reverse psychology allows the patient to gain freedom and insights useful for moving in the right direction.

How does this seemingly backward tactic work in brainstorming for marketing ideas?

1.) It helps respondents loosen up by relieving the fear of saying something dumb.

2.) It’s easier, initially, to figure out what’s wrong with something than to think about the correct solution. Once bad ideas are voiced, participants are able to consider the other side; how to turn these problems into solutions.

3.) It’s fun to come up with “bad” ideas, and basic research has shown that people are more creative when enjoying themselves. With psychotherapy patients, the humor in a paradoxical intervention is one reason why it works. Humor can overcome the mindset that personal problem solving is ‘painful’.

Of Ideation Sessions, Presentations, Toys & Learning

Beyond achieving productivity or leaving a favorable impression in a creative pitch, sales meeting or ideation session, a key goal is that the ideas and information shared is retained. We know you must 'know your audience', but have you considered their learning styles?

Rita and Ken Dunn of St. Johns University have conducted 30 years of research on the learning styles of children and adults. They are able to show that students excel when allowed to learn in circumstances that support their preferred learning style.   

They have identified five categories with reliable and valid instrumentation and a strong research base:

1. Environmental: bright versus dim light; sound present or absent; warm versus cool temperature; formal versus informal design.

2. Emotional: high versus low structure; low versus high level of persistence, motivation; and responsibility versus nonconformity.

3. Sociological: preference for learning alone; in pairs; with adults, peers, team, or varied.

4. Physiological: visual, tactual, or kinesthetic perceptual strengths; high versus low mobility; and time of day preferences.

5. Psychological: global versus analytic; impulsive versus reflective; cerebral dominance.

The Dunn’s identified three types of preferred information intake:

Exploring Ideation And Creative Problem Solving

The mostly highly admired brands are usually unique, original, fresh, and leading edge. In fact, many have invented or reinvented entire categories. To be that kind of a brand, an organization must be highly innovative. Element K CEO Bruce Barnes likes to talk about the “Virtuous Circle of Investment/Innovation.” It is very simple:

•Investing in customer-relevant product/service innovation leads to increased revenues
•Increased revenues enable continued product/service innovation

Innovative brands with innovative products, services, and marketing approaches typically make extensive use of creative problem solving and ideation (idea generation) techniques.

Creative problem solving usually requires two distinct phases: divergent thinking (ideation) and convergent thinking (idea analysis and evaluation). The purpose of ideation is to generate as many ideas as possible in as condensed a timeframe as possible.

Brainstorming is the most popular ideation technique. Brainstorming requires the following components to be successful: