Mark Proffitt

Michigan desperately needs innovation to be competitive. When Japan started using Statistical Process Control (SPC) now known as Six Sigma, it was a competitive differentiator. In other words Japanese auto makers used quality and lean process as an innovation. Detroit has been feverishly implementing Six Sigma but they are still losing ground to the Japanese and now the Koreans and soon to be China. Why?

Six Sigma is a great thing but doing it as a “me too” only creates commoditization. Worse off the entire process of Six Sigma is about doing the same thing cheaper and cheaper. That leaves you in a death spiral to the lowest priced product, and little or no profits. Does that sound familiar?

Detroit, Michigan and the USA in general need innovation. Everyone knows that but almost no one is really doing it. The main reason is because they don’t know how. What if innovation could be as predictable and systematic as Six Sigma? What if a company could create practical, profitable innovations on demand? Does that sound fantastic? Impossible?!? It is fantastic and it’s absolutely possible.

Out Compete Predictive Innovation Method makes innovation:

1. Efficient
2. Low-Risk
3. Controllable
4. Repeatable
5. Competitive
6. Reliable
7. Just-In-Time

Rather than looking at innovation as a magical creative activity it uses the very advanced study of System Theory and new breakthroughs in Information Theory to create an step-by-step process for innovation. How systematic is it? How about knowing there are 7 specific elements to innovate in any product or service and there are 15 types of alternatives for each element? When you realize that you are guaranteed 105 innovations targeted precisely to your business needs and your customer’s desires.

When you use the OutCompete Predictive Innovation Method you can create an innovation strategy that causes your profit margins to increase overtime, risks to decrease and eliminate the threat of any competition.

The OutCompete Predictive Innovation Method has been used to create entire families of products, increase the value of investments, and solve seemingly impossible problems. It’s been applied to manufacturing, software, medicine, marketing, security, business strategy, politics, and entertainment.

Action Items

You can learn more about Predictive Innovation at a FREE Taste of Innovation Event presented by Boardwalk Creative Center in Ann Arbor on May 8, 2008 from 4 pm to 7 pm. Author & Speaker Mark Frazier will be speaking about the OutCompete Predictive Innovation Method and the Evangelism Marketing techniques he created using the method. He will also be signing copies of his recent book, “Ron Paul Revolution: History in the Making” that explains how Evangelism Marketing helped the presidential candidate set world records for political fund raising.

The world business environment has fundamentally changed Customers can now both find and filter information to get what they want. This means traditional interrupt based advertisement is losing its effectiveness. At the same time customers can search the entire world for exactly what they want. Technology is also making it possible for customers to easily build more of what they want for themselves. So to succeed you need to:
“Provide exactly what the customer wants, when the customer wants it, in the way the customer wants, and for the price the customer is willing to pay”

And you must communicate to customers you have what they desire while the customer is actively trying to ignore you because so many others are trying to get their attention.

Innovation gets you half way, but you can’t just innovate, you must Predicatively Innovate to stay ahead of the competition. And how do you communicate something new to people who are ignoring you? Search based marketing won’t work very well because people must first know something exists in order to search for it. That is why Evangelism Marketing is so important.

The great news is Evangelism Marketing doesn’t just introduce a new product; it builds the confidence of each level of user from early adopter to mainstream to late comers. But it’s not just a technique for selling. Evangelism Marketing guides the processes of innovation. In order to “get customer to freely sell your product for you” you must first “Make them so happy” they want to do it. Giving them exactly what they want when they want how they want in the way they want for the price they are willing to pay is essential to Evangelism Marketing.

Evangelism Marketing is a relationship. You are helping someone by giving them information. They in turn give you back information and continue to spread the information you gave them. You might say surveys and marketing research does that, but it doesn’t. How do you get someone to take a survey? Often you can’t. Even with bribes it’s hard and the data is frequently heavily skewed. What about getting customers to freely spread the message? Traditional top down concepts don’t work in a distributed environment. More power, more widely spread is the wave of the future. There are HUGE opportunities for people willing to embrace it and horrible disruption for those that cling to the old way. Which will you be?

The Boardwalk Creative Center in Ann Arbor, MI, “Michigan’s most creative meeting space” will host my next hands-on Evangelism Marketing Workshop. I’ll show you how to “Make your customers so happy they freely sell your products for you.” This is way beyond Word-Of-Mouth and Viral. The methods I teach will show you how to create, motivate, and track loyal fans who spread the word of your product.

As customers have more choices and control over media and products traditional interrupt based advertising is losing its effectiveness. Many companies are turning to online marketing, but going about it all wrong. They still try to force you to see their ads with pop-ups or spam or banner ads. Search-based techniques are better but depend on your customers knowing you exist and looking for you. How do you reach people with something new and better?

Evangelism Marketing is the answer. People are much more likely to buy a product recommended from a trusted friend. You might even ask certain friends for recommendations on things they have expertise. This bridges the knowledge and confidence gap. Additionally, Evangelism Marketing costs less because you aren’t fighting to get attention with offers that are thrown in the trash. The friend tell the potential customer what they want to hear, when they want to hear it in the way they want to hear it. Evangelism Marketing targets on levels not possible with any other approach and get better results because of it.

As you can imagine all the rules are different when using Evangelism Marketing. Using the OutCompete Predictive Innovation Method and 10 years of research, I’ve learned what makes a complete and effective Evangelism Marketing campaign. Get up and running fast with this action-packed one day workshop. I hope to see you there.

Find out more about Evangelism Marketing Workshop