Innovative marketing is a way to promote new products and services by using innovation. This includes researching customer behavior, needs, and trends to help you make changes to your product design to make it more successful. This is a great way to create a data-driven digital marketing strategy.
Innovative marketing strategies may involve rebranding or repackaging something or finding a new way to market a product within the global space, especially when you consider that 56% of small businesses have international clients, such as to a new market or using non-traditional advertising to promote it. Innovation marketing consists of initial market research for product planning, testing prototypes with target groups, and developing advertising content that engages potential customers.
Artificial intelligence is one of the many ways in which this can be achieved, and with 30% of innovators looking to add it to their programs, it’s something that is definitely set to take over the marketing space.
The Benefits of Innovative Marketing
In addition to discussing the concept of innovative marketing strategies, we will also be sharing the benefits of implementing marketing innovations when launching your own product.
1. Discover customer needs
One of the biggest mistakes that often lead to product failure is a lack of customer information. Before creating a product, it is important to remember that the functionality of the product must be based on solving customer problems. If a company doesn’t even know what their customer needs, how can a product solve its problems?
2. Discovering market potential
Market research not only provides information about customer needs but also about the potential of the market being introduced. If a new product with many features enters a potentially bad market, the result will be bad, no matter how good the product is. Remember that not all needs need to be met. Focus on your target customers and don’t assume their needs unless the information comes from market research.
3. Create a better position
Positioning is the act of placing the intended image of a product to customers. The right placement can be determined by gathering information about customer needs. Positioning affects many aspects such as product features, promotion methods, pricing, and the channel used to reach the target audience. All aspects are aligned to support the same goal – to create a product image.
4. Identify the right marketing channels
The right marketing channel can be used as a tool to implement new marketing strategies. Using the wrong channel that does not suit your target group will create a bad impression because the product is not available to customers.
5. Create the appropriate product
Implementing a new marketing strategy will help you create a relevant product. In market research, you need to understand what is needed from the consumer’s perspective, from design to price. Remember that a new product must be solution oriented. A new product is expected to bring something new to the market, otherwise, it will become another unsustainable product with many competitors.
What Are Different Innovative Marketing Methods?
Here are eight innovative marketing techniques you can use in your innovative marketing strategy:
1. Rebranding
Rebranding is a technique used by new marketers to adapt their marketing content to a new product or process that a company is selling or using. It helps the company to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, which can lead to improved sales.
2. To retain existing customers
Retention is a technique used in innovative marketing to maintain customer relationships, which is useful when selling new products. Marketers can introduce customer loyalty programs with or before a new product launch to reach more consumers. Other ways to retain existing customers include offering coupons, exclusive offers, and memberships.
3. Be an expert in the field
To encourage consumers to think of your company as an industry leader, marketers publish high-quality informational content and build customer relationships so that consumers trust their brand. Other ways to showcase your expertise include blogging, using social media accounts, or hosting training sessions to make your brand more visible and trustworthy to consumers.
4. Expansion into new regions
When companies launch their product, one form of new marketing is the expansion of that product into new markets. It could also mean opening a store in a new state or partnering with a vendor to sell your product in another country. Expansion into new regions will increase customer base and revenue.
5. Interaction on social networks
Social media can be effective innovative marketing channels because it provides access to many consumers and helps spread information quickly. Companies can easily gather consumer opinions about a product or service using tools that help analyze what consumers post online. Engaging consumers on social media can attract them to your new product and help create customer relationships that lead to brand loyalty.
6. Create educational content
Educational content helps sell new products by teaching consumers how to use them and generating interest in new services. Providing educational content can also increase customer satisfaction because the content can answer questions they have and teach them how to get the best results with your product. Educational marketing content can include videos, infographics, blogs, webinars, workshops, and books.
7. Organizing events
Hosting virtual or in-person events can get customers excited about new products or services you’re developing. Hosting events can also provide an opportunity to build relationships with your customers, which is an effective marketing method for increasing sales and customer retention.
8. Start a customer loyalty program
Customer loyalty programs offer customers rewards for continued business with your company. When introducing a new product or service, helps to invite customers to an incentive program that drives engagement and brand loyalty, increasing your brand’s exposure to a new audience.
Innovative Marketing Examples from Famous Brands
Ready to be inspired by some of the best marketing campaigns of all time? Keep reading!
Ikea – “Serve your customers everywhere”
Ikea launched a catalog app in 2013 that gives users full access to the company’s inventory. In addition, the app includes a special feature where customers can see how the selected items will look at their location. You will also have a great shopping experience at Ikea stores. For example, if you have children, you can get 60 minutes of free childcare at Ikea stores.
The Internet of Everything at Cisco
We can agree on the story that “human emotion” is a strong factor in the B2C market and the B2B market is something else. B2C marketers have a better understanding of human interests because they have to deal directly with end consumers. On the other hand, B2B marketers need to “motivate” certain people (executives, department heads, etc.). These people cling to things based on their knowledge, experience, and skills rather than emotions.
L’Oréal – “Pre-Purchase Experience in Real Time”
Every successful brand knows that impressing Generation Z is quite difficult. L’Oréal quickly recognized that in addition to sample products on makeup counters or racks, the pre-purchase experience is just as important to consumers in the digital age. That’s why the company launched the ‘L’Oréal Genius App’ to give users a real-time pre-purchase experience with the help of digital editing.
NHS Blood and Transplant – ‘Missing Type’
Converting website users into brand advocates is every social media manager’s dream. This is exactly what NHS Blood and Transplant (the organization that collects blood and other tissues) does.
Instagram has been a popular platform for the fashion industry for years. The company has already made a name for itself through several strong partnerships. Instagram gives “everything” to consumers and sellers, making it a haven for storytellers, bloggers, photographers, makeup artists, and more.
9 Innovative Marketing Campaigns That Could Be the Future
1. American Apparel gets to the point of the best marketing campaigns
The welcome email is one of the most popular and effective email marketing campaigns that all businesses should be using. True to its simple style, American Apparel welcomes its subscribers with a clean email that focuses on exactly what the subscriber wants to see. Products and discounts, of course.
2. Kate Spade sells it
We all know how marketing works today. First, you get 10%, then 20%, and they won’t stop there. To support their massive sales, Kate Spade decided to create urgency in this email marketing campaign and buy subscribers. By letting you know, “It doesn’t get any bigger,” the company seems to be being honest while also inviting FOMO to make it easier to visit their online store.
3. HubSpot 1,000 App Marketplace integrations
HubSpot integration marketing campaign HubSpot recently launched a massive multi-channel campaign across social media, email marketing, and co-marketing. HubSpot celebrated a major milestone earlier this year: 1,000 integrations on the HubSpot App Marketplace. To generate excitement and engagement on social media, HubSpot leveraged its large ecosystem of partners and engaged them in the campaign.
4. IKEA has taken a big step with their homepage on Pinterest
The iconic 200-page IKEA catalog no longer wants to be in your mailbox. So, the company decided to give it a place to live outside of IKEA’s website and moved the print version to Pinterest. To give the catalog a longer life, IKEA created a shoppable version that uses a product questionnaire on Pinterest to discover user preferences to create personalized boards.
5. Nest’s Flip mattress
Nest bedding is not what you would call low budget. Their mattresses range from $900 to $1,800. But they want to change that. So, they decided to go for something bold and new to help bridge the gap between them and other audiences. They introduced the Flip, a mattress sold exclusively on Amazon, retailing for $399.
6. Domino’s does clever marketing
Today’s technology works wonders. And Domino’s has excelled at using it to push a record number of brand shares. More than half of all its global retail sales in 2017 came from digital channels, while in the U.S. Combining clever marketing with product development, the pizza delivery giant has launched a new loyalty program called ‘Points for Pies’. Coinciding with the Super Bowl and valid for 12 weeks, the Domino’s app gives customers the chance to earn points for every pizza they scan, regardless of where it comes from.
7. Sephora is committed to inclusivity
To kick off Pride Month, Sephora decided to celebrate LGBTQ, non-binary and genderfluid people with a video and a beautiful message. The “Identify As We” campaign is a continuation of Sephora’s newly launched We Belong To Something Beautiful platform and features influencers such as interdisciplinary artist Fatima Jamal and gender non-conforming model Aaron Philips.
8. Pedigree spreads happiness
I don’t know if this is the best marketing campaign of the year. But this is my favorite. And yes, it’s because it’s about dogs. According to the World Health Organization, 5.8% of Brazilians suffer from depression. But dogs can help their owners regain lost happiness. Pedigree knows this and decides to expand on it with the new campaign “Bring it back”, a beautiful animated short film.
9. Burger King is inspired by stereotypes
Stereotypes are not always bad. Sometimes they even help you with marketing. Like what happened at Burger King. Burger King used the stereotype of “quiet Finns” to promote a new company that allows fast food fans to speed up their order with a mobile phone. And in Helsinki, they created the world’s first silent drive-thru called “Silent Pick Drive”. Customers can order, pay, and pick up their order at the restaurant without any communication or waiting.
In Summary
Innovative marketing is all about using the available resources you have more effectively, and where your resources are lacking, finding clever ways of bridging the gap. Once you’ve got this process sorted, the world is your oyster.
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